Mighty Deeds of Theseus, First King of Athens, in Plutarch’s Lives

Today we will learn and reflect on the history and legends of the first
King of Athens, the king who started to unite the small settlements in
the mountains and coasts of the Attica region into a city-state.
The primary source is Plutarch’s Lives of Noble Greeks and Romans,
and he discovered there were far more legends than history about
Theseus. Plutarch seeks to draw out moral stories from his
biographies, but when little history is remembered about this ancient
king, many of the legends have no moral purpose, and many have
multiple versions. So, we will draw what moral lessons we can, but
otherwise let us simply enjoy the fanciful stories.

At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this video.
Please feel free to follow along our PowerPoint script posted to
SlideShare. Please, we welcome interesting questions in the comments.
Let us learn and reflect together!

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Plutarch wrote his Lives of Noble Greeks and Romans
in pairs. He starts with tales of the founders of
Athens and Rome, Theseus and Romulus. Plutarch
says both built mighty cities, Athens and Rome, both
are warriors sprung from the gods, “both stand
charged with the rape of women, neither could avoid
domestic misfortunes nor jealousy at home.”

Plutarch passes down us what he finds, and he found mostly stories of
our hero Theseus performing mighty deeds. So, the story goes, like father
like son, his father, King Aegeus was travelling in the Peloponnese, where
Sparta would later flourish, and he is given the daughter of his
grandfather, Aethra, to lay with.
(REPEAT) King Aegeus, knowing that Aethra was pregnant, left for his
future son Theseus “a sword and a pair of sandals, hiding them under a
great stone that had a hollow in it exactly fitting the tokens; and went
away,” sharing this secret only with Aethra, commanding her, if she bore
a son, when he became a man, that if he succeeding in lifting the stone,
“she should send him away to Athens with the sword and sandals in
secrecy, concealing his identity.”

Theseus and Aethra, by Laurent de La Hyre, 1636 Theseus discovering his Father's
Sword, by Antonio Balestra, 1700’s
King Aegeus, knowing
that Aethra was
pregnant, left for his
future son Theseus “a
sword and a pair of
sandals, hiding them
under a great stone
that had a hollow in it
exactly fitting the
tokens; and went
away,” sharing this
secret only with Aethra,
commanding her, if she
bore a son, when he
became a man, that if
he succeeding in lifting
the stone, “she should
send him away to
Athens with the sword
and sandals in secrecy,
concealing his identity.”

Theseus has superhuman strength, though he is not a demigod like
Hercules. Once he matures, his mother reveals his royal birth and tells
him about the mighty stone. So, Theseus lifts this mighty stone hiding
his royal tokens like it was a mere rock, and he decides to travel to
Athens, sword and sandals in hand, to claim his birthright. Rather than
sail safely to Athens, he decided to rather take the hero’s journey by
land, so he could battle the bandits and wild beasts he encountered on
his journey. One beast he slays is the massive Crommyonian sow.
One bandit he encountered was Sinnis, Bender of Pines, and he was
slain with his favorite method of slaying, by bending trees, tying Sinnis
to the trees, then splitting him apart.

Theseus and the Crommyonian Sow, with Phaea, circa 430 BC
Theseus then sought
out the bandit’s
terrified daughter,
Perigune, and this is
how Plutarch describes
the courtship:
“But Theseus calling
upon her and giving her
his promise that he
would use her with
respect, and offer her
no injury, she came
forth, and in due time
bore him a son, named
Melanippus.”

Once our hero Theseus kindly raped her gently, he soon departs,
seeking new adventures, as heroes are apt to do. He pushes off
a cliff a bandit who pushes people off cliffs, and he resizes
another bandit offers his hospitality to travelers, but who
violates xenia, instead who cuts off their feet so they fit in his
undersize bed. This violation of xenia, or hospitality, is also a
major theme in the Odyssey.

And, of course, he has a total of seven trials to overcome on his hero’s
journey to Athens. (REPEAT) After slaying more bandits and wild beasts,
Theseus arrives at Athens where his long-lost father recognizes him from
his sword and sandals. They owed Minos, the King of Crete, who had
defeated them previously, every nine years a ransom of seven young men
and seven virgins to be fed to the Minotaur, a ferocious half-man, half-
bull beast, a half man with the head of a bull, who lived in the maze
below the palace. As an aside, when archeologists have excavated the
Mycenean palaces, they often find a maze underneath the throne room.
The young men and virgins of Athens drew lots, but Theseus volunteered
without drawing a lot, and all Athens “were struck with admiration for
the nobleness and with love for the goodness of the act.”

Theseus Recognized
by his Father,
by Hippolyte
Flandrin, circa 1832

Athenians Delivered to the Minotaur in the Cretan Labyrinth,
by Gustave Moreau, circa 1855
After slaying more bandits and
wild beasts, Theseus arrives at
Athens where his long-lost
father recognizes him from his
sword and sandals. They owed
Minos, the King of Crete, every
nine years a ransom of seven
young men and seven virgins
to be fed to the Minotaur, a
ferocious half-man, half-bull
beast, a half man with the
head of a bull, who lived in the
maze below the palace. The
young men and virgins of
Athens drew lots, but Theseus
volunteered without drawing a
lot, and all Athens “were
struck with admiration for the
nobleness and with love for
the goodness of the act.”

Ariadne and Theseus, by Jean Baptiste Regnault, late 1700’s Plutarch does not tell us
how the daughter of the
King of Crete falls in love
with Theseus, evidently
princesses just cannot
resist this hunk of a hero,
and Theseus, having
arrived at Crete, “having a
thread given him by
Ariadne, who had fallen in
love with him, and being
instructed by her how to
use it so as to conduct
himself through the
windings of the
labyrinth.”

Theseus Slaying
the Minotaur
“Theseus escaped
out of it and slew
the Minotaur,
and sailed back,
taking along with
him Ariadne and
the young
Athenian captives.”

Ariadne betrayed her father, King Minos, and Plutarch tells various
versions of the story to explain how Ariadne fared on the voyage to
Athens. Plutarch says in some versions of the story, he simple abandons
Ariadne for another princess sometime later.

Theseus and
Ariadne,
circa 1540

Ariadne
Abandoned by
Theseus,
by Angelica
Kauffmann,
circa 1774

In another version, on the way to Attica, his ship is driven to Naxos on
Cyprus, and since Ariadne, big with child and sick from the rolling of the
ship, is let down on land. But quickly a violent wind launches the ship
back out to sea. But never fear, Ariadne falls in love with the god
Dionysus, aka Bacchus. Theseus forgets to change the black sail to a white
sail, the signal for success, when he sails into Athens. His father, King
Aegeus, thinking his son has perished, jumps off a cliff into the sea, which
now takes on the name, the Aegean Sea.

Bacchus and Ariadne, by Titian,
circa 1523
Theseus, whose ship is shown in
the distance, has just left
Ariadne on Naxos, when
Bacchus arrives, jumping from
his chariot drawn by two
cheetahs, falling immediately in
love with Ariadne. Bacchus
raised her to heaven. The
constellation Corona Borealis,
Bacchus's crowning gift to her, is
shown in the sky above her
head.

Was Theseus only a hero and a playboy? Those are most of the stories passed down
to Plutarch, but he does say that after the death of his father,
(REPEAT) Theseus is crowned King of Attica, and that “he dissolved all the distinct
state-houses, council halls, and magistracies, and built one common state-house
and council hall,” “and gave the name of Athens to the whole state, ordaining a
common feast and sacrifice,” and setting up a commonwealth.
From the beginning Athens welcomed strangers, a custom started by Theseus,
inviting them to “enjoy equal privileges with the natives,” proclaiming, “Come
hither, all ye people.”
Theseus was the first to divide the Commonwealth into three distinct ranks,
noblemen, husbandmen, and artificers,” or magistrates. He also coined money and
instituted the Olympic games. Then Plutarch transitions into more adventures,
giving us two pages describing his administration of Athens, and twenty-two pages
of swashbuckling adventures.

Theseus victor of the Minotaur, Charles-Édouard Chaise, circa 1791 After the death of his father,
Theseus is crowned King of
Attica, and that “he dissolved all
the distinct state-houses, council
halls, and magistracies, and built
one common state-house and
council hall,” “and gave the
name of Athens to the whole
state, ordaining a common feast
and sacrifice,” and setting up a
commonwealth.
From the beginning Athens
welcomed strangers, a custom
started by Theseus, inviting
them to “enjoy equal privileges
with the natives,” proclaiming,
“Come hither, all ye people.”

One of the last tales is when Theseus and his best friend abduct
the underage princess Helena, one tale is he takes her to his
mother to raise until she is old enough, but the myths are sure to
emphasize he does not touch her until she is of age. And so the
stories go, with no sense of shame, until he is in his fifties, and is
either thrown off a cliff by an enemy, or he loses his footing and
falls of the cliff, and so his life ends.

Theseus and
Pirithous
abducting Helena,
by Pelagio Palagi,.
1800’s

Anonymous sculptor; Theseus Slaying Minotaur (1843), by Antoine-Louis Barye
One moral is that often
ancient historians have
more story than history
to work with, as Plutarch
despairs in the opening
chapter: When you go
too far back, “there is
nothing but prodigies
and fictions, poets and
inventors of fables.”
Plutarch hopes he will
“meet with candid
readers who will receive
with indulgence the
stories of antiquity.”

Perhaps that there are no morals in story of a warrior king, who insists on
wandering about all his life looking for adventures and women to kidnap, confirming
that in a warrior culture the women are not really safe, nobody is really safe, and
everyone is forced to be a warrior to survive. This warrior culture is both a theme
and a cultural backdrop in both ancient Greece and its epic poem, the Iliad, which is
story of a squabble between warriors over concubines.

DISCUSSING THE SOURCES
Plutarch’s Lives of Noble Greeks in Romans is our major source, he is a
delight to read and is one of the most reliable historians and biographers.
The Robin Waterfield translations are easier to read, but this collection
only has a few of the Lives and not Theseus, the Dryden translation for
this more complete paperback collection is still readable.
Although Plutarch wrote his histories in the second century AD, many
centuries later, he has access to sources that have since been lost to
history, possibly in part because of the excellence of his works. The chief
manuscripts date from the 10th and 11th centuries, neither Dr Wikipedia
nor our translators say more about the manuscript tradition, but since
Plutarch’s Lives have all survived, there were likely many manuscripts.

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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