Heroes

Ten motifs frequently appear: (1) The hero usually has elements of the extraordinary linked to his birth and his childhood. (2) He inevitably (naguzer) faces opposition of one sort or another from the beginning, and as a result he must prove his inherent worth by surmounting (overcome) challenges of every kind. (3) His enemy or enemies usually instigate (brkany, uksany) his achievement. (4) he is helped by at least one ally(ithadi), divine or human.

• (5) He faces apparently insuperable(of a difficulty) obstacles, often labors that must be accomplished or a quest (lmby arsy ki talash) that must be completed.

• (6) Adventurous conflicts with divine, human, or monstrous opponents present him with physical, sexual, and spiritual challenges. (7) He may also have to observe taboos(mumanat)—he must not, for example, look back, eat of a forbidden fruit, or be too inquisitive(mtjasus).

• (8) Death itself is the ultimate(final) conquest, usually achieved by going to and returning from the Underworld.

• (9) The hero's success may be rewarded with marriage, political security, or wealth and power.

• (10) But knowledge through suffering and more lasting spiritual enlightenment (literal or symbolic)— entailingسفید انقالب) purification, rebirth, redemption(rhae), and even edification(traki)—are also part of a hero's attainment.

• Some heroes do not always act as heroes and reveal their

feet of clay, and all heroes, to be sure, do not live happily

ever after; a few of them are even undone by the heroines

with whom they are associated. Witness(gwah) the life and

humiliating demise(intqal) of Jason and the death of

Heracles, both excruciating(inthae tklef) and glorious at one

and the same time; Theseus too suffers a miserable end as

a dishonored exile.

•Heroines also provide motifs(bunyadi khyal) that are just as intriguing(dilchsp) and varied as those of the heroes. They usually are of royal or divine stature, are possessed of extraordinary beauty, wield(lgana) great power, and become the mothers of heroes.

• (1) The girl leaves home.

• (2) The girl is secluded(weran) beside a river, in a tower, in a forest, etc.).

• (3) She is made pregnant by a god.

• (4) She suffers punishment or rejection or a similar unpleasant consequence.

• (5) She is rescued, and her son is born.

• As the lover or the wife of a hero, a heroine can perform great feats

because of passionate devotion.

• Heroes can be destroyed by heroines through cleverness or

guile(fraib), for example:

• Medea

• Clytemnestra

• Helen of Troy

• Penelope

• Electryon, king of Mycenae, and his sons fought at Mycenae against the sons

of Pterelaus, king of the Teleboans (a people of western Greece). Only one

son from each family survived. The Teleboans then retreated(pichy htna) ,

taking with them Electryon's cattle. Electryon planned to attack the Teleboans

and made Amphitryon (son of his brother, Alcaeus) king in his place,

betrothing(mngni krna) him to his daughter Alcmene.

• Amphitryon recovered the stolen cattle by paying ransom(rhae dilana) to King

Elis, and while he was herding them, he threw his club(neza) at one of them

and accidentally killed Electryon. For his homicide(mrdam kashi), he was

exiled from Mycenae, while his uncle Sthenelus became king.

• Taking Alcmena, Amphitryon went to Thebes, where Creon purified him.

Alcmena, nevertheless, refused to lie with Amphitryon until he had

avenged the death of her brothers by punishing the Teleboans.3

Amphitryon's expedition was successful through the treachery(be

wafae) of Comaetho, daughter of the Teleboan king Pterelaus. Out of

love for Amphitryon she pulled from Pterelaus' head the golden hair that

guaranteed him immortality and made the Teleboans invincible(na kabil

e tskheer)

• . Thus Pterelaus died and Amphitryon was victorious. Amphitryon killed

Comaetho and returned to Thebes.

• Meanwhile, Zeus, taking advantage of Amphitryon’s absence,

impersonated him and, assuring Alcmene that her brothers were now

avenged—since Amphitryon had indeed gained the required victory

that very morning—lay with her all one night, to which he gave the

length of three because the procreation of so great a champion as

Zeus had in mind could not be accomplished in haste.

• On the next day, when Amphitryon returned, eloquent(bht zyada

bolny wala) of victory and of his passion for her, Alcmcne did not

welcome him and said “surely you do not expect me to listen twice to

the story of your exploits(fatuhat)?”

• Amphitryon, unable to understand these remarks, consulted the seer

Teiresias, who told him that Alcemene had been impregnated by

Zeus; and thereafter he never dared sleep with Alcmene again, for

fear of incurring divine jealousy.

• Nine months later, on Olympus, Zeus happened to boast that he had

fathered a son, now at the point of birth, who would be called

Heracles, which means ‘Glory of Hera’, and rule the noble House of

Perseus. Hera thereupon made him promise that any prince born

before nightfell to the House of Perseus should be High King.

• When Zeus swore(kasm khae the) an unbreakable oath(half) to this

effect, Hera went at once to Mycenae, where she hastened the pangs

of Nicippe, wife of King Sthenelus. She then hurried to Thebes, and

squatted cross-legged at Alcmene’s door, with her clothing tied into

knots, and her fingers locked together; by which means she delayed

the birth of Heracles, until Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus, a seven-

months child, already lay in his cradle.

• When Heracles appeared, one hour too late, he was found to have a

twin named Iphicles, Amphitryon’s son and the younger by a night. At

first, Heracles was called Alcaeus, or Palaemon.

• Though Zeus could not go back on his word and allow Heracles to rule

the House of Perseus, he persuaded Hera to agree that, after

performing whatever twelve labours Eurystheus might set him, his son

should become a god.

• Hera also sent a pair of snakes to kill the infant Heracles, whose birth

she had not been able to prevent.

• Thus Heracles survived. In his education he was taught chariot driving

by Amphitryon, wrestling by Autolycus, archery by Eurytus, and music

by Linus.

THE MADNESS OF HERACLES• Some time later, Hera brought about a fit of madness in which Heracles

killed Megara and her children. When he recovered his sanity, he left

Thebes and went first to Thespiae, where Thespius purified him, and

then to Delphi, where he sought further advice. Here the priestess of

Apollo called him Heracles for the first time (until then he had been

known as Alcides) and told him to go to Tiryns and there for twelve

years serve Eurystheus, performing the labors that he would impose. If

he did them, she said, he would become immortal.

THE TWELVE LABOURS• The Greek word for labors is athloi, which really means contests

undertaken for a prize. In Heracles' case the prize was immortality, and at

least three of his Labors are really conquests of death.6 Heracles did not

always perform the Labors unaided; sometimes Athena helped him,

sometimes his nephew, Iolaus. The first six Labors all take place in the

Peloponnese, the remaining six in different parts of the world. In these

Heracles has changed from a local hero into the benefactor of all

humankind. The list of the labors varies, but the twelve given are

traditional

1. The Nemean Lion

• Heracles was required to bring the skin of this beast to

Eurystheus. He killed it with a club that he had himself cut. The

lion was invulnerable(jisy zahm na lagy), and Heracles had to

strangle(gala goontna) it and then flay(skin utanarna) it by

using its own claws(panjy) to cut its hide. The club and lion skin

henceforth(aj k bad) were Heracles' weapon and clothing and

are his attributes(sifat) in art and literature.

2. The Lernaean Hydra • This serpent(izdaha) lived in the swamps(daldal) of Lerna, near Argos. It had

nine heads, of which eight were mortal and the ninth immortal. Each time

Heracles clubbed a head off, two grew in its place. The labor was made the

harder by a huge crab(kekra), which Hera sent to aid the Hydra. First Heracles

killed this monster, and then killed the Hydra, helped by his nephew, Iolaiis,

son of Iphicles. Each time he removed one of the heads, Iolaiis cauterized(dag

dena) the stump with a burning brand so that another could not grow.

Heracles buried the immortal head under a huge rock. He then dipped his

arrows in the Hydra's poison.

Iolaiis helping Heracles

3. The Cerynean Hind

• The hind had golden horns and was sacred to Artemis; it took

its name from Mt. Cerynea in Arcadia.7 It was harmless, nor

might it be harmed without incurring(mol lena) Artemis'

wrath(gussa). After pursuing(picha krna) it for a year Heracles

caught it by the river Ladon, and carried it back to Eurystheus.

On the way Artemis met him and claimed her sacred animal,

but she was appeased(mutmain) when Heracles laid the blame

on Eurystheus.

4. The Erymanthian Boar

• This destructive animal had to be brought back alive from Mt.

Erymanthus. Heracles chased the boar into deep snow and there

trapped it with nets.

• On his way to the chase, Heracles was entertained by the

centaur(do nasl) Pholus, who set before him a jar of wine that

belonged to all the centaurs in common. When it was opened,

the other centaurs, attracted by its fragrance, attacked Heracles,

who repelled(door hatana) and pursued them. Most of them

were scattered all over Greece.

5. The Augean Stables

• Augeas, son of Helius (the Sun) and king of Elis, owned vast herds of

cattle whose stables(astabl) had never been cleaned out. Heracles was

commanded by Eurystheus to perform the task, and successfully

achieved it within one day by diverting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus so

that they flowed through the stables. Augeas agreed to give Heracles

one-tenth of his herds as a reward, but refused to keep his promise and

expelled both Heracles and his own son Phyleus (who had taken

Heracles' part in the quarrel).

•After he had finished the Labors, Heracles returned to

Elis at the head of an army, took the city, and killed

Augeas, making Phyleus king in his place.

• It was after this expedition that Heracles was said to

have instituted the Olympic Games, the greatest of

Greek festivals, held every four years in honor of Zeus.

He marked out the stadium by pacing it out himself.

6. The Stymphalian Birds

• HERACLES’S Sixth Labour was to remove the countless brazen-beaked,

brazen-clawed, brazen-winged, man-eating birds, sacred to Ares which

killed men and beasts by discharging a shower of brazen feathers and at

the same time muting a poisonous excrement(fuzla), which blighted the

crops.

• On arrival at the marsh, which lay surrounded by dense woods, Heracles

found himself unable to drive away the birds with his arrows; they were

too numerous. Moreover, the marsh seemed neither solid enough to

support a man walking, nor liquid enough for the use of a boat.

• As Heracles paused(rok lena) irresolutely(mtlon mzaj) on the bank, Athena

gave him a pair of brazen castanets, made by Hephaestus; or it may have

been a rattle. Standing on a spur of Mount Cyllene, which overlooks the

marsh, Heracles clacked the castanets, or shook the rattle, raising such a

din that the birds soared up in one great flock, mad with terror. He shot

down scores of them as they flew off to the Isle of Ares in the Black Sea.

7. The Cretan Bull• EURYSTHEUS ordered Heracles, as his Seventh Labour, to capture the

Cretan Bull. When Heracles sailed to Crete, Minos offered him every

assistance in his power, but he preferred to capture the bull single-handed.

After a long struggle, he brought the monster across to Mycenae, where

Eurystheus, dedicating it to Hera, set it free. Hera however, loathing a gift

which redounded to Heracles’s glory, drove the bull first to Sparta, and

then back through Arcadia and across the Isthmus to Attic Marathon,

whence Theseus later dragged it to Athens as a sacrifice to Athene.

8. The Mares Of Diomedes• EURYSTHEUS ordered Heracles, as his Eighth Labour, to

capture the four savage mares of Thracian King Diomedes, that were fed human flesh.

•he overcame them by ingeniously cutting a channel which caused the sea to flood the low-lying plain; when they turned to run, he pursued them, stunned Diomedes with his club, dragged his body around the lake that had now formed, and set it before his own mares, which tore at the still living flesh. Their hunger being now fully assuaged, he mastered them without much trouble.

9. The Girdle of Hippolyta

• HERACLES’S Ninth Labour was to fetch for Eurystheus’s daughter Admete

the golden girdle of Ares worn by the Amazonian queen Hippolyte. Taking

one ship or, some say, nine, and a company of volunteers, among whom

were Iolaus, Telamon of Aegina, Peleus of Iolcus and, according to some

accounts, Theseus of Athens, Heracles set sail for the river Thermodon.

• The Amazons made their men perform all household tasks, while

the women fought and governed. The arms and legs of infant boys

were therefore broken to incapacitate them for war or travel.

These warrior women showed no regard for justice or decency, but

were famous warriors, being the first to employ cavalry(gur swar

foj). They carried brazen bows and short shields shaped like a half

moon; their helmets, clothes, and girdles were made from the

skins of wild beasts.

• Hippolyte paid Heracles a visit and, attracted by his muscular body,

offered him Ares’s girdle as a love gift. But Hera had meanwhile gone

about, disguised in Amazon dress, spreading a rumour that these

strangers planned to abduct Hippolyte; whereupon the incensed

warrior-women mounted their horses and charged down on the ship.

Heracles, suspecting treachery, killed Hippolyte off-hand, removed her

girdle, seized her axe and other weapons, and prepared to defend

himself. He killed each of the Amazon leaders in turn, putting their

army to flight after great slaughter.

10. The Cattle of Geryon

• HERACLES’s Tenth Labour was to fetch the famous cattle of

Geryon from Erytheia, an island near the Ocean stream,

without either demand or payment. Geryon, was the King of

Tartessus in Spain, and reputed the strongest man alive. He

had been born with three heads, six hands and three bodies

joined together at the waist. Geryon’s cattle, beasts of

marvellous beauty, were guarded by the herdsman Eurytion,

son of Ares, and by the two-headed watchdog Orthrus.

• Helius lent Heracles his golden goblet, shaped like a water-lily, in which

he sailed to Erytheia.

• On his arrival, he ascended Mount Abas. The dog Orthrus rushed at

him, barking, but Heracles’s club struck him lifeless; and Eurytion,

Geryon’s herdsman, hurrying to Orthrus’s aid, lied in the same manner.

• Challenged to battle, Heracles ran to Geryon’s flank and shot him

sideways through all three bodies with a single arrow; but some say

that he stood his ground and let loose a flight of three arrows.

1 1 . The Apples of the Hesperides

• The Eleventh Labour was to fetch fruit from the golden apple-tree,

Mother Earth’s wedding gift to Hera, with which she had been so

delighted that she planted it in her own divine garden. This garden lay

on the slopes of Mount Atlas.

• When Hera found, one day, that Atlas’s daughters, the Hesperides, to

whom she had entrusted the tree, were pilfering the apples, she set

the ever-watchful dragon Ladon to coil around the tree as its guardian.

• Heracles, not knowing in what direction the Garden of the Hesperides lay,

marched through Illyria to the river Po, the home of the oracular sea-god

Nereus. Some say, however, that Heracles went to Prometheus for this

information.

• Nereus had advised Heracles not to pluck the apples himself, but to employ

Atlas as his agent, meanwhile relieving him of his fantastic burden;

therefore, on arriving at the Garden of the Hesperides, he asked Atlas to do

him this favour. Atlas would have undertaken almost any task for the sake

of an hour’s respite, but he feared Ladon, whom Heracles thereupon killed

with an arrow shot over the garden wall.

• Heracles now bent his back to receive the weight of the celestial globe, and

Atlas walked away, returning presently with three apples plucked by his

daughters. He found the sense of freedom delicious. ‘I will take these apples

to Eurystheus myself without fail,’ he said, ‘if you hold up the heavens for a

few months longer.’ Heracles pretended to agree but, having been warned by

Nereus not to accept any such offer, begged Atlas to support the globe for

only one moment more, while he put a pad on his head. Atlas, easily

deceived, laid the apples on the ground and resumed his burden; whereupon

Heracles picked them up and went away with a farewell.

•After some months Heracles brought the apples to

Eurystheus, who handed them back to him; he then gave

them to Athene, and she returned them to the nymphs,

since it was unlawful that Hera’s property should pass from

their hands.

• This labor is a conquest of death. The apples are symbols of

immortality, and the tree in the garden of the Hesperides is

a kind of Tree of Life.

12. The Capture Of Cerberus• HERACLES’S last, and most difficult, Labour was to bring the dog

Cerberus up from Underworld.

• He was guided by Athene and Hermes—for whenever, exhausted by his

Labours, he cried out in despair to Zeus, Athene always came hastening

down to comfort him. Terrified by Heracles’s scowl, Charon fortied him

across the river Styx without demur; in punishment of which irregularity

he was lettered by Hades for one entire year.

• Near the gates of Tartarus, Heracles found his friends Theseus and

Peirithous fastened to cruel chairs, and wrenched Theseus free, but obliged

to leave Peirithous behind; next, he rolled away the stone under which

Demeter had imprisoned Ascalaphus; and then, wishing to gratify the

ghosts with a gift of warm blood, slaughtered one Hades’s cattle. Their

herdsman, Menoetes, or Menoetus, the son Ceuthonymus, challenged him

to a wrestling match, but was seized around the middle and had his ribs

crushed. At this, Persephone, who came out from her palace and greeted

Heracles like a brother, intervened and pleaded for Menoetes’s life.

• When Heracles demanded Cerberus, Hades, standing by his wife’s

side, replied grimly: ‘He is yours, if you can master him without

using your club or your arrows.’ Heracles found the dog chained to

the gate of Acheron, and resolutely gripped him by the throat—

from which rose three heads, each maned with serpents. The

barbed tail flew up strike, but Heracles, protected by the lion pelt,

did not relax his grip until Cerberus choked and yielded.

• Heracles brought Cerberus to Mycenae, Eurystheus, who was offering a

sacrifice, handed him a slave’s portion, reserving the best cuts for his own

kinsmen; and that Heracles showed his just resentment by killing three of

Eurystheus’s sons: Perimedes, Eurybius, and Eurypilus.

T H E DEATH OF HERACLES• Some time after the completion of the Labors, Heracles fulfilled the

promise he had made to the soul of Meleager, to marry his sister Deïanira, daughter of Oeneus, king of Calydon. To win her Heracles had to wrestle with the river-god Acheloiis, who was horned like a bull and had the power of changing himself into different shapes.

• In the struggle Heracles broke off one of Acheloiis' horns; and after his victory, he gave it back, receiving in return the miraculous horn of Amalthea, which could supply its owner with as much food and drink as he wished. Heracles returned with Deïanira to Tiryns. On the way the centaur Nessus carried Deïanira across the river Evenus. He attempted to violate her, but Heracles shot him with his bow.

• As he was dying he advised Deïanira to gather some of the blood that flowed from his wound, which had been caused by an arrow that had been dipped in the Hydra's poison. It would, he said, prevent Heracles from loving any other woman more than he loved Deïanira. She therefore kept the blood, and for a number of years she and Heracles lived at Tiryns, where she bore him children, including a son, Hyllus, and a daughter, Macaria.

• Deianira, meanwhile, was living in Trachis. She had not seen Heracles for fifteen months. Heracles killed Eurytus and sacked Oechalia on his way back from Asia, sending lole and the other captive women back to Trachis with Lichas. When she realized that Heracles loved lole, Deianira, hoping to win him back, dipped a robe in the blood of Nessus and sent it to Heracles by Lichas‘ hand for him to wear at his thanksgiving sacrifice to Zeus.

• As the flames of the sacrificial fire warmed the poisoned blood, the robe

clung to Heracles and burned him with unendurable torment. In his agony,

he hurled Lichas to his death in the sea and had himself carried back to

Trachis, where a huge funeral pyre was made for him upon Mt. Oeta.

Dei'anira killed herself with a sword when she realized what she had done.

• So the mortal part of Heracles was burned away and he gained immortality,

ascending to Olympus.

On Olympus, Zeus congratulated himself that his favourite son had

behaved so nobly. ‘Heracles’s immortal part’, he announced, ‘is safe from

death, and I shall soon welcome him to this blessed region.’

• Now, Zeus had destined Heracles as one of the Twelve Olympians.

Henceforth, Hera regarded Heracles as her son and loved him next only

to Zeus. All the immortals welcomed his arrival; and Hera married him

to her pretty daughter Hebe, who bore him Alexiares and Anicetus. And,

indeed, Heracles had earned Hera’s true gratitude in the revolt of the

Giants by killing Pronomus, when he tried to violate her.

Perseus

• Of the heroes of Argos, first in importance, is Perseus. His

grandfather Abas had twin sons, Proetus and Acrisius, who

quarreled even before their birth. Acrisius, who became king of

Argos itself while Proetus ruled Tiryns, had no sons and only

one daughter, Danaë; an oracle foretold that her son would kill

Acrisius. To keep her from having children, Acrisius shut Danaë

up in a brazen underground chamber in his palace, but Zeus

loved her and entered the chamber in the form of a shower of

gold and lay with her.

• Their child was Perseus, and Danaë kept him in the chamber for

four years, unknown to Acrisius, until he was discovered from

the noise he made while playing. Acrisius refused to believe

that Zeus was the child's father and put mother and child into a

chest which he set afloat on the sea. The chest floated to the

island of Seriphos, where the fisherman Dictys (whose name

means "net") found it and rescued Danaë and Perseus, giving

them shelter in his own home.

• Now Polydectes, brother of Dictys, was king of Seriphos, and as

Perseus grew to manhood, he fell in love with Danaë, who

refused him. He then summoned the leading men of the island

to a banquet at which each man had to present him with the

gift of a horse. Perseus boasted that he could just as easily give

Polydectes the Gorgon Medusa's head. Polydectes, eager to get

Perseus out of the way, took him at his word and ordered him

to perform the task.

Gorgons

• THE GORGONES (or Gorgons) were three powerful daemons named

Medousa (Medusa), Sthenno and Euryale. Of the three sisters only

Medousa was mortal. The Gorgon Medusa had serpents for hair,

huge teeth, protruding tongue, and altogether so ugly a face that all

who gazed at it were petrified with fright and turned to stone.

• Athene overheard the conversation at Seriphos and, being a sworn

enemy of Medusa’s, for whose frightful appearance she had herself

been responsible, accompanied Perseus on his adventure. First she led

him to the city of Deicterion in Samos, where images of all the three

Gorgons are displayed, thus enabling him to distinguish Medusa from

her immortal sisters Stheno and Euryale; then she warned him never to

look at Medusa directly, but only at her reflection, and presented him

with a brightly-polished shield.

•Hermes also helped Perseus, giving him an

adamantine sickle with which to cut off Medusa’s

head. Advised by Hermes, Perseus made his way to

the three daughters of Phorcys, sisters of the

Gorgons and old women from their birth.

• They alone could tell Perseus the way to some nymphs who

possessed certain magic objects he would need for his task, but

would part with their information only under stress. Among

them they had one eye and one tooth, which they passed to

one another in turn. Perseus got hold of these and gave them

back only when the Graeae had told him the way to the

nymphs. From the nymphs he received three objects: a Cap of

Invisibility, a pair of winged sandals, and a wallet or kibisis.

• Perseus now flew to the Gorgons, whose home was

somewhere on the edge of the world. They were asleep when

Perseus came; guided by Athena and looking only at the

Gorgon's reflection in his brazen shield he beheaded Medusa

and put the head in the kibisis. Perseus was able to fly away

from Medusa's sisters unharmed, since he was wearing the

Cap of Invisibility.

Andromeda• As he rounded the coast of Philistia to the north, he caught sight of a woman

chained to a sea-cliff, and instantly fell in love with her. This was Andromeda,

daughter of Cepheus, the Ethiopian King of Joppa, and Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia

had boasted that both she and her daughter were more beautiful than the

Nereids, who complained of this insult to their protector Poseidon. Poseidon

sent a flood and a female sea-monster to devastate Philistia; and when

Cepheus consulted the Oracle of Ammon, he was told that his only hope of

deliverance lay in sacrificing Andromeda to the monster.

• On condition that, if he rescued her, she should be his wife and

return to Greece with him, Perseus took to the air again, grasped

his sickle and, diving murderously from above, beheaded the

approaching monster, which was deceived by his shadow on the

sea. He had drawn the Gorgon’s head from the wallet, lest the

monster might look up, and now laid it face downwards on a

bed of leaves and sea-weed, while he cleansed his hands of

blood, raised three altars and sacrificed a calf, a cow, and a bull

to Hermes, Athene, and Zeus respectively.

•Perseus returned hurriedly to Seriphos, takingAndromeda with him, and found that Danaë and Dictys,threatened by the violence of Polydectes who, of course,never intended to marry Hippodameia, had taken refugein a temple. He therefore went straight to the palacewhere Polydectes was banqueting with his companions,and announced that he had brought the promised love-gift. Greeted by a storm of insults, he displayed theGorgon’s head, averting his own gaze as he did so, andturned them all to stone; the circle of boulders is stillshown in Seriphos. He then gave the head to Athene,who fixed it on her aegis; and Hermes returned thesandals, wallet, and helmet to the guardianship of theStygian nymphs.

• After raising Dictys to the throne of Seriphos, Perseus set sail

for Argos, accompanied by his mother, his wife, and a party of

Cyclopes. Acrisius, hearing of their approach, fled to Pelasgian

Larissa; but Perseus happened to be invited there for the

funeral games which King Teutamides was holding in honour of

his dead father, and competed in the five-fold contest. When it

came to the discus-throw, his discus, carried out of its path by

the wind and the will of the Gods, struck Acrisius’s foot and

killed him.

Theseus

• Aegeus, one of the kings of Athens, had two wives: Melite and

Chaicioppe, but was without any hier.

• He went to consult the oracle and the oracle told him “not to

open the wineskin’s mouth till he reaches home lest he shall die

of grief some day.” Aegeus could not understand the

proclamation of the oracle. On his way back home, he stayed

with his friend Pittheus, the king of Troezen. Aegeus shared the

proclamation of the oracle with Pittheus, who understood it at

once.

• At night he made Aegeus drunk and sleep with his daughter

Athera.

• Before leaving Troezen, Aegeus told Athera that if their child

were a boy she must bring him up without saying who his father

was. She was to send him to Athens when he was old enough to

lift a rock by himself, under which Aegeus would leave a sword

and a pair of sandals as tokens by which he could recognize his

son.

• Aethra gave birth to a boy. He was raised up in Troezen, where

his guardian Pittheus discreetly spread rumour that Poseidon

had been his father.

• One day Heracles, dining at Troezen with Pittheus, removed his

lion-skin and threw it over a stool. When the palace children

came in, they screamed and fled, all except seven-year-old

Theseus, who ran to take axe from the woodpile, and returned

boldly, prepared to attack a real lion.

• Aethra, leading him to the rock underneath which Aegeus had

hidden the sword and sandals, told story of his birth. He had no

difficulty in moving the rock, called the ‘Rock of Theseus’, and

recovered the tokens. Yet, at Pittheus’s warnings and his

mother’s entreaties, he would not visit Athens by the safe sea

route, but insisted on travelling over by foot, impelled by a

desire to emulate the feats of his cousin Heracles, whom he

greatly admired.

1. Periphetes

• THESEUS set out to free the bandit-ridden coast road which led from

Troezen to Athens. He would pick no quarrels but take vengeance on

all who dared to attack him, making the punishment fit the crime, as

was Heracles’s way. At Epidaurus, Periphetes the cripple waylaid

attacked him. Periphetes, whom some call Poseidon’s son, and

others the son of Hephaestus and Anticleia, owned a huge brazen

club, with which he used to kill wayfarers. Theseus wrenched the

club from his hands and battered him to death. Delighted with its

size and weight, he proudly carried it about ever afterwards

2. Sinis

• At Isthmus lived Sinis,, He had been nicknamed ‘pinebender’, because

he was strong enough to bend down the tops of pine-trees until they

touched the earth, and would often ask innocent passers-by to help

him with this task, but then suddenly release his hold. As the tree

sprang upright again, they were hurled high into the air, and killed by

the fall. Or he would bend down the tops of two neighbouring trees

until they met, and tie one of his victim’s arms to each, so that he was

torn asunder when the trees were released. Theseus wrestled with

Sinis, overpowered him, and served him as he had served others.

3. The Wild Sow (Boar)

•Next, at Crommyum, he hunted and destroyed a fierce

and monstrous wild sow, which had killed so many

farmers that they no longer dared plough their fields.

4. Sciron• Following the coast road, Theseus came to cliffs rushing

overlooking the sea, which had become a stronghold of the

bandit Sciron; Sciron used to seat himself upon a rock and force

passing travelers to wash his feet: when they stooped to the task

he would kick them over the cliff into the sea, where a giant

turtle swam about, waiting to devour them. Theseus, refusing to

wash Sciron’s feet, lifted him from the rock and flung him into

the sea.

5. Cercyon

• Continuing his journey to Athens, Theseus met Cercyon. He

would challenge passers-by to wrestle with him and then crush

them to death in his powerful embrace; but Theseus lifted him

up by the knees and, to the delight of Demeter, who witnessed

the struggle, dashed him headlong to the ground. Cercyon’s

death was instantaneous. Theseus did not trust to strength so

much as to skill, for he had invented the art of wrestling, the

principles of which were not hitherto understood.

6. Polypemon• On reaching Attic Coridallus, Theseus slew Sinis’s father

Polypemon, who lived beside the road and had two beds in his

house, one small, the other large, offering a night’s lodging to

travelers. He possessed a hammer, a saw, and a bed. He

compelled travelers to lie on the bed, and those who were too

long for it he would cut down to size; those who were too short

he would hammer out until they fit it exactly. He too perished at

Theseus' hands in the way in which he had killed his victims.

Theseus reaches Athens• Theseus' arrival was hedged with further danger. Aegeus was

married to Medea, who expected their son Medus to succeed asking of Athens. Medea immediately recognized Theseus asAegeus' son and a rival to Medus, and attempted to haveTheseus poisoned before Aegeus could recognize him. Sheadvised Aegeus that the newcomer would be a threat to hispower. He should entertain Theseus at a banquet where hewould drink poisoned wine, for which Medea would provide thepoison. Theseus at the banquet carved his meat with the swordthat he had recovered from under the rock at Troezen; Aegeusrecognized the sword, dashed the cup of poison out of Theseus'hand, and publicly recognized him as his son and successor.

The Bull of Marathon

• Theseus' next labor was to catch the bull of Marathon,

said to have been the one that Heracles had brought

from Crete. He mastered the bull and drove it back to

Athens, where he sacrificed it to Apollo.

The Minotaur

• Androgeos, son of the Cretan king Minos, had been killed in Attica

because of the jealousy he aroused by winning all the contests at

the Panathenaic games. In revenge Minos mounted an expedition

against Athens. In requital for the death of Androgeus, Minos gave

orders that the should send seven youths and seven maidens every

ninth year to the Cretan Labyrinth, where the Minotaur waited to

devour them.

• Theseus’s Athens the tribute fell due for the third time, and he

so deeply moved by the fathers whose children were indicated

by lot, that offered himself as one of the victims.

• On the two previous occasions, the ship which conveyed the

victims had carried black sails, but Theseus was confident that

the gods were on his side, and Aegeus therefore gave him a

white sail as a signal of success.

• The Delphic Oracle had advised Theseus to take Aphrodite as his

guide and companion on the voyage. He therefore sacrificed to

her a she goat.

• Aphrodite had indeed accompanied Theseus: for Minos’s own

daughter Ariadne fell in love with him at first sight. ‘I will help

you to kill my half-brother, the Minotaur,’ she secretly promised

him, ‘if I may return to Athens with you as your wife.’ This offer

Theseus gladly accepted, and married her.

• Now, before Daedalus left Crete, he had given her a magic ball of

thread, and instructed her how to enter and Labyrinth. She must

open the entrance door and tie the loose thread to the lintel; the

ball would then roll along, diminishing as it went and making,

with devious turns and twists, for the corners where the

Minotaur was lodged. This ball Ariadne gave to Theseus and

instructed him to follow it until he reached the sleeping monster,

whom he must seize by the hair and sacrifice to Poseidon. He

then can come back by rolling up the thread into a ball again.

•When Theseus emerged from the Labyrinth, spotted with

blood, Ariadne guided the whole Athenian group to the

harbour. For, in the meantime, the two companions of

Theseus had killed the guards of the women’s quarters,

and released the virgin victims. They all stole aboard

their ship.

• Some days later, after disembarking on the island then named Dia,

Theseus left Ariadne asleep on the beach and sailed away. Why he

did so must remain a mystery. Some say that he deserted her in

favour of a new mistress, Aegle, daughter of Panopeus; Others again

say that Dionysus, appearing to Theseus in a dream, threateningly

demanded Ariadne for himself, and that, when Theseus noticed

Dionysus’s fleet bearing down on Dia, he weighed anchor in sudden

terror; Dionysus having cast a spell which made him forget his

promise to Ariadne and even her very existence.

• Whether in grief for her loss, or in joy at the sight of the Attic

coast, from which he had been kept by prolonged winds, he

forgot his promise to hoist the white sail. Aegeus, who stood

watching for him on the Acropolis, swooned, and fell headlong

to his death into the valley below. But some say that he

deliberately cast himself into the sea, which was thenceforth

named the Aegean. So Theseus became king of Athens.

• Theseus & Amazons