Greek Mythology

Thesus

Meeting Aegeus and his evil wife

When Theseus finally arrived to Athens, he decided not reveal his true identity right away. Aegeus gave him hospitality, but was curious and suspicious of the newcomer. But the king's wife and queen Medea, who was also an evil sorceress, recognised him immediately and feared that Theseus would be chosen as heir of the kingdom of Athens. Medea previously fled to Athens from Corinth, after taking revenge on Jason, by killing their own three sons. She soon arranged a task which would see Theseus get killed. She sent him on a task to capture the Marathonian bull. On the way to Marathon, Theseus was offered a shelter from a storm in the lodge of an old woman called Hecale. She swore to sacrifice the bull to Zeus, if he was successful in capturing it. Theseus managed to capture the animal, but when he returned to the lodge, Hecale was already dead. In her honor, Theseus named one of the regions in Attica after her. When Theseus brought the bull before king and sacrificed him before everyone, evil sorceress wanted to poison him, offering him a wine. But Aegeus, king of Athens, finally recognised sandals and sword and in a heat of moment, when tried to embrace his son, he knocked off the poisonous cup. With much joy and celebration, Aegeus named Theseus his son and successor before everyone. Medea was said to had fled to Aisa, upon losing her chance for getting the heritage of Athens.

Slaying the Minotaur

Becoming the rightful heir of Athens, did not stop Theseus from continue having adventures. Soon the time had come for Theseus to learn and face that Athens will have to send seven most courageous men and seven beautiful maidens to Crete to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, the half man and half bull monster. The reason behind this was murder of Androgens, the younger son of the Cretan king, by the Athenians. King Aegeus was facing incoming war with the Cretans, if he was not to deliver the assassins of Androgens. However, the king, not knowing who the assassins were, had surrendered the Athens to the Cretans. The Cretan king Minos then demanded for seven youth warriors and seven maidens to be sacrificed and sent to Crete every seventh year. Theseus volunteered for going to Crete, despite his father's objections. He assembled the rest of youths and promised his father that they will be sailing with white flags instead of black ones, if they were going to be successful in slaying the beast. Before they set sail, Theseus visited the oracle of Delphi who instructed him to make Aphrodite his patroness, if he wanted to be successful.ball of thread for theseus Theseus obeyed and made sacrificial ceremony to Aphrodite, just before departure. When they had come to Crete, Aphrodite immediately repaid the hero by casting a spell on Ariadne, the daughter of king Minos, who fell in love with Theseus. She then gave him a sharp sword to slay the minotaur and on the advise of Daedalus, she also gave him a ball of thread with the intention to find a way back from the treacherous labyrinth. Theseus had promised to Ariadne that, if he came alive from the labyrinth, he would take her with him back to Athens. When Theseus and his companions entered the labyrinth, Theseus bound one end of the ball of string to the door post and grabbed his sword that he had kept hidden inside his tunic. Theseus followed the instructions of Ariadne, given by Daedalus, to go forwards, always down and never left or right. Theseus after a while came to the heart of the Labyrinth and upon the sleeping Minotaur. The beast felt presence and awoke to confront the hero. Tremendous fight then occurred, in which Theseus overpowered the Minotaur with his cleverness and strength and stabbed the beast in the throat with his sword. After decapitating the beast, they returned out of the labyrinth and to the shore, where Ariadne and ship was waiting to set course, before Minos could find out that they had killed his beast and escaped. They stopped in Naxos to rest, when Theseus had a dream in which Dionysus approached him and told him to let Ariadne go, because fates had other plans for her. The god of wine might had done that, because he wanted her for himself. Later she got married with Dionysus and they had many children. Anyway, when Theseus in the morning set sail with the youths of Athens, he left Ariadne behind. The story tells that when she woke up and found out that she had been left behind, she cursed Theseus and the crew and therefore they forgot to change their flag. When they finally approached Athens, Aegeus was standing on the cliff, where he used to come and wait for Theseus. The king saw the black flag and thought his son was dead. In agony, he committed suicide by jumping from the cliff into the waters below and drowned. The Athenians named the Aegean sea after their king and the name is still there to this day.

Becoming King of Athens

As the only eligible heir, Theseus soon became king of Athens. He won the endorsement and admiration of the citizens of Athens who saw in him as wise and far-sighted ruler, as well as fearless and brave warrior. Theseus unified the diverse Attic communities into one powerful centrally-administered state. Commerce and agriculture flourished and Athens became an important maritime port, as Theseus rightfully believed that the sea would give power to Athens. He also established the Isthmian Games to commemorate the tasks which he had performed during his journey from Troezen to Athens and inaugurated many new festivals, including the Panathenaic festivals, dedicated to goddess Athena, the protector of the city.

Having a new family

Theseus then after a while joined Heracles on the quest to bring back Hippolyta's girdle. The amazons were about to give it over peacefully, when Hera sparked the fight where many amazons got killed and the queen Hippolyta got kidnapped by Theseus who claimed her for his bride. She eventually bore him a son and gave him name Hippolytus.hippolytus son of theseus However, Theseus after a while fell in love with another woman, called Phaedra and soon married her. The issues began, when Hippolytus was in early twenties and decided to favour and show all his devotion to Artemis instead of Aphrodite. The goddess of love got angry and made Theseus' wife Phaedra to deeply fell in love with her step son Hippolytus. When Hippolytus scornfully rejected the advances of his mother-in-law, Phaedra committed suicide from her despair. But before she died, she wrote a letter stating that Hippolytus had raped her. Enraged Theseus turned to his father Poseidon in a prayer, asking the god to punish Hippolytus. Poseidon answered and sent a monster that frightened the horses drawing the chariot of Hippolytus. The horses went mad, overturning the chariot and dragging along the youth who had been trapped in the reins. Meanwhile, Artemis told Theseus the truth about what happened and the king rushed after his boy and found him badly injured. The poor Hippolytus expired in the arms of his father.

Tragic end of Theseus

Theseus fell in deep grief because of this incident and started to losing control and reliability which led to losing popularity among the citizens of Athens. His former heroic acts and deeds were blurring away and soon rebellions began to surface all around against his rule. Theseus gave away his right for throne and fled to the island of Skyros, where king Lycomedes allegedly threw him off the cliffs into the sea, because he was afraid of Theseus' attempt to overthrow him. And this was the tragic end of one of the most famous Greek heroes who died upon landing into the sea.