Theseus and the Minotaur

by Graeme Davis

  Theseus overcame Procrustes and, like the earlier adversaries on his journey to Athens, he gave the mad smith a dose of his own medicine. When Procrustes attempted to tie Theseus to his bed, the young hero leapt up and bound Procrustes to it instead. Seeing that the bed was far too short, Theseus took Procrustes’ own axe, and hacked off the murderer’s legs before lopping off his head. Deciding not to spend the night on Mount Korydallos, Theseus continued on his way.

  Arrival in Athens

  When Theseus finally reached Athens, he found that he was no safer there than he had been on the road. His father Aegeus had married for a third time. His new wife was the sorceress Medea, who had come to Athens after murdering her children by Jason when the leader of the Argonauts had abandoned her for another woman. Medea had given Aegeus his long-awaited heir, a boy named Medus, but as the older son Theseus had a strong claim to the throne of Athens.

  Theseus did not reveal his identity to Aegeus immediately, preferring to wait and see how things stood in Athens. Aegeus, for his part, offered hospitality to the young stranger, but was suspicious of his intentions.

  Medea, though, had no doubts whatsoever. She recognized Theseus right away as the son of Aegeus, and began to worry what his arrival might mean for her own son’s future. Hoping to get rid of him, Medea challenged Theseus to capture the Marathonian Bull, expecting that he would be killed in the attempt.

  The Marathonian Bull

  The Marathonian Bull was a huge and fierce animal that had originally come from Crete. Hercules had subdued the beast as part of his Seventh Labor, and brought it to Athens as a sacrifice to Hera. Hera refused the sacrifice, however, because she hated Hercules for being the illegitimate son of her husband Zeus from his affair with the mortal princess Alcmene. As a result, the bull wandered the plain of Marathon outside Athens, terrorizing the area.

  Despite Medea’s hopes, Theseus overpowered the bull and brought it back to Athens where it was sacrificed to Zeus. The furious Medea then tried to poison Theseus at a feast. However, the old king Aegeus finally caught on. He recognized the sandals that Theseus wore and the sword he carried. He also recognized the murderous glint in his wife’s eye. Just before Theseus took a sip from the poisoned chalice, Aegeus dashed the cup from Theseus’ hand. Father and son were reunited, and Medea fled to her father’s domain of Colchis on the Black Sea, taking Medus with her.

  The Fifty Sons of Pallas

  The Sons of Pallas, or Pallantides, were a powerful faction of nobles from Attica, the region that surrounds Athens. They were nephews of Aegeus, and hoped to take control of Athens if he died childless. When Aegeus’ son Medus had fled along with his mother, Theseus replaced him as an obstacle to their ambitions.

  They attacked Athens soon after Medea fled determined to take the city by force. The Sons of Pallas split their forces into two divisions. One marched on Athens openly to draw the Athenian forces out of the city, while the other lay in ambush planning to attack them in the rear. However, a herald named Leos defected from the Sons of Pallas to Athens and warned Theseus of the plan.

  Theseus decided to destroy his enemies piecemeal. First he ambushed the ambushers by attacking their camp at night. Despite the confusion of a night raid, Theseus managed to slaughter all of his foes. When daybreak came, he turned his army and marched against his enemy on the plains in front of the city. The Sons of Pallas fought with confidence, expecting the ambushing force to appear at any moment. When it didn’t, they lost heart, their forces broke, and the Athenians slaughtered them as they tried to run.

  Theseus capturing the Marathonian Bull in a painting by Charles-Andre van Loo.

  Alternate Versions

  There are many sources for Theseus’ journey to Athens, and most of them differ from each other in minor details. Plutarch’s Life of Theseus, long considered the most authoritative source on the hero, does not choose between the different versions. On the contrary, Plutarch takes pains to mention every possible version and variant of the tale, including its source.

  The version of the tale told in this chapter is the one most familiar today. For the sake of completeness, though, the main differences between this and the alternate versions are given below.

  It is sometimes said that Sinis the Pine Bender challenged passers-by to a pine-bending contest rather than enlisting their aid with his own tree. The number of trees also varies, with victims being either flung to their deaths by a single tree or torn apart between two. Perhaps the most significant alternate version has Theseus simply stabbing Sinis to death instead of administering the more poetic justice of killing him with his own murderous device.

  The Crommyonian Sow was said by some to have been spawned by Echidna and Typhon, who are known in Greek myth as the mother and father of monsters. Among their other offspring are the Lernean Hydra, the Chimera, the Sphinx, and Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of Hades. The Greek writer Strabo claims that the Crommyonian Sow was the mother of the Calydonian Boar, while a few sources state that the Crommyonian Sow was actually the boar itself.

  In some accounts the Crommyonian Sow was named Phaia after an old crone who had bred it; others claim that the crone and the sow were the same creature, or that “the Crommyonian Sow” was the hag’s nickname.

  Plutarch says that writers from Sciron’s home town of Megara told a different tale from the Athenians. They maintained that Sciron was a good and just ruler who suppressed lawlessness throughout his realm. According to Plutarch, Sciron was related by marriage to both Cychreus, the king of Salamis, and Aeacus, the king of Aegina; both men were renowned for their virtue, he says, and unlikely to have contracted marriage-alliances with a known malefactor. Plutarch also mentions the Megaran claim that Theseus did not slay Sciron on his journey to Athens but some time later, when he conquered Megara’s tributary town of Eleusis.

  All sources agree that, like Theseus, Cercyon had divine blood, but there is some disagreement about his actual parentage. His father is variously said to have been Poseidon (making him Theseus’ half-brother), Hephaestus (making him a half-brother to Periphetes the Clubber), or a mortal named Branchus; his mother is said to have been the water-nymph Argiope or a daughter of the hero Amphictyon.

  Theseus fights Cercyon, Procrustes, Sciron, the Marathonian Bull, Sinis, and the Crommyonian Sow on this fifth-century BC cup from Athens. At the center, he drags the Minotaur’s corpse from the Labyrinth. (British Museum)

  The story of Procrustes the Stretcher is more consistent than the others. His lair at Mount Korydallos was so close to Athens that perhaps only the “official” Athenian version was ever told. However, Plutarch mentions that in earlier versions of the tale, the mad smith did not rack his shorter victims: instead, he pounded their legs with his hammer to stretch them out.

  The Growth of Athens

  The Classical Greek religion, based on the worship of the Olympian gods, superseded an earlier, earth-based religion in which an earth-goddess took a mortal king as a consort – usually for a fixed number of years – before he was sacrificed and replaced. It is thought that the Eleusinian mysteries were one such religion, and there is evidence suggesting that Minoan Crete followed a similar religion.

  Procrustes forced his victims onto an iron bed, racking them if they were too short to fit it exactly and lopping off their feet if they were too tall.

  If it is true that the tales of Theseus reflect the growth and spread of Athenian influence, the most transparent allegory is his encounter with Cercyon, whom he replaces as king of Eleusis. But fainter traces of similar allegories can be seen in his other encounters on the road to Athens. It is perhaps significant, too, that the locations of his six encounters are sometimes referred to as “the six entrances to the Underworld,” investing the tales with an air of religious significance.

  While the character of Periphetes the Clubber seems one-dimensional, his status as a son of Hephaestus – and the corresponding traits of lameness and having one eye – hint at a divine nature. It could be t
hat this encounter reflects a historical event wherein Athens gained control of Epidaurus and replaced a local cult of an underworld deity with its own religion and culture.

  Theseus’ dalliance with Perigune might be seen as an allegory for the kind of sacred marriage characteristic of many earth-cults. Identified in the myth as the daughter of the bandit Sinis, she might originally have been an Isthmian princess-priestess through whom the royal succession passed. In this case, the story once again reflects the growth of Athenian dominance over the Isthmus of Corinth – a vital trade and communication route.

  The adventure of the Crommyonian Sow is more obscure. The sow may be a local totem or an allegory for another local culture, but it is hard to draw any firm conclusions.

  Plutarch claims that Sciron was not a mere robber, but a prince and warlord of the city of Megara. The story of his encounter with Theseus can be viewed as a distorted account of diplomacy and war. Foot-washing is a sign of humility and submission in many cultures. Pope Francis washed the feet of inmates at an Italian juvenile detention center in March 2013 to demonstrate his humility, and the practice has a long history. Seen in this light, Sciron’s demand seems like a demand for formal submission, and Theseus’ action in throwing him off a cliff could be seen as a robust Athenian response.

  Procrustes is said in some sources to be a son of Poseidon like Theseus, which may indicate the replacement of an older cult by a newer, more Athenian-aligned one. However, as with the adventure of the Crommyonian Sow, information on the bandit is too scant to support any further interpretation.

  Although it is possible to see the whole of Theseus’ journey to Athens as an allegory for the spread of Athenian political and religious dominance around the Isthmus of Corinth, it is difficult to draw any firm conclusions without sufficient supporting historical or archeological evidence. While the interpretation is an attractive one, it remains no more than speculation until it can be tested against hard data.

  THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR – THE MYTH

  The Birth of the Minotaur

  The story of the Minotaur begins when the young king Minos, himself a son of the god Zeus, called to Poseidon for a sign that the throne of Crete was rightfully his. The sea-god responded by sending Minos a great white bull from the sea. Such a display of godly favor ended all other claims to the throne. In thanks, Minos vowed to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, but the bull was so magnificent that he changed his mind and sacrificed a different bull instead.

  Poseidon was enraged by this duplicity and punished Minos by afflicting his queen, Pasiphae, with an unnatural and obsessive lust for the divine bull. Eventually she convinced the inventor Daedalus to create a wooden cow in which she could hide to copulate with the beast. The result of this unnatural union was a boy who was half man, half bull. His parents named him Asterion after Minos’ foster-father, but the Greeks called him the Minotaur, “the Bull of Minos.”

  Daedalus presents Pasiphae with his artificial cow in this Roman mosaic from Pompeii.

  The birth of the Minotaur created a dilemma for Minos. If he did nothing, the creature would terrorize his kingdom and publicize the shame of his wife’s unnatural lust; however, as the offspring of a divine gift, the monstrous child could not be harmed without risking further offense to Poseidon. Minos solved the problem by having Daedalus construct an elaborate maze, the Labyrinth, as a prison and hiding-place for the monster.

  So, from a young age, the Minotaur was imprisoned in the Labyrinth. For food, Minos ordered that slaves and prisoners be cast into the maze on a regular basis so the Minotaur could hunt them, kill them, and eat them.

  A Minoan ship depicted in a 16th century BC fresco from Akrotiri at the National Archeological Museum of Athens. Minos threatened Athens with war after the death of his son Androgeus. (The Art Archive / Alamy)

  The Death of Androgeus

  Despite the curse of the Minotaur, the rule of Minos brought power and wealth to the island of Crete. He created a great navy, which he used to clear the Mediterranean of pirates and then to subdue many cities on the Greek mainland. In time, Minos had another son, a boy named Androgeus, who was a gifted athlete and warrior. When he was still a young man, Androgeus travelled to Athens at the time when the Marathonian Bull was laying waste to the countryside. According to the Athenians, Androgeus volunteered to fight the Bull, but the monster killed him.

  Minos refused to believe the Athenians’ story, claiming that they had murdered his son out of fear of the power of Crete. In his anger, Minos commanded his army and navy to assault the city of Athens. Although the city walls kept the Athenians relatively safe, Minos destroyed all of the surrounding farms and villages. He also called upon the power of his mighty father, and Zeus sent a series of devastating earthquakes against the city. Eventually the Athenians had had enough. They sent a group to the Oracle at Delphi to learn how they could end the siege. The Oracle told them that they must agree to any demands that Minos made.

  THE MINOAN CIVILIZATION

  Cretan civilization flourished between the 27th and 15th centuries BC, making it a contemporary of the 2nd–16th dynasties of Egypt and the earlier phases of the Mycenaean civilization of mainland Greece. Traces of this civilization were uncovered in the early 20th century by British archeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who coined the term “Minoan” after the legendary King Minos.

  The Bronze Age began in Crete around 2700 BC. As the Minoan civilization developed, it gave rise to large and complex palace structures like the one Evans excavated at Knossos. Crete became a major power in the eastern Mediterranean, and the Minoans traded with Egypt, Mycenae, and the Canaanite civilization in present-day Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon.

  The eruption of the volcanic island of Thera (modern Santorini) between 1625 and 1600 BC devastated the Minoan civilization, but its palaces were rebuilt and became even more impressive until Crete was overrun by the Mycenaean Greeks between 1475 and 1325 BC. Mycenaean culture had been heavily influenced by Crete, and the Mycenaeans continued to rule until around 1200 BC and the start of the Iron Age in the region.

  Imprisoned in the Labyrinth by King Minos of Crete, the Minotaur was Theseus’ most famous foe.

  The Athenians surrendered to Minos. In retaliation for the death of his son, Minos demanded that every nine years the Athenians should send seven young men and seven young women to be sacrificed as tribute in the Labyrinth of the Minotaur.

  The Tribute

  Soon after Theseus arrived in Athens, the tribute became due for the third time. All of the maidens and young men of Athens were called together, and they drew lots to see who would be sent. Since Theseus was not actually from Athens, he was exempt from the draw, but when he saw the crying mothers, he volunteered to join the tribute. Aegeus tried to talk his son out of it, but Theseus had made up his mind.

  Theseus had no intention of quietly surrendering to the Minotaur, however. Instead, he began to concoct a plan. After all of the lots had been drawn, he found two strong and brave young men, who had slightly effeminate faces, and convinced them to take the places of two of the young maidens. He instructed them to dress like the girls, to bath with sweet oils so they would smell like them, and to study the movements of the other girls so they could imitate them.

  When the time came to sail to Crete, Theseus led the 13 other members of the tribute aboard a black-sailed ship. Before they cast off, Aegeus came to see his son one last time. He gave to Theseus a set of white sails and made him promise, if he should manage to somehow escape the Minotaur, he would hoist the white sails on his return voyage. That way, Aegeus would know as soon as possible that his son was still alive.

  The Challenge of Minos

  When the ship arrived in Crete, King Minos and several of his household came down from the palace to view the tribute. As Minos watched the young maidens come ashore, he was immediately struck by the beauty of a girl named Periboea. He seized hold of the girl and would have dragged her away right then to satisfy his lust, if Theseus had not ste
pped forward to challenge him. Theseus said he was the son of Poseidon, and that it was his duty to protect innocent maidens.

  Minos laughed. Then he took a gold ring off his finger and cast it into the ocean. He commanded Theseus to prove that the sea-god was his father, by swimming into the ocean and recovering the ring. Without pause, Theseus dove into the water. Beneath the waves, a friendly school of dolphins guided Theseus down to the palace of the Nereids. There Theseus met Thetis, queen of the Nereids. When Theseus told the queen his story, she commanded her people to go out and find the golden ring. Once they had found it and given it to Theseus, Thetis also gave the young hero her own gold crown as a gift for his courage.

  THE THESEUS RING

  In the 1950s a gold signet-ring was discovered in the Plaka, the ancient city-center of Athens. It is decorated with a bull-leaping scene, framed by a lion on one side and what may be a tree on the other. It was immediately named “the Theseus ring,” but it was widely dismissed as a fake until experts from the Greek Cultural Ministry examined it in 2006 and dated it to the 15th century BC. The ring is now in the National Archeological Museum of Athens.

  Thus, when Theseus emerged from the ocean to the astonished stares of the Creteans, he not only held Minos’ golden ring, but also wore a beautiful crown of gold. Theseus appeared so handsome and kingly that Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, immediately fell in love with him. Meanwhile, furious at having been shown up, Minos relinquished Periboea, but commanded that Theseus be the first of the tribute thrown into the Labyrinth.