Theseus
Theseus slays Minotaur
Theseus was a distinctively Athenian hero, but his early life followed a common pattern: an unusual birth, the return to a home from which he had been separated at an early age, exploits against monsters to prove his manhood, and subsequent kingship. Theseus' father was Aegeus, king of Athens, although in many accounts his paternity is attributed to Poseidon. Aegeus was childless and went on a journay to Delphi to consult the oracle, which warned him not to "undo the wineskin's mouth" until he got home, or one day he would die of grief. But on the way back to Athens he visited King Pittheus of Troezen, who got Aegeus drunk and gave him his daughter Aethre to sleep with. She became pregnant, and when Aegeus left Troezen, he old Aethra that if the child was a boy he was to come to Athens as soon as he could life a particular rock, under which Aegeus had left a sword and a pair of sandals as tokens of recognition. The child was Theseus, who as a young man was told of his true origins by Aethra. He retrieved the sword and sandals and set out for Athens.
On the way he tested his mettle by defeating a string of monsters and brigands. near Corinth, for example, he slew Sinis, known as Pityocamptes ("pine-bender"), who would strap travellers between two bent-over pine trees and then let them go, tearing he unfortunate victims in two. At Megaris he met Sciron, who made travelers wash his feet and while they knelt would kick them into the sea to be eaten by a huge turtle. Theseus hurled him over a cliff. At Eleusis he defeated Cercyon, who forced travelers to wrestle him to the death. Between Eleusis and Athens the hero killed Procrustes, who fitted all travelers to the same bed: those who were too long he chopped down to size, while those who were too short he would stretch to the right length. Finally, Theseus arrived at his father's city, where the corceress Medea tried to poison him. The attempt was thwarted when Aegeus recognized the sword and sandals and greeted his heir. Theseus' first exploit in his father's service was to capture a bull which was terrorizing the area around Marathon in Aftica.
The children were to be fed to the Minotaur, a monstrous hybrid of man and bull which Minos kept in the Labyrinth, an underground maze built by Daedalus. But Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with Theseus and gave him a ball of twine, by means of which he could enter the Labyrinth and retrace his footsteps out again. Guided by the monster's distant bellowing, Theseus followed the children into the dark maze, reaching them just as the terrifying creature was about to slaughter them. He grappled with the beast and beat it to death before leading the children out of the Labyrinth to where Ariadne was waiting. They all set sail for Greece, but on the way Theseus abandoned Ariadne. He returned to Athens in triumph, but forgot the instructions of his faher, who had told him to set a white sail if all was well or a black sail if disaster had befalled his mission. Theseus accidently sailed home with a black sail causing his father to kill himself in grief.
After his return from Crete, Theseus fought with Herakles against the Amazons. As his share of the spoils he received an Amazon warrior, Antiope, by whom he fathered Hippolytus. The Amazons later invaded Attica, but Theseus defeated them again. This victory was depicted in mcuh Athenian art of the 5th century BC, most notable on the Parthenon. Theseus' next campaign began when he attended the wedding Preithous, king of the Lapiths in Thrace. Centaurs attacked the nuptual feast, and Theseus helped fight them off in a battle also depicted on the Parthenon.
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