Fragments
Compared to Romulus
Theseus, then, appeared to answer to Romulus in many particulars. Both were of uncertain parentage, born out of wedlock; and both had the repute of being sprung from the gods. Both stood in the first rank of warriors ; for both had great powers of mind, with great strength of body. One was the founder of Rome, and one peopled Athens, the most illustrious cities in the world. Both carried off women by violence. Both were involved in domestic miseries, and exposed to family resentment: and both, towards the end of their lives, are said to have offended their respective citizens, if we may believe what seems to be delivered with the least mixture of poetical fiction. [^]
Lineage
The lineage of Theseus, by his father’s side, stretches to Erectheus and the first inhabitants of his country;1 by his mother’s side to Pelops,2 who was the most powerful of all the Peloponnesian kings, not only on account of his great opulence, but the number of his children; for he married his daughters to persons of the first dignity, and found means to place his sons at the head of the chief states. One of them named Pittheus, grandfather to Theseus, founded the small city of Troezene, and was esteemed the most learned and the wisest man of his age. [^]
Preparation for Adventure3
Theseus, in his youth, discovering not only great strength of body, but firmness and solidity of mind, together with a large share of understanding and prudence, Aethra led him to the stone, and having told him the truth concerning his origin, ordered him to take up his father’s tokens (Aegeus buried his sandals and sword under a huge rock), and sail to Athens. [^]
He easily removed the stone, but refused to go by sea, though he might have done it with great safety, and though he was pressed to it by the entreaties of his grandfather and his mother; while it was hazardous, at that time, to go by land to Athens, because no part was free from the danger of ruffians and robbers.
Those times, indeed, produced men of strong and indefatigable powers of body, of extraordinary swiftness and agility; but they applied those powers to nothing just or useful. On the contrary, their genius, their disposition, their pleasures, tended only to insolence, to violence, and to rapine. As for modesty, justice, equity, and humanity, they looked upon them as qualities in which those who had it in their power to add to their possessions, had no manner of concern; virtues praised only by such as were afraid of being injured, and who abstained from injuring others out of the same principle of fear.
Some of these ruffians were cut off by Hercules in his peregrinations, while others escaped to their lurking holes, and were spared by the hero in contempt of their cowardice. But when Hercules had unfortunately killed Iphitus, he retired to Lydia, where, for a long time, he was a slave to Omphale, a punishment which he imposed upon himself for the murder. The Lydians then enjoyed great quiet and security; but in Greece the same kind of enormities broke out anew, there being no one to restrain or quell them. It was therefore extremely dangerous to travel by land from Peloponnesus to Athens; and Pittheus, acquainting Theseus with the number of these ruffians, and with their cruel treatment of strangers, advised him to go by sea.
But he had long been secretly fired with the glory of Hercules, whom he held in the highest esteem, listening with great attention to such as related his achievements, particularly to those that had seen him, conversed with him, and had been witnesses to his prowess. He was affected in the same manner as Themistocles afterwards was, when he declared that the trophies of Miltiades would not suffer him to sleep. The virtues of Hercules were his dream by night, and by day emulation led him out and spurred him on to perform some exploits like his. Besides, they were nearly related, being of cousin-germans; for Aethra was the daughter of Pittheus and Alcmena of Lysidice, and Pittheus and Lysidice were brother and sister by Pelops and Hippodamia. He considered it, therefore, as an insupportable dishonour, that Hercules should traverse both sea and land to clear them of these villains, while he himself declined such adventures as occurred to him; disgracing his reputed father, if he took his voyage, or rather flight, by sea; and carrying to his real father a pair of sandals and a sword unstained with blood, instead of the ornament of great and good actions, to assert and add lustre to his noble birth. With such thoughts and resolutions as these he set forward, determined to injure no one, but to take vengeance of such as should offer him any violence. [^]
The Six Labors
— The First Labor
He was first attacked by Periphetes, in Epidauria, whose weapon was a club, and who, on that account, was called Corynetes, or the Clubbearer. He engaged with him, and slew him. Delighted with the club, he took it for his weapon, and used it as Hercules did the lion’s skin. The skin as a proof of the vast size of the wild beast which that hero had slain ; and Theseus carried about with him this club, whose stroke he had been able to parry, but which, in his hand, was irresistible.
— The Second Labor
In the Isthmus he slew Sinais the Pine-bender,4 in the same manner as he had destroyed many others: and this he did, not as having learned or practiced the bending of those trees, but to show that natural strength is above ail art, Sinnis had a daughter remarkable for her beauty and stature, named Perigune, who had concealed herself when her father was killed, Theseus made diligent search for her, and found, at last, that she had retired into a place overgrown with shrubs, and rushes, and wild asparagus. In her childish simplicity she addressed her prayers and vows to these plants and bushes, if they could have a sense of her misfortune, promising, if they would save and hide her, that she would never bum or destroy them. But when Theseus pledged his honour for treating her politely, she came to him, and in due time brought him a son named Melanippus. Afterwards, by Theseus’ permission, she married Deioneus, the son of Eurytus the Cechalian. Melanippus had a son named Ioxus, who joined with Oraytus in planting a colony in Caria : whence the Ioxides; with whom it is an inviolable rule, not to bum either rushes or wild asparagus, but to honour and worship them.
— The Third Labor
About this time Crommyon was infested by a wild sow named Phaea, a fierce and formidable creature. This savage he attacked and killed,5 going out of his way to engage her, and thereby showing an act of voluntary valour: for he believed it equally became a brave man to stand upon his defense against abandoned ruffians, and to seek out, and begin the combat with strong and savage animals. But some say, that Phma was an abandoned female robber, who dwelt in Crommyon, that she had the name of Sow from her life and maimers; and was aftenvards slain by Theseus.
— The Forth Labor
On the borders of Megara he destroyed Sciron, a robber, by casting him headlong from a precipice, the story generally goes: and it is added, that, in wanton villainy, this Sciron used to make strangers wash his feet, and to take those opportunities to push them into the sea. But the writers of Megara, in contradiction to this report, and, as Simonides expresses it, fighting with all antiquity', assert, that Sciron was neither a robber nor a ruffian, but, on the contrary, a destroyer of robbers, and a man whose heart and house were ever open to the good and the honest. For AEacus, say they, was looked upon as the justest man in Greece, Cychreus of Salamis had divine honours paid him at Athens, and the virtue of Peleus and Telemon too was universally known. Now Sciron was son-in-law to Cychreus, father-in-law to AEacus, and grandfather to Peleus and Teiemon, who were both of them sons of Endeis, the daughter of Sciron and Chariclo : therefore it was not probable that the best of men should make such alliances with one of so vile a character, giving and receiving the greatest and dearest pledges. Besides, they tell us, that Theseus did not slay Sciron in his first journey to Athens, but afterwards, when he took Eleusis from the Megarensians, having expelled Diodes, its chief magistrate, by a stratagem. In such contradictions are these things involved.
—The Fifth and Sixth Labors
At Eleusis he engaged in wrrestling with Cercyoa the Arcadian, and kilied him on the spot. Proceeding to Hennione, he put a period to the cruelties of Damastes, surnamed Procrustes, making his body fit the size of his own beds, as he had served strangers. These things he did in imitation of Hercules, who always returned upon the aggressors the same sort of treatment which they intended for him; for that hero sacrificed Busiris, killed Aatseus in wrestling, Cygnus in single combat, and broke the skull of Termerus ; whence this is called the Termerian mischief; for Termerus, it seems, destroyed the passengers he met, by dashing his head against theip.
Thus Theseus pursued his travels to punish abandoned wretches, who suffered the same kind of death from him that they inflicted on others, and were requited with vengeance suitable to their crimes.
Return to Athens & the Defeat of the Pallantidae6
The Pallantidae, who hoped to recover the kingdom if Aegeus died childless, lost all patience when Theseus was declared his successor. Exasperated at the thought that Aegeus, who was not in the least allied to the Erecthidse, but only adopted by Pandion should first gain the crown, and afterwards Theseus, who was an emigrant and a stranger, they prepared for war; and dividing their forces, one party marched openly, with their father, from Sphettus to the city; and the other, concealing themselves in Gargettus, lay in ambush, with a design to attack the enemy from two several quarters. They had with them an herald named Leos, of the tribe of Agnus. This man carried to Theseus an account all the designs of the Pallantidae: and he immediately fell upon those that lay in ambush, and destroyed them. Pallas and his company being informed of this, thought fit to disperse. Hence it is said to be, that the tribe of Pallene never intermarry with the Agnusians, nor suffer any proclamation to begin with these words, “Akouete Leos,” (“Hear, O ye people !”) for they hate the very name of Leos, on account of the treachery of that herald. [^]
Raise the Black Flag7
When the time of the third tribute came, and: those parents who had sons not arrived at full maturity were obliged to resign them to the lot, complaints against Aegeus sprung up again among the people, who expressed their grief and resentment, that he, who was the cause of all their; misfortunes, bore no part of the punishment, and while he was adopting, and raising to the succession, a stranger of spurious birth, took no thought for them who lost their legitimate children. Those things were matter of great concern to Theseus, who, to express his regard for justice, and take his share in the common fortune, voluntarily offered himself as one of the I seven, without lot. The citizens were charmed I with this proof of his magnanimity and public spirit; and Aegeus himself, when he saw that no entreaties or persuasions availed to turn him from it, gave out the lots for the rest of the young men.
But Hellanicus says, that the youths and virgins which the city furnished were not chosen by lot, but that Minos came in person and selected them, and Theseus before the rest, upon these conditions: That the Athenians should furnish a vessel, and the young men embark and sail along with him, but carry no arms; and that if they could kill the Minotaur, there should be an end of the tribute. There appearing no hopes of safety for the youths in the two former tributes, they sent out a ship with a black sail, as carrying them to certain ruin. But when Theseus encouraged his father by his confidence of success against the Minotaur, he gave another sail, a white one, to the pilot, ordering him, if he brought Theseus safe back, to hoist the white; but if not, to sail with the black one in token of his misfortune. [^]
Creator of Dances and Games
Theseus, in his return from Crete, put in at Delos;8 and having sacrificed to Apollo, and dedicated a statue of Aphrodite, which he received from Ariadne, he joined with the young men in a dance, which the Delians are said to practice at this day. It consists in an imitation of the mazes and outlets of the labyrinth, and, with vaiaous involutions and evolutions, is performed in regular time. This kind of dance, as Dicaearchus informs us, is called by the Delians the Crane. He danced it round the altar Keraton, which was built entirely of the left-side horns of beasts. He is also said to have instituted games in Delos, where he began the custom of giving a palm to the victors. [^]
Constituting the Athenians as a People
After the death of Aegeus, he undertook and effected a prodigious work. He settled all the inhabitants of Attica in Athens, and made them one people in one city, who before were scattered up and down, and could with difficulty be assembled on any pressing occasion for the public good. Nay, often such differences had happened between them, as ended in bloodshed. The method he took was to apply to them in particular by their tribes and families. Private persons and the poor easily listened to his summons. To the rich and great he represented the advantage of a government without a king, where the chief power should be in the people, while he himself only desired to command in war, and to be the guardian of the laws ; in all the rest, every one would be upon an equal footing. Part of them hearkened to his persuasions ; and others fearing his power, which was already very great, as well as his enterprising spirit, chose rather to be persuaded, than to be forced to submit. Dissolving, therefore, the corporations, the councils, and courts in each particular town, he built one common Prytaneum and court-hall, where it stands to this day. The citadel, with its dependencies, and the city, or the old and new town, he united under the common name of Athens, and instituted the Panathensea as a comnion sacrifice.9 He appointed also the Metoecia, or Feast of Migration,10 and fixed it to the sixteenth of July, and so it still continues. Giving up the kingly power, as he had promised, he settled the commonwealth under the auspices of the gods; for he consulted the Oracle at Delphi concerning his new government, and received this answer:
From Royal stems thy honour, Theseus, springs ; By Jove beloved, the sire supreme of kings.
See rising towns, see wide-extended states.
On thee dependent, ask their future fates ! Hence, hence with fear ! Thy favour’d bark shall ride
Safe o’er the surges of the foamy tide.11
With this agrees the Sibyl’s prophecy, which, we are told, she delivered long after, concerning Athens:
The bladder may be dipp’d but never drown’d.
Desiring yet further to enlarge the city, he invited all strangers to equal privileges in it: and the words still in use, “Come hither, all ye people,” are said to be the beginning of a proclamation, which Theseus ordered to be made when he composed the commonwealth, as it were, of all nations. Yet he left it not in the confusion and disorder likely to ensue from the confluence and strange mixture of people; but distinguished them into noblemen, husbandmen, and mechanics. The nobility were to have the care of religion, to supply the city with magistrates, to explain the laws, and to interpret whatever related to the worship of the gods. As to the rest, he balanced the citizens against each other as nearly as possible; the nobles excelling in dignity, the husbandmen in usefulness., and the artificers in number. It appears from Aristotle, that Theseus was the first who inclined to a democracy, and gave up the regal power; and Homer also seems to bear witness to the same in his catalogue of ships, where he gives the name of People to the Athenians only. [^]
Setteling Border Disputes
Having also made a secure acquisition of the country about Megara to the territory of Athens, he set up the famed pillar in the Isthmus12, and inscribed it with two verses to distinguish the boundaries. That on the east side ran thus;
“This is not Peloponnesus, but Ionia;” and that on the west was. “This is Peloponnesus, not Ionia.” [^]
Not a Wife Guy
Some other marriages of Theseus are spoken of, but have not been represented on the stage, which had neither an honourable beginning, nor a happy conclusion. He is also said to have forcibly carried off Anaxo of Troezene, and halving slain Sinnis and Cercyon, to have committed rapes upou their daughters; to have married Peribcea, the mother of Ajax, too, and Pheroboea, and lope the daughter of Iphicles. Besides, they charge him with being enamoured of Aegle, the daughter of Panopeus (as above related), and, for her, leaving Ariadne, contrary to the rules of both justice and honour; but above all, with the rape of Helen, which involved Attica in war, and ended in his banishment and death, of which we shall speak more at large by and by. [^]
“Nothing Without Theseus”
Though there were many expeditions undertaken by the heroes of those times, Herodorus thinks that Theseus was not concerned in any of them, except in assisting the Lapithse against the Centaurs. Others write, that he attended Jason to Colchos, and Meleager in killing the boar; and that hence came the proverb, “Nothing without Theseus.” It is allowed, however, that Theseus, without any assistance, did himself perform many great exploits; and that the extraordinary instances of his valour gave occasion to the saying, “This man is another Hercules.” Theseus was likewise assisting to Adrastus, in recovering the bodies of those that fell before Thebes, not by defeating the Thebans in battle, as Euripides has it in his tragedy, but by persuading them to a truce; for so most writers agree: and Philochorus is of opinion, that this was the first truce ever known for burying the dead. But Hercules was, indeed, the first who gave up their dead to the enemy, as we have shown in his life. The burying place of the common soldiers is to be seen at Eleutherse, and of the officers at Eleusis; in which particular Theseus gratified Adrastus Aeschylus in whose tragedy of the Eleusinians Theseus is introduced relating the matter as above, contradicts what Euripides has delivered in his Suppliants. [^]
Friendship With Pirithous
The friendship between Theseus and Pirithous is said to have commenced on this occasion: Theseus being much celebrated for his strength and valour, Pirithous was desirous to prove it, and therefore drove away his oxen from Marathon. When he heard that Theseus pursued him in arms, he did not fly, but turned back to meet him. But, as soon as they beheld one another, each was so struck with admiration of the other’s person and courage, that they laid aside all thoughts of fighting; and Pirithous first giving Theseus his hand, bade him be judge in this cause himself, and he would willingly abide by his sentence. Theseus, in his turn, left the cause to him, and desired him to be his friend and fellow warrior. They then confirmed their friendship with an oath. [^]
Death
But desiring to preside in the commonwealth, and direct it as before, he found himself encompassed with faction and sedition; for those that were his enemies before his departure, had now added to their hatred a contempt of his authority ; and he beheld the people so generally corrupted, that they wanted to be flattered into their duty, instead of silently executing his commands. When he attempted to reduce them by force, he was overpowered by the prevalence of faction; and, in the end, finding his affairs desperate, he privately sent his children into Euboea, to Elephenor, the son of Chalcodon; and himself, having uttered solenm execrations against the Athenians at Gargettus, where there is still a place thence called Araterion, sailed to Scyros.13 He imagined that there he should find hospitable treatment, as he had a paternal estate in that island. Lycomedes was then king of the Syrians. To him, therefore, he applied, and desired to be put in possession of his lands, as intending to settle there. Some say, he asked assistance of him against the Athenians. But Lycomedes, either jealous of the glory of Theseus, or willing to oblige Menestheus, having led him to the highest cliffs of the country on pretense of showing him from thence his lands, threw him down headlong from the rocks, and killed him. Others say he fell of himself, missing his step, when he took a walk, according to his custom, after supper. At that time his death was disregarded, and Menestheus quietly possessed the kingdom of Athens, while the sons of Theseus attended Elephenor, as private persons to the Trojan war. But Menestheus dying in the same expedition, they returned and recovered the kingdom. In succeeding ages the Athenians honoured Theseus as a demi-god, induced to it as well by other reasons, as because, when they were fighting the Medes at Marathon, a considerable part of the army thought they saw the apparition of Theseus completely armed, and bearing down before them upon the barbarians. [^]
A Hyperborean?
After the Median war, when Phaedon was archon,14 the Athenians consulting the Oracle of Apollo, were ordered by the priestess to take up the bones of Theseus, and lay them in an honourable place at Athens, where they were to be kept with the greatest care. But it was difficult to take them up, or even to find out the grave, on account of the savage and inhospitable disposition of the barbarians who dwelt in Scyros. Nevertheless, Cimon having taken the island (as is related in his Life), and being very desirous to find out the place where Theseus was buried, by chance saw an eagle, on a certain eminence, breaking the ground (as they tell us) and scratching it up with her talons. This he considered as a divine direction, and, digging there, found the coffin of a man of extraordinary size, with a lance of brass and a sword lying by it.
When these remains were brought to Athens in Cimon’s galley the Athenians received them with splendid processions and sacrifices, and were as much transported as if Theseus himself had returned to the city. He lies interred in the middle of the town, near the Gymnasium: and his oratory is a place of refuge for servants and all persons of mean condition, who fly from men in power, as Theseus, while he lived, was a humane and benevolent patron, who graciously received the petitions of the poor. The chief sacrifice is offered to him on the eighth of October, the day on which he returned with the young men from Crete. They sacrifice to him likewise on each eighth day of the other months, either because he first arrived from Troezene on the eighth of July, as Diodorus the geographer relates; or else thinking this number, above all others, to be most proper to him, because he was said to be the son of Poseidon; the solemn feasts of Poseidon being observed on the eighth day of every month. For the number eight, as the first cube of an even number, and the double of the first square, properly represents the firmness and immovable power of this god, who thence has the names of Asphalius and Gaieochus. [^]
Theseus was the sixth in descent from Erectheus, or Ericthonius, said to be the son of Hephaestus and Athena, or Cranae, granddaughter of Cranaus, the second king of Athens ; so that Plutarch very justly says, that Theseus was descended from the Autocthones, or first inhabitants of Attica, who were so called because they pretended to be born in that very country. It is generally allowed, however, that this kingdom was founded by Cecrops, an Egyptian, who brought hither a colony of Saites, about the year of the world 2448, B.C. The inhabitants of Attica were indeed a more ancient people than those of many other districts of Greece, which being of a more fertile soil, often changed their masters, while few were ambitious of settling in a barren country.
Pelops was the son of Tantalus, and of Phrygian extraction. He carried with him immense riches into Peloponnesus, which he had dug out of the mines of Mount Sypilus. By means of this wealth, he got the government of the most considerable towns for his sons, and married his daughters to princes.
Summary of the situation from Wikipedia:
Aegeus, one of the primordial kings of Athens, was childless. Desiring an heir, he asked the Oracle of Delphifor advice. Her cryptic words were "Do not loosen the bulging mouth of the wineskin until you have reached the height of Athens, lest you die of grief." Aegeus did not understand the prophecy and was disappointed. He asked the advice of his host Pittheus, king of Troezen. Pittheus understood the prophecy, got Aegeus drunk, and gave Aegeus his daughter Aethra.
But following the instructions of Athena in a dream, Aethra left the sleeping Aegeus and waded across to the island of Sphairia that lay close to Troezen's shore. There, she poured a libation to Sphairos (Pelops's charioteer) and Poseidon and was possessed by the sea god in the night. The mix gave Theseus a combination of divine as well as mortal characteristics in his nature; such double paternity, with one immortal and one mortal, was a familiar feature of other Greek heroes. After Aethra became pregnant, Aegeus decided to return to Athens. Before leaving, however, he buried his sandals and sword under a huge rock and told Aethra that when their son grew up, he should move the rock, if he were heroic enough, and take the tokens for himself as evidence of his royal parentage. In Athens, Aegeus was joined by Medea, who had left Corinth after slaughtering the children she had borne to Jason, and had taken Aegeus as her new consort.
Thus Theseus was raised in his mother's land. When Theseus grew up to be a young man, he moved the rock and recovered his father's tokens. His mother then told him the truth about his father's identity and that he must take the sword and sandals back to the king Aegeus to claim his birthright. To journey to Athens, Theseus could choose to go by sea (which was the safe way) or by land, following a dangerous path around the Saronic Gulf, where he would encounter a string of six entrances to the Underworld, each guarded by a chthonicenemy. Young, brave, and ambitious, Theseus decided to go alone by the land route and defeated many bandits along the way.
Sinnis was so called, from his bending the heads of two pines, and tying passengers between the opposite branches, which, by their sudden return, tore them to pieces.
In this instance our hero deviated from the principle he set out upon, which was, never to be the aggressor in any engagement. The wild sow was certainly no less respectable an animal than the pine-bender.
Theseus reached Athens after his six labors, and several key events happened when he arrived. Summary from Wikipedia:
When Theseus arrived in Athens, he did not reveal his true identity immediately. Aegeus gave him hospitality but was suspicious of the young, powerful stranger's intentions. Aegeus's consort Medea recognized Theseus immediately as Aegeus' son and worried that Theseus would be chosen as heir to Aegeus' kingdom instead of her son Medus. She tried to arrange to have Theseus killed by asking him to capture the Marathonian Bull, an emblem of Cretan power.
On the way to Marathon, Theseus took shelter from a storm in the hut of an ancient woman named Hecale. She swore to make a sacrifice to Zeus if Theseus were successful in capturing the bull. Theseus did capture the bull, but when he returned to Hecale's hut, she was dead. In her honor, Theseus gave her name to one of the demes of Attica, making its inhabitants in a sense her adopted children.
When Theseus returned victorious to Athens, where he sacrificed the Bull, Medea tried to poison him. At the last second, Aegeus recognized the sandals and the sword and knocked the poisoned wine cup from Theseus's hands. Thus father and son were reunited, and Medea fled to Asia.
When Theseus appeared in the town, his reputation had preceded him, as a result of his having traveled along the notorious coastal road from Troezen and slain some of the most feared bandits there. It was not long before the Pallantides' hopes of succeeding the childless Aegeus would be lost if they did not get rid of Theseus (the Pallantides were the sons of Pallas and nephews of King Aegeus, who was then living at the royal court in the sanctuary of Delphic Apollo). So they set a trap for him. One band of them would march on the town from one side while another lay in wait near a place called Gargettus in ambush. The plan was that after Theseus, Aegeus, and the palace guards had been forced out the front, the other half would surprise them from behind. However, Theseus was not fooled. Informed of the plan by a herald named Leos, he crept out of the city at midnight and surprised the Pallantides. "Theseus then fell suddenly upon the party lying in ambush, and slew them all. Thereupon the party with Pallas dispersed," Plutarch reported.
There are many accounts of Theseus’ adventure to Crete and the slaying of the Minotaur. These accounts are summarized from Wikipedia below:
Pasiphaë, wife of King Minos of Crete, had several children. The eldest of these, Androgeus, set sail for Athens to take part in the Panathenaic Games, which were held there every four years. Being strong and skillful, he did very well, winning some events outright. He soon became a crowd favorite, much to the resentment of the Pallantides, who assassinated him, incurring the wrath of Minos.
When King Minos heard what had befallen his son, he ordered the Cretan fleet to set sail for Athens. Minos asked Aegeus for his son's assassins, saying that if they were to be handed to him, the city would be spared. However, not knowing who the assassins were, King Aegeus surrendered the whole city to Minos' mercy. His retribution was to stipulate that at the end of every Great Year, which occurred after every seven cycles on the solar calendar, the seven most courageous youths and the seven most beautiful maidens were to board a boat and be sent as tribute to Crete, never to be seen again.
In another version, King Minos had waged war with the Athenians and was successful. He then demanded that, at nine-year intervals, seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls were to be sent to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster that lived in the Labyrinth created by Daedalus.
On the third occasion, Theseus volunteered to talk to the monster to stop this horror. He took the place of one of the youths and set off with a black sail, promising to his father, Aegeus, that if successful he would return with a white sail. Like the others, Theseus was stripped of his weapons when they sailed. On his arrival in Crete, Ariadne, King Minos' daughter, fell in love with Theseus and, on the advice of Daedalus, gave him a ball of thread (a clew), so he could find his way out of the Labyrinth. That night, Ariadne escorted Theseus to the Labyrinth, and Theseus promised that if he returned from the Labyrinth he would take Ariadne with him. As soon as Theseus entered the Labyrinth, he tied one end of the ball of string to the doorpost and brandished his sword which he had kept hidden from the guards inside his tunic. Theseus followed Daedalus' instructions given to Ariadne: go forwards, always down, and never left or right. Theseus came to the heart of the Labyrinth and upon the sleeping Minotaur. The beast awoke and a tremendous fight occurred. Theseus overpowered the Minotaur with his strength and stabbed the beast in the throat with his sword (according to one scholium on Pindar's Fifth Nemean Ode, Theseus strangled it).
After decapitating the beast, Theseus used the string to escape the Labyrinth and managed to escape with all of the young Athenians and Ariadne as well as her younger sister Phaedra. Then he and the rest of the crew fell asleep on the beach of the island of Naxos, where they stopped on their way back, looking for water. Theseus then abandoned Ariadne, where Dionysus eventually found and married her. Theseus forgot to put up the white sails instead of the black ones, so his father, the king, believing he was dead, died by suicide, throwing himself off a cliff of Sounion and into the sea, causing this body of water to be named the Aegean Sea.
Hence came the custom of sending annually a deputation from Athens to Delos to sacrifice to Apollo.
The Athenaea were celebrated before, in honour of the Goddess Athena ; but as that was a feast peculiar to the city of Athens, Theseus enlarged it, and made it common to all the inhabitants of Attica ; and therefore it was called Panathenaea. There were the greater and the less Panathenaea. The less were kept annually, and the greater every fifth year. In the latter they carried in procession the mysterious pephim, or veil of Athena, on which were embroidered the victory of the gods over the giants, and the most remarkable achievements of their heroes.
In memory of their quitting the boroughs, and uniting in one city.
On this occasion, he likewise instituted, or at least restored, the famous Isthmian games, in honour of Poseidon. All these were chiefly designed to draw a concourse of strangers! and ais a further encouragement for them to come and settle in Athens, he gave them the privileges of natives.
In the original it is, “Safe, like a bladder, &c.” When Sylla had taken Athens, and exercised all manner of cruelties there, some Athenians v/ent to Delphi, to inquire of the oracle, whether the last hour of their city was come? and the priestess, according to Pausanias, made answer, τα εισ τον ακχον εχοντα, “That which belongs to the bladder now has an end;” plainly referring to the old prophecy here delivered.
This pillar was erected by the common consent of the lonians and Peloponnesians, to put an end to the disputes about their boundaries; and it continued to the reign of Codrus, during which it was demolished by the Heraclidae, who had made themselves masters of the territory of Megara, which thereby passed from the lonians to the Dorians. Strabo, lib. ix.
The ungrateful Athenians were in process of time made so sensible of the effects of his curse, that to appease his ghost, they appointed solemn sacrifices and divine honours to be paid to him.
Codrus, the seventeenth king of Athens, contemporary with Saul, devoted himself to death I for the sake of his country, in 1068 B.C.; having learned that the Oracle had promised its enemies, the Dorians and the Heracleidae, victory, if they did not kill the king of the Athenians. His subjects, on this account conceived such veneration for him, that they esteemed none worthy to bear the royal title after him, and therefore committed the management of the state to elective magistrates, to whom they gave the title of archons, and chose Medon, the eldest son of Codrus, to this new dignity. Thus ended the legal succession and title of kings of Athens, after it had continued without any interruption 487 years, from Cecrops to Codrus. The archon acted with sovereign authority, but was accountable to the people whenever it was required. There were thirteen perpetual archons in the space of 325 years. After the death of Alcmaeon, who was the last of them, this charge was continued to the person elected for ten years only ; but always in the same family, till the death of Eryxias, or, according to others, of Tlesias, the seventh and last decennial archon. F or the family of Codrus or of the Medontidae, ending in him, the Athenians created annual archons, and, instead of one, they appointed nine every year. See a farther account of the archons in the Notes on the Life of Solon.
I'm reading Plutarch for the first time. So far I've only read Lycurgus and Numa Pompilus, Solon and Poplicola, Pericles and Fabius, and Alcibiades and Coriolanus. It seems to me that the Romans take the civic nature of their religion much more seriously than the Greeks, with the exception of Alcibiades and the business with the statues of Hermes. Is this a fair comparison of the two peoples, or is it that Plutarch is giving more attention to the Roman practice of religion for some reason that I am missing? Is it that ever present third possibility, that I am wrong and noticing something that is not there?