Theseus and the Minotaur

by Graeme Davis

  Recent archeological discoveries in Russia and Ukraine have revealed that the Scythian-Sarmatian culture of the area had a high proportion of female warriors: up to 25 percent of the warrior burials excavated in the region belong to women. The Sarmatians flourished from the fifth century BC to the fourth century AD, and from the reports of Greek and Roman writers they seem to have been a nomadic culture like many on the Eurasian steppes.

  Theseus and the Amazons

  At some time before he went to Crete, Theseus went to the land of the Amazons. The Amazons welcomed Theseus and sent one of their number – a daughter of the war-god Ares named Antiope – aboard Theseus’ ship with gifts. Theseus set sail once she was aboard, and she became his wife, bearing him a son whom they named Hippolytus.

  As with the other Theseus myths, there are many variations on this tale. Some say that Theseus was accompanying Hercules, either on his Ninth Labor to recover the magical girdle of the Amazon queen Hippolyta or on some other expedition. Some say that Antiope was captured in battle and given to Theseus in recognition of his valor. Another tale tells that Theseus settled with Antiope for some time in her own land, leaving only when one of his companions committed suicide out of unrequited love for his leader’s wife. One tells that Antiope had fallen in love with Theseus and abandoned her people willingly.

  Soon afterward the Amazons attacked Athens, intent on recovering both Antiope and Hippolyta’s girdle. Plutarch dismisses the suggestion that another motive was to avenge Antiope’s honor after Theseus abandoned her for Phaedra.

  Amphora depicting the abduction of Antiope by Theseus and Pirithous, c. 500-490 BC. (Bridgeman Art Library)

  Peace was concluded after a hard-fought battle in which Antiope was killed. Plutarch states that she was slain by an Amazon javelin while fighting at Theseus’ side, while other sources report that she was slain by Theseus while fighting with her Amazon sisters, despite the fact that she was pregnant with Theseus son, Htippolytus, who would play a crucial part in his father's later life.

  Phaedra and Hippolytus

  The story of Phaedra and Hippolytus is the great tragedy of Theseus’ later life, and has been adapted for the stage by the Greek tragedian Euripides, the Roman writer Seneca, and the 17th-century French playwright Racine.

  Phaedra, it will be remembered, was the sister of Ariadne, and Theseus brought her to Athens with him after abandoning Ariadne on Naxos. The fact that Hippolytus was grown at this time places Theseus’ adventures among the Amazons before his voyage to Crete.

  Hippolytus was a devout follower of Artemis, the goddess of hunting, and like many of her followers he had sworn a vow of chastity. This offended Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and she caused Phaedra to fall in love with her stepson.

  Tormented by love, Phaedra became ill. Finally she confided the cause of her sickness to a nurse, who told Hippolytus that Phaedra loved him. Afraid of being caught breaking the confidence of her mistress, the nurse swore Hippolytus to secrecy.

  After Phaedra died – either by starving herself or through a more active suicide – Theseus found a note on her body that accused Hippolytus of raping her. Enraged, Theseus confronted his son, who could not defend himself without breaking his vow of secrecy to the nurse. Theseus cursed his son, invoking his father Poseidon to deal out punishment.

  Hippolytus left for a life of exile. As he drove his chariot away from Athens, Poseidon sent a sea monster (or a wild bull, in some versions), which terrified Hippolytus’ horses and caused his chariot to crash. Hippolytus was dragged to his death, tangled in the reins.

  Phaedra and Hippolytus by Baron Pierre Narcisse Guerin from 1802. (Peter Horree / Alamy)

  According to Euripides and Seneca, Artemis herself appeared to Theseus after his son’s death and told him the truth of the affair. Some writers believed that his grief is what compelled Theseus to leave Athens and retire to the palace of King Lycomedes of Skyros, where he met his death.

  Theseus in Other Myths

  Theseus’ encounters with Hercules and Helen of Troy have already been described, but he also appears in many other Greek myths, usually in a minor role.

  Jason and the Argonauts

  Various sources for the voyage of the Argo list Theseus as among the Argonauts, although no particular deeds are ascribed to him. However, it is hard to believe that Theseus was one of Jason’s companions on that heroic voyage.

  According to the myth of the Argonauts, Jason met Medea on the voyage and married her some time later. It was not until many years later that Medea married King Aegeus of Athens, where the young Theseus first encountered her.

  Adventures with Hercules

  Theseus crossed paths with Hercules on four occasions, and though the problems of chronology are not as severe as they are in the claims that he was an Argonaut, they are still troubling.

  The pair’s first encounter took place when Theseus was a child, at some time after Hercules had completed his First Labor, the slaying of the Nemean Lion.

  Hercules’ Seventh Labor was to capture the Cretan Bull, which was the father of the Minotaur. Allowing time for Pasiphae to fall in love with the bull and give birth to the Minotaur, this must have been at least 15 years before Theseus went to Crete; he was part of the third Athenian tribute, which was levied every seven (or nine) years.

  Theseus’ adventures among the Amazons may or may not have taken place at the same time as Hercules’ Ninth Labor. It could be that there were originally two separate stories that were combined by later writers.

  Finally, Hercules was engaged in his Twelfth Labor when he rescued Theseus from the Underworld.

  Almost all sources agree that Hercules served Eurystheus, who gave him the Twelve Labors to perform, for ten years. Plutarch, on the other hand, quotes an earlier source that states that Theseus was 50 years old when he carried off Helen, at the start of the adventure that ended with Hercules rescuing him from the Underworld. Given that Theseus was a child when Hercules completed his First Labor, this is impossible. Time is usually imprecise in Greek myths, of course, but this mismatch suggests that the story of the Twelve Labors existed first and Hercules’ various appearances in the life of Theseus were added later.

  Hercules by José Daniel Cabrera Peña

  The Calydonian Boar

  Calydon was a city in the region of Aetolia in western Greece. Its king, Oenus (“wine-man”) offended the goddess Artemis by forgetting to include her in a series of annual sacrifices he made to the gods, and she sent a great and terrible boar to ravage the surrounding countryside. In response to the king’s call for help, a veritable super-team of Greek heroes assembled to hunt the beast down.

  Ravaging boars appear quite frequently in Greek myth. We have already seen how Theseus overcame the Crommyonian Sow, and the Greek geographer Strabo went so far as to claim that the Calydonian Boar was her offspring. Hercules vanquished the Erymanthian Boar as the fourth of his Twelve Labors. This beast was associated with a deity called “Mistress of the Beasts” (potnia theron), who may or may not have been an aspect of the wild goddess Artemis. In another myth Artemis sent a wild boar to kill the mortal Adonis, who had bragged that he was as good a hunter as she was.

  The list of heroes who took part in the hunt is too long to name them all. The more prominent names include Atalanta, the famous huntress and athlete; Castor and Pollux, semidivine twins associated with the constellation of Gemini; Jason; Deucalion the son of Minos (suggesting a time before Theseus went to Crete, although he is named in only one source and his inclusion on the list is regarded as unreliable); Laertes the father of Odysseus (suggesting a time before the Trojan War); Nestor and Telamon, also Argonauts; and of course Theseus and Pirithous.

  The hunt for the Calydonian Boar, on a second-century AD sarcophagus in the Archeological Museum of Piraeus. Theseus and Pirithous played a minor role in this tale. (Giovanni Dall’Orto)

  When he tried to help Pirithous kidnap Hades’ bride Persephone, Theseus was trapped in the Underworld be
fore Hercules came to rescue him.

  Several of the heroes initially refused to hunt alongside a woman, but Atalanta drew first blood with an arrow, and after many adventures and mishaps the boar was brought down by Meleager, the son of Oenus.

  When Meleager offered Atalanta the skin and tusks as trophies, several of the other heroes were offended that a woman should receive the prize, and Meleager killed his brother and uncle in the ensuing quarrel. When Meleager’s mother Althaea heard what had happened, she caused his death by throwing a log on to the fire; at Meleager’s birth the Fates had told Althaea that Meleager would live only until this brand had burned down, whereupon she had taken it from the hearth and kept it in a chest for his whole life.

  Theseus and Pirithous played only a minor role in the hunt, and did not cover themselves with glory. According to the Roman poet Ovid, Theseus’ spear hit a tree-branch instead of the boar, while Pirithous is mentioned only in the initial list of the hunters.

  The Seven Against Thebes

  Thebes (not to be confused with the ancient Egyptian capital of the same name) is a smaller city to the northwest of Athens. It is most famous for its role in the story of Oedipus, who ruled the city before his tragic downfall.

  The story of The Seven Against Thebes tells of a dispute between Oedipus’ two sons over who should rule the city. Polynices, dispossessed by his brother Eteocles, raises an army and attacks the city, and the two brothers kill each other in battle.

  Theseus does not appear in the famous tragedy by the Athenian writer Aeschylus, but both Pausanias and Pseudo-Apollodorus state that after the battle he helped to ensure that the fallen received proper burial. This brief appearance mirrors his role in Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus at Colonus, which is not backed up by historical sources.

  The Death of Theseus

  The island of Skyros is roughly in the middle of the Aegean Sea, between the modern nations of Greece and Turkey. There are two versions of the events that led Theseus there.

  According to some sources, Theseus left Athens in grief after the deaths of Phaedra and Hippolytus. Plutarch, on the other hand, says that he was forced out of Athens by a political faction that had grown up there while he was trapped in the Underworld.

  Whatever his reasons for leaving Athens, Theseus asked Lycomedes to grant him lands and estates on Skyros. Shortly thereafter, though, Theseus fell to his death from a cliff. Some say that Lycomedes pushed Theseus off the cliff while the two were out surveying the island to find a place for Theseus to settle, either because he feared that Theseus’ prestige and popularity would threaten his own rule or because he wanted to curry favor with Theseus’ opponents in Athens. Others say that Theseus fell accidentally during an after-dinner stroll.

  The Hephaisteion in Athens was once thought to be the site of Theseus’ tomb. It bears a number of reliefs showing scenes from the hero’s life. (Sailko)

  Theseus’ Tomb

  Remarkably, Plutarch reports that Theseus was all but forgotten in Athens after his death. Almost a thousand years later, at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, Theseus’ ghost appeared on the battlefield and led the Athenian charge against the Persian invaders. It was only after this that Theseus came to be regarded as an Athenian hero or demigod. Plutarch mentions that there were “many other things” beside this one miraculous appearance, but does not provide any details.

  After the Persian War, the Oracle of Delphi told the Athenians to bring Theseus’ bones back to the city and keep them with great care and honor. The Athenian commander Cimon captured Skyros and searched the island for Theseus’ tomb. Plutarch reports that Cimon “chanced to behold an eagle pecking with its beak and scratching with its talons at a small rising ground. Here he dug, imagining that the spot had been pointed out by a miracle. There was found the coffin of a man of great stature, and lying beside it a brazen lance-head and a sword.”

  The remains were brought back to Athens with great ceremony and reburied there. Plutarch reports that even in his own day, five centuries later, the people of Athens sacrificed and held ceremonies in honor of Theseus.

  The location of Theseus’ tomb is unclear. Plutarch states that it was “near where the Gymnasium now stands,” which would place it a little way north of the Agora or marketplace. To the west of the Agora, and some 200 yards away from the Gymnasium, stands the Hephaisteion, a temple to the smith-god Hephaestus, which has also been thought of as the site of Theseus’ tomb. An alternative name for the temple is the Theseion, and it is covered with reliefs showing scenes from the hero’s life. Based on inscriptions, though, it seems that the Hephaisteion is firmly associated with Hephaestus.

  Theseus’ Descendants

  Theseus had four children – all sons – whose descent is not disputed: Melanippus, Hippolytus, Demophon, and Acamas. Staphylus and Oenopion were the sons of Ariadne, but their names suggest that their father was her second husband Dionysus. Some online sources refer to “a girl named Haploids and a boy named Adrift” but no primary sources can be found for these two names. Haploids is a term used in the science of genetics, and Adrift is not a Greek name-form.

  Melanippus

  Melanippus was Theseus’ son by Perigune, the daughter of Sinis the Pine Bender. He does not play any role in recorded history or mythology, but his son (Theseus’ grandson) Ioxus established a Greek colony in Caria (southwestern Anatolia in modern Turkey) and founded a family known as the Ioxides. Caria remained culturally Greek throughout Classical times and was later a province of the Byzantine Empire.

  Hippolytus

  Hippolytus was Theseus’ son by his Amazon wife. Some sources name her as Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, while others state that she was an Amazon warrior named Antiope. Hippolytus grew up to be a devout follower of Artemis, sworn to chastity. When he rejected the amorous advances of his stepmother Phaedra, he set in motion a chain of events that ended both their lives and became a favorite subject for tragic playwrights.

  Demophon and Acamas

  Theseus had two sons by Phaedra, named Demophon (also called Demophon of Athens to distinguish him from others of the same name) and Acamas. Some sources claim that Demophon’s mother was not Phaedra but Iope. Iope was the daughter of Iphicles, the wholly mortal half-brother of Hercules. In either case, Theseus is named as his father.

  After Theseus was exiled from Athens, Demophon and Acamas went to Euboea, a large island to the north of Attica, where they grew up and became allies of the island’s King Elephenor. The brothers both fought in the Trojan War, although Homer does not mention them (but, confusingly, the Iliad does mention a Trojan warrior named Acamas). Later sources name Demophon and Acamas among the Greek warriors who hid inside the Trojan Horse. In the ravaged city of Troy they found their grandmother Aethra; Castor and Pollux had taken her from Athens as Helen’s maid when they rescued their kidnapped sister, and she had later accompanied the princess to Troy.

  On the way home from the war, Demophon married a Thracian princess named Phyllis, but he left for Athens the day after the wedding, promising to return. Phyllis gave him a casket and made him promise not to open it unless he had lost all hope of returning to Thrace. Demophon eventually settled in Cyprus and forgot all about his wife, who finally hanged herself out of despair when he failed to return. Some time later, Demophon found the casket, which he had also forgotten, and opened it out of curiosity. What he found inside is not recorded, but apparently it was horrifying. He jumped on his horse and rode away furiously until he fell from the saddle and landed fatally on his own sword.

  An alternate version of the tale recounts that Demophon did return to Thrace, only to find Phyllis dead and magically transformed into an almond tree. When the grieving Demophon embraced the tree, it miraculously blossomed.

  The Greek playwright Euripides ignores these myths and has Demophon succeed his father as king of Athens. In his play Heracleidae (“Children of Heracles”), Demophon grants the children of Hercules refuge in Athens from their pursuit by King Eurystheus of Ti
ryns.

  Acamas fell in love with Laodice, the daughter of King Priam of Troy, before the war when he visited the city as part of a diplomatic mission to try to recover Helen peacefully. The couple had a son called Munitus, who was raised in Priam’s palace by Acamas’ grandmother Aethra. Nothing else is said of Munitus, and little else is known of Acamas except that he died of a snakebite while hunting in Thrace.

  THE LEGEND GROWS

  The adventures of Theseus have been popular subjects for artists and writers from Classical times to the present day. This chapter presents a brief summary of the most significant works.

  The Ancient World

  Theseus appears on Greek reliefs and painted vases dating from the sixth century BC onward, and on Roman mosaics from Pompeii and elsewhere. These and other depictions can be found throughout this book.

  Theseus appears in minor roles in many plays from Classical Greece onward, and there were at least two lost plays about his life. However, it was the tragic story of Phaedra and Hippolytus that has provided the most successful stage adaptations of all the Theseus stories.

  Euripides

  The fifth-century Athenian playwright Euripides wrote two plays titled Hippolytus, only one of which survives intact. The first, Hippolytos Kalyptomenos (“Hippolytus Veiled,” now lost) was said to have been a critical failure, probably due to Euripides’ handling of Phaedra. She is depicted as brazenly propositioning her stepson. A second play, Hippolytos Stephanophoros (“Hippolytus Crowned”), presents Phaedra as a more complex character who struggles with her attraction to Hippolytus, the work of a jealous Aphrodite whom Hippolytus had rejected in favor of chaste Artemis.