Theseus

=Theseus=


 * Great Hero known for his exploits especially slaying the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull monster
 * United the Attic Peninsula under Athens
 * Was a good king--he had good moral character

==

=Role in Oedipus Rex= Theseus protected the exiled and aged [|Oedipus] and his daughters at Colonus from men sent by Creon, regent of Thebes and Oedipus' uncle. Theseus comforted the aged king until he died. At his death, Theseus escorted Oedipus' daughter safely back to Thebes.

=Origin= A certain King Aegeus of Athens comes along to the city of Troezen and gets intoxicated care of his pal, King Pittheus. As a result, Aegeus made love with Pittheus's daughter, Aethra. Unfortunately, Aethra also received the distinction of being one of Poseidon's many mistresses that same day. Aegeus didn't know about this, and he just told Aethra to raise the child without telling it who it's father is. There were no worries on Aethra's part as well; it was probably an honor, being done in by Poseidon and his Trident.

Before Aegeus left for his hometown, though, he buried a sword and a pair of sandals under a huge rock and told Aethra that if ever the child was male, to send him to Athens if he could push the rock away and obtain the items.

The end product of the combined libido of a god and a mortal king was Theseus. He was certainly no slouch, however, being part god, and he was able to fulfill the task of moving the boulder aside. Adventure calls, as Theseus left for Athens with the sword and sandals. =A Few of his Early Exploits=

Theseus was one of the prominent heroes of Greek mythology, being of the same caliber as his cousin Heracles and others like Jason and Perseus. He had many, many exploits to drive home the point. Those exploits and his feats of pure manliness are the reason's why he's notable. On his way to Athens, he defeated six bandits who caused much trouble to unfortunate wayfarers.

Destruction in chronological order:


 * 1) Periphytes or "Corynetes" aka "Club Man", was a ruffian whose weapon of choice was a bronze-tipped bludgeon. Theseus beat him down, possibly with his own club, and took it for himself.
 * 2) Sinis, who executed his victims by bounding them to bent pine trees, which latter snapped back upright, ripping them apart. Theseus defeated him and killed him in the same manner.
 * 3) Then there was the Crommyonian Sow, a huge, fierce wild boar. Some accounts even say that the Hogzilla was actually an extremely savage and brutal woman robber who just earned the moniker. When Theseus came into her territory, he had the balls to wait for the pig and kill the beast instead of just moving on.
 * 4) A man named Sciron would first command his victims wash their feet and then kick them down a cliff into the sea below to be devoured by a man-eating turtle. Simply put, he was kicked into the sea.
 * 5) Cercyon was a strongman who would challenge passers-by to a wrestling match and then slay them after defeating them. Theseus beat him in his own game and killed him afterwards.
 * 6) He later found Procrustes, whose name means "He who stretches". He invited guests to his house, tricked them to lie down on a special bed that always fits, but only because he either stretched the vertically challenged or severed the legs of the taller visitors who didn't fit the bed, killing them. Theseus killed him in the same fashion.

When he finally arrived at Athens, he was regarded as a hero for defeating the aforementioned villains. Theseus didn't reveal his true identity to King Aegeus yet but he gave him hospitality. Medea, Aegeus's wife, thought that Theseus could dash her hopes of her son Medus becoming the king of Athens. She tried to have him killed by letting him capture the Marathonian Bull, but her plan failed right there because Theseus succeeded in the task.

She then persuaded Aegeus to serve Theseus poisoned wine, but when Theseus revealed his sword, King Aegeus discovered his identity and dashed the cup from Theseus's hands. That sword was the one King Aegeus left behind for his son to find. After this chain of events, Medea escaped.

These feats of badassery are just the beginning, however. His real claim to fame, slaying the Minotaur, starts here.

=Minotaur=

King Minos of Crete's son Androgeus, is killed while in the safekeeping of the Athenians. Infuriated, he then wages war against the city of Athens and wins because of Crete's powerful navy. The Athenians are commanded to give up seven fine young men and maidens as sacrifice to the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monstrosity every nine years. Theseus, being sympathetic to the victims of the oppressive policy of King Minos, he volunteered to be one of the seven men to be sent to Crete.

After Minos rapes one of the maidens, Theseus is understandably very pissed off. He challenges King Minos and boasts that he is the child of the god Poseidon. King Minos didn't believe this, so he asked Theseus to prove this point by throwing his ring into the sea and tasking him to retrieve it. Theseus obliged, and he returned from the sea with not only the ring, but with a jeweled crown with some help from the Nereids, Poseidon's servants.

Theseus also managed to get help in the form of Ariadne, a young woman of Crete, who fell in love with him. Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of yarn to be unrolled in the Labyrinth, the hellish maze constructed by master craftsmen Daedalus and Icarus where the Minotaur resides. The ball of yarn would prevent him from losing his way inside the Labyrinth.

In the end, Theseus proved himself a badass yet again by using a pathetic ball of yarn as a guide and a shortsword to conquer the Minotaur.

=Uniting The Attic Peninsula=

After the suicide of King Aegeus, who mistakenly thought that Theseus was killed by the Minotaur when he actually prevailed, Theseus crushes an assassination attempt on him by Pallas, a brother of Aegeus. After he got wind of the plot, he ambushes the ambush party meant for him and kills the assailants. ==

He then rounded up all the inhabitants of the Attic Peninsula into Athens and made it the seat of government. He promised the end of monarchy and the institution of a democracy. The vast majority obliged. Those who had any doubts feared Theseus (and rightly so), and as a result, they complied with his demands. He even invited foreigners to the city to live there, and they enjoyed the same privileges as the natives.

=Theseus's Paradox=

Paradox
 * 2 a** **:** a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true **b** **:** a self-contradictory statement that at first seems true **c** **:** an argument that apparently derives self-contradictory conclusions by valid deduction from acceptable premises


 * A paradox wherein the nature of identity is examined
 * A recurring theme in many situations since the Greek days
 * Has many variations (see links)

According to Greek Legend, Theseus was a sailor who owned a ship that had thirty oars. When Theseus died, it was put up for public display. This didn't stop its wooden boards from rotting, so they were all eventually replaced. The question now would be: "Is this new, refurbished ship still the same as the exact or the original Theseus's ship?"

This paradox even appears in the Wizard of Oz. The Tin Man's body parts are all metal replacements of his original ones. Is he still the same person if all his original parts are gone? Later on in the book, his body parts are glued back onto him. Now, which is the "real" him, the tin version, or the body-part version?

=Sources=

Theseus and other Miscellaneous info

http://www.in2greece.com/english/index.htm http://www.pantheon.org/ http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Theseus.html http://www.mythweb.com/heroes/theseus/ http://www.e-classics.com/theseus.htm http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/theseus.html

Minotaur

http://www.theoi.com/Ther/Minotauros.html http://www.wikipedia.org/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrZ1clEp-Y

Attic Peninsula http://www.wikipedia.org/

Theseus's Paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus http://www.lisashea.com/lisabase/philosophy/art2832.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m78TLVj9XY8

Image Credits

1. Family Tree (original context) http://www.ninomiya.org/mefriends/theseus.html

2. Attic Peninsula http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Attica_map.jpg

Role in the Epic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_at_Colonus http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/theseus.html