Theseus

Family: Athens · Role: hero · First appears: Apollodorus, Library 1.8

🌐 Also appears in: The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Theseus) · Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (as Theseus) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Theseus)

Aethra gave birth to Theseus, son of Aegeus. When he was grown, he moved the rock, took up the sandals and sword, and set out for Athens. At Epidaurus he killed Periphetes and carried off his iron club; at the Isthmus of Corinth he killed Sinis. He also killed Sciron, Cercyon, and Damastes.

In the labyrinth, Theseus killed Asterius (Minotaur) with his fists. Ariadne offered to help him escape if he would carry her to Athens and marry her, while Daedalus was asked to disclose the way out. Theseus joined Heracles against the Amazons and carried off Antiope, or, according to another account, Melanippe, whom Simonides called Hippolyte; he had a son, Hippolytus, by the Amazon. He later married Phaedra, who bore Acamas and Demophon.

Theseus allied himself with Pirithous, helped Oedipus as a suppliant, and was connected with Hades through the Chair of Forgetfulness. After believing Phaedra’s accusation, he prayed to Poseidon for Hippolytus’s death; Hippolytus was dragged to death, and Phaedra hanged herself. Theseus gained sole control of the government of Athens, but Menestheus drove him away; he went to Lycomedes, who threw him into an abyss and killed him.