Theseus

The road to Athens

Theseus was raised in Troezen by his mother Aethra. When he was strong enough to lift a heavy rock, he found the sword and sandals his father, King Aegeus of Athens, had left beneath it. Choosing the dangerous land route to Athens, he defeated a series of murderous bandits along the way, giving each the same death he had dealt to travellers. Procrustes, who stretched or cut his guests to fit his bed, was made to fit it himself.

The Minotaur

Athens was then forced to send seven young men and seven young women to Crete every nine years to be devoured by the Minotaur, a monster half man and half bull, kept in the Labyrinth built by Daedalus. Theseus volunteered to go. King Minos’ daughter Ariadne fell in love with him and gave him a ball of thread, which he unwound as he entered the maze. He killed the Minotaur and followed the thread back out.

A tragic homecoming

Theseus sailed away with Ariadne but left her on the island of Naxos. He had promised his father to change his ship’s black sail for a white one if he survived, but he forgot. Seeing the black sail from the cliffs, Aegeus threw himself into the sea that still bears his name. As king, Theseus brought the scattered villages of Attica together as one state with Athens at its centre.