Background Information
Theseus was the founder and king of Athens. He was the son of King Aegeus and Poseidon who loved him very much. However, abiding by a pact he had made with King Minos of Crete he handed over 7 Athenian boys and girls as sacrifices. Theseus volunteered and promised to return. Using a ball of string he navigated the labyrinth and slayed the minotaur. He then returned to Athens with the other sacrifices but forgot to put up the white sails to signify he had survived. His father having seen the black sails committed suicide on the spot.
Theseus's FIRST ENCOUNTER
Before this happened Theseus first had to make the journey to Athens. Many years prior King Aegeus had an affair with Aethra. Aethra gave birth to Theseus with the help of Athena and Poseidon. Aegeus soon returned to Athens but left his sandals and sword under a rock saying that if his son was brave enough he would return to Athens one day with the artifacts. On his way back he faced multiple challenges known as “The Six Labors”. In these challenges he battled various bandits from the entrances of the underworld.
THE CHALLENGES
- His first challenge was at Epidaurus where Theseus battled chthonic thief, Periphetes, the Club Bearer and beat with his own club. He asked to check if the club was really bronze and then bashed the cyclopes.
- At Isthmus he met Sinis a robber of the underworld. Sinis tied his victims to trees and stretched them apart after a fierce battle Theseus killed him using Sinis’s own method.
- In another deed north of the Isthmus, at a place called Crommyon, he killed a man-eating pig.
- At Megara,there was an elderly robber named Sciron who led passersby on a narrow path and then pushed them off a cliff. Theseus tricked him and instead pushed him off
- His fifth challenge was Cercyon. At the entrance of the underworld he wrestled and killed the evil king.
- His final challenge was Procrustes the Stretcher, who severed or elongated. the limbs of passerbys to make them fit into his abnormally sized beds.
The Challenges Fully Described (0-5:00)
https://youtu.be/0qGovjC51yg
THE SECOND (LESS SUCCESsFUL) JOURNEY
Theseus and his friend Pirithous set a goal to marry the daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose Helen while Pirithous chose Persephone the daughter of Demeter, who was held in the underworld with Pluto. Going along with Theseus in the kingdom of the dead to capture Persephone, Pluto pretended to welcome them and had them sit on a stone. This magical stone did not allow the two men to move Then snakes sprang and wrapped themselves around them and held them prisoners. The friends were trapped. Later, Theseus be rescued by the help of Hercules on his own journey.
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