by Graeme Davis
Attica
In the late Bronze Age, Attica was a collection of squabbling city-states. According to tradition, Theseus’ distant predecessor Cecrops had organized the region into 12 districts and established common religious and political practices, but they remained independent of each other. As king of Athens, Theseus set about unifying Attica under Athenian leadership. He decreed that all the inhabitants of Attica should receive Athenian citizenship and instructed the various communities to put aside their previous feuds and regard themselves as a single people. He traveled from settlement to settlement, using his fame and Athens’ power to win popular support for his plan, while soothing the concerns of the ruling classes by saying that this new commonwealth would have no king; instead, Theseus would act only as its war-leader and chief magistrate.
As the various communities of Attica agreed to his plan – either wholeheartedly or out of reluctance to flout his growing power – Theseus had their individual public buildings pulled down and replaced them with a centralized senate house and prytaneum, or sacred hearth, in Athens on the site of the present-day Acropolis.
A statue of Theseus in Syntagma Square, Athens. Theseus is credited with laying the foundations for the city’s future greatness. (Nikos Pavlakis / Alamy)
Plutarch also tells us that Theseus instituted the Panathenaic Games and festival to help bind together the people of his new Athenian commonwealth. This seems to be a contradiction, because earlier he tells how Androgeus came from Crete to take part in those games. However, other historical sources trace the origin of the Panathenaic Games to the reign of the tyrant Peisistratus in 556 BC, long after Theseus lived. Perhaps the Panathenaic Games of Plutarch’s time developed out of the older Pan-Athenian Games during the time of Peisistratus, and the story of Theseus was invoked to cloak them in an aura of tradition and historical respectability.
Athens
Despite the vagueness of many details, Plutarch’s account makes it clear that Theseus reshaped Athens and laid the foundation for its future political, economic, and military importance in Attica. Theseus’ social and political reforms in Athens itself helped develop the city into a fitting capital for his new commonwealth.
He organized the city’s population into three classes. The educated Eupatridae or nobles provided priests, magistrates, and lawyers. The Demiurgi were skilled artisans, and the Geomori were farmers. Plutarch is careful to emphasize that Theseus did not set any class above the others, “thinking that the nobles would always excel in dignity, the farmers in usefulness, and the artisans in numbers.”
Theseus also created an annual holiday for what he called “resident aliens” on the 16th day of the month of Hekatombaion (late July to early August). As well as celebrating the city’s non-Athenian population, this festival must also have encouraged talented and ambitious outsiders to come to the city by smoothing over any potential tensions between them and their native Athenian neighbors. The celebration must also have sent the message to the rest of Attica that while Athens was undoubtedly the capital, those from other parts of Attica would be welcome and valued in the city.
According to Plutarch this holiday was still observed in his own time, although as with the games, it may be that the holiday’s origin was attributed to Theseus as a matter of civic pride.
Plutarch also reports that Theseus issued coins bearing the image of a bull, in reference either to his capture of the Marathonian Bull or to his exploits in Crete. Although it cannot be proved, this reference could be taken to imply that Theseus reformed the Athenian currency as well as its social and political organization. What is certain is that this powerful symbol of their leader’s achievements must have bolstered civic and regional pride, while reminding potential rivals of Theseus’ abilities and achievements.
The Isthmus
The Isthmus of Corinth, which Theseus had crossed on his first journey from Troezen to Athens, became the southern and western frontier of the new Athenian commonwealth. Theseus enlarged Attica by annexing Megara and erected a two-sided pillar in the Isthmus, inscribed on the one side with the words “This is not Peloponnesus, but Ionia,” and on the other with “This is Peloponnesus, not Ionia.”
Peloponnesus (modern Peloponnese) refers to the part of Greece that lies south of the Isthmus. The later war between Athens and the southern city of Sparta became known as the Peloponnesian War because it was effectively a conflict between the north and south of Greece. Ionia is probably synonymous with Attica in this context, since the Attic dialect belongs to the Ionian language group. In other contexts, Ionia is most commonly used to refer to the Greek-speaking settlements of western Anatolia, across the Aegean in modern Turkey.
Theseus is also credited with establishing the Isthmian Games in honor of Poseidon. It has been suggested that he did so to atone for killing Sciron, who like him was a son of the sea-god. Other accounts say that the games commemorated Sinis, perhaps because they took place close to the site of Theseus’ encounter with the tree-bending bandit. Whatever their religious significance, these games held near the frontier with Peloponnesus would also have provided a perfect opportunity to demonstrate Athenian power to Attica’s southern neighbors.
Delphi
With everything organized in Athens and Attica, Theseus laid his power aside and visited the famous Oracle at Delphi to ask for guidance in formulating a constitution for the Athenian commonwealth. According to Plutarch he received this reply:
Thou son of Aegeus and of Pittheus’ maid,
My father hath within thy city laid
The bounds of many cities; weigh not down
Thy soul with thought; the bladder cannot drown.
Plutarch does not attempt to interpret the Oracle’s pronouncement, but the words “weigh not down thy soul with thought” seem to indicate that the gods were satisfied with the new arrangement. “My father hath within thy city laid the bounds of many cities” seems to imply that Athens would prosper under the patronage of the gods – especially Apollo, whose temple was the seat of the famous Oracle, and Zeus, Apollo’s father and the supreme ruler of the Olympian gods.
The Isthmus of Corinth photographed from NASA’s Terra satellite. Theseus placed the southern border of his Athenian commonwealth at this strategic land-bridge between northern and southern Greece.
The words “the bladder cannot drown” are also interesting. When Theseus was conceived, his father Aegeus was visiting Troezen for help in interpreting another Delphic oracle, which advised him, “Do not loosen the bulging mouth of the wineskin until you have reached the height of Athens, lest you die of grief.” It is striking that it cautions Aegeus to take care of a wineskin, while Theseus is reassured that a bladder will be safe; is it possible that both are metaphors for Athens itself, or for the bloodline or legacy of Aegeus and Theseus?
THE ISTHMIAN GAMES
Although Plutarch credits Theseus with instituting the Isthmian Games, they have a much longer history, which dates back to mythic times.
The Isthmian Games were held every two years, in the years immediately before and after each Olympic Games. They are said to have originated as funeral games for Melicertes, a boy prince of Thebes whose mother Ino threw herself and her son into the sea after being stricken with madness by a vengeful Hera. Ino had raised her nephew Dionysus, who was the illegitimate son of Hera's husband Zeus by Ino’s sister Semele.
The soul of Melicertes was transformed into a seagod named Palaemon, a protector of sailors, while dolphins delivered the body of the dead prince to the shore where it was discovered by Sisyphus, the king of Corinth. Sisyphus arranged Melicertes’ burial and held funeral games in his honor, which went on to become the Isthmian Games. Sisyphus would later become famous for his mythological punishment in Tartarus for his continued lying; he was condemned to roll a rock up a hill for eternity, only to see it roll down the other side of the hill each time it reached the top.
While Theseus may not have instituted the Isthmian Games, he certainly did exp
and them. They went from being a closed and largely religious event to a full-scale athletic competition open to all Greeks, with events that rivaled those of the Olympics. Athenian visitors were guaranteed front-row seats. The games were covered by a truce that allowed athletes to come from all over Greece, even in time of war. The truce held even in 412 BC when Athens and Corinth themselves were at war.
The Isthmian Games lasted into Roman times but were eventually suppressed by the Christian emperor Theodosius I (AD 347–95), who regarded them as a pagan ritual. Because their origins are lost in the mists of antiquity it is hard to say exactly how long the Isthmian Games were held, but it must have been at least 1,500 years.
Leaving Athens
According to Plutarch, not everyone was happy with Theseus’ political reforms. Some nobles resented their loss of power, and while Theseus was trapped in the Underworld (see next chapter) one Mnestheus formed them into a single conspiracy. When the warrior brothers Castor and Pollux arrived to take Helen back from Athens (see next chapter) and captured the nearby town of Aphidnae (the modern suburb of Afidnes), the Athenians surrendered in fear and not only returned Helen, but also allowed the brothers to take Theseus’ mother Aethra back to Sparta with them.
When Theseus finally returned to Athens after Hercules rescued him from Hades’ realm, he found that the people were no longer willing to submit meekly to his rule. After a number of disputes he secretly sent his children away to safety and left Athens to go to the island of Skyros, cursing its people.
Plutarch mentions two opinions why Theseus went to Skyros. One tradition claims he wanted to live in quiet retirement, while the other maintains that he wanted to enlist the help of King Lycomedes of Skyros and retake Athens.
THESEUS’ OTHER ADVENTURES
Theseus took part in many adventures aside from his journey to Athens and his defeat of the Minotaur. He struck up a friendship with Pirithous, a prince of the Lapith people of Thessaly, and the two had many adventures together. He accompanied Hercules to the land of the Amazons. He took part in the epic hunt for the Calydonian Boar along with many other Greek heroes. Some writers even claim that he sailed with Jason and the Argonauts. Along the way, he seems to have fathered a large number of children with various prominent women, some of whom he married.
The chronology of these adventures is unclear. Partly this is because, as with all the stories of Theseus, there are so many different and contradictory versions of the stories. Partly, too, it is because the writers who told of his “guest appearances” in the tales of other heroes did not worry about creating a coherent shared timeline.
Details in some accounts imply that more than one of these adventures took place before Theseus’ encounter with the Minotaur, but in Plutarch and most of the other sources they are told after that story, bracketing the hero’s most famous victory with lesser tales. This book takes the same approach. The various stories in this chapter are told as the sources give them, with little attempt to address these chronological problems.
Theseus and Pirithous
Pirithous was a prince of the Lapiths, one of several peoples who lived in Thessaly to the north of Attica. A grandson of Zeus, he was a hero in his own right, although not as prominent as Theseus.
Theseus and Pirithous by José Daniel Cabrera Peña
“NOT WITHOUT THESEUS”
Plutarch quotes an Athenian proverb, “not without Theseus.” To the Athenians, no historical or mythological event of any significance could possibly have taken place without their great hero. To use the language of comic books, he was “retconned” into the stories of almost every other great hero in Greek mythology.
Hearing of Theseus’ renown, Pirithous decided to put the hero of Athens to the test. He stole Theseus’ cattle from the plain of Marathon to provoke him into a chase, and the two fought each other to a standstill. Each was so impressed with the other’s fighting prowess that they took an oath of friendship on the spot, and Pirithous accompanied Theseus on a number of his later adventures.
The Lapiths and the Centaurs
The best-known story about Theseus and Pirithous takes place at the latter’s wedding to a lady named Hippodamia. Little is known of her. She is said to be the daughter of one Atrax, who was himself the son of the Thessalian river-god Peneus. There was a city in Thessaly named Atrax or Atracia, which stood on the banks of the river Peneus, so it is possible that Hippodamia was a princess of this city and the marriage was to be part of a diplomatic arrangement.
The neighboring Centaurs, a wild folk with human torsos on the bodies of horses, got drunk at the wedding feast and tried to carry off the bride and several other Lapith women. In the ensuing battle Theseus killed Eurytus, the fiercest of the Centaurs.
As human-animal hybrids, the Centaurs are sometime seen as symbols of the lower aspects of human nature; the Minotaur has been interpreted in the same light. In this interpretation, the story of the wedding is an allegory of the struggle between wholly-human civilization and half-wild barbarism. Other writers, including the novelist Mary Renault, have interpreted the centaurs as a horse culture similar to those of the Eurasian steppes, whose symbol and totem may have been a horse.
Theseus and Centaur by Antonio Canova. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. (imageBROKER / Alamy)
Eurytus the Centaur by José Daniel Cabrera Peña
The battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs, called the Centauromachy in Classical Greek, was a favorite subject for artists from Classical times up to the Renaissance.
Helen and Persephone
Since Theseus was a son of Poseidon and Pirithous was a grandson of Zeus, the two heroes decided that they would each take a daughter of Zeus as a bride. Theseus chose the Spartan princess Helen, the sister of Castor and Pollux: this was before she had caught the eye of the Trojan prince Paris, leading him to carry her away to Troy and start the Trojan War. The two promptly kidnapped the young princess and left her either in Athens with Theseus’ his mother Aethra or at nearby Aphidnae with a trusted friend named Aphidnus.
Pirithous, meanwhile, had set his sights on Persephone, the wife of Hades. The two heroes went to the Underworld, where Hades pretended to receive them hospitably. However, as soon as they sat down to a welcome feast they found themselves trapped by great snakes that coiled around their feet. In another version, the chairs on which the two sat were enchanted to cause forgetfulness and they sat there for an unspecified length of time. According to a third version, Theseus paused to rest near the hellish abyss of Tartarus and found himself unable to rise from the rock on which he had sat down; the two heroes were instantly surrounded by the Furies, three vicious winged demons, who dragged Pirithous away while Theseus watched helplessly.
HOMOEROTIC SUBTEXT
Some scholars have seen the close relationship between Theseus and Pirithous as being more than an average male friendship. Homosexuality was more generally accepted in Classical Greek society than in many later ages, and it has been suggested that the two heroes were lovers as well as friends. While both of them had relations with numerous women, many of these liaisons seemed to be nothing more than sexual conquests or political arrangements, and all were short-lived compared to the friendship between the two heroes.
In his account of the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, Ovid has Theseus address Pirithous as “dearer far than is myself” and “half of my soul.” Later Attic comedies told a ribald version of the Underworld adventure in which Theseus left his buttocks stuck to the rock when Hercules pulled him free, and gave Theseus the suggestive name hypolispos – “he whose hindquarters are rubbed smooth.”
As with many other male relationships in Classical Greek history and myth, there has been a great deal of discussion about a possible homoerotic subtext in the tales of Theseus and Pirithous, but nothing has been found that has decided the question one way or the other.
At the wedding feast of Theseus’ friend Pirithous, drunken centaurs tried to carry off the bride and other Lapith women.
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Months later, Hercules came to the Underworld on his Twelfth Labor, to capture Hades’ three-headed watchdog Cerberus. He found Theseus and freed him from his seat. Persephone forgave Theseus for his part in the attempt to kidnap her, but Pirithous was not so lucky. The whole Underworld trembled when Theseus tried to rescue his friend and the hero of Athens was forced to return to the upper world alone. Plutarch tells a slightly different version, saying that Pirithous was killed by Cerberus.
Theseus returned to Athens to find things had changed in his absence. Spartan forces led by Helen’s brothers Castor and Pollux had taken the princess back, and Theseus’ mother Aethra was now a captive in Sparta.
In most versions of this tale Helen is said to be a child: various sources give her age as seven or ten. The early (seventh-century BC) Greek poet Stesichorus implies that she was older by making her and Theseus the parents of Iphigenia, who appears in Homer’s Iliad as a human sacrifice offered so that the Greek fleet could set sail for Troy. Homer follows the accounts of most other writers by making Iphigenia the daughter of Menelaus’ brother Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae.
The Furies by José Daniel Cabrera Peña
THE AMAZONS
In Greek myth, the Amazons were a race of female warriors who lived on the southeastern coast of the Black Sea in Pontus, a part of modern Turkey.
According to some ancient sources, the Amazons did not allow men to reside in their territory. Once a year they visited a neighboring tribe to prevent their race from dying out. Male children were either killed or returned to their fathers, and girls were raised in the Amazon culture.
