Introduction
Theseus is a legendary king of Athens, one of the great heroes of Greek myth, traditionally said to have two fathers, conceived the same night by both the mortal King Aegeus of Athens and the god Poseidon, a device found elsewhere in Greek myth (as with Heracles and Iphicles) to give a hero both a divine and a mortal claim to greatness.
This figure marks the point where the genealogy of the gods gives way to the genealogy of heroes. A fuller account of their adventures belongs to a separate treatment of the Greek Heroic Cycle; this article covers their divine parentage and place in that transition.
Family
- Father: Poseidon
- Siblings: Triton, Orion, Pegasus, Chrysaor, Polyphemus
The Minotaur
Theseus's best-known adventure is his voyage to Crete as one of the periodic tribute of Athenian youths sent to be devoured by the Minotaur, the bull-headed monster confined within King Minos's labyrinth. With the help of Minos's daughter Ariadne, who gave him a ball of thread to mark his path through the maze, Theseus killed the Minotaur and found his way back out.
Return and further deeds
Sailing home, Theseus forgot to change his ship's black sails for white ones as a signal of his survival, a mistake that led his father Aegeus, watching from a cliff and believing his son dead, to throw himself into the sea, which was afterward named the Aegean in his memory. Theseus went on to become king of Athens, and is credited in tradition with unifying Attica under Athenian rule (synoikismos), as well as with numerous other adventures, including joining the Argonauts and fighting the Amazons, whose queen Hippolyta (or Antiope) he married. His fuller labours and adventures belong to the wider Heroic Cycle.