Theseus

Theseus is the hero Athens claimed as its own king. He sails to Crete with the young people sent as tribute, kills the Minotaur in the Labyrinth and finds his way out by Ariadne's thread. Plutarch says he died on Skyros, thrown from the cliffs by Lycomedes. Later, told to by the Pythia, Athens brought his bones home on Cimon's warship. His tomb in the city became a refuge for runaway slaves.

In short

In Apollodorus, Theseus puts himself among the third Athenian tribute to Crete, kills the Minotaur with his fists in the last part of the Labyrinth, and finds his way out by the thread Ariadne gave him.
Plutarch says the thirty-oared galley Theseus sailed in was preserved by the Athenians down to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, with new timbers put in as the old ones were taken out, and became the philosophers' standing example in the question of growth.
Plato records that no one could be publicly executed at Athens while the annual mission to Delos was at sea, which is the law that kept Socrates alive after his trial.
Plutarch has Theseus driven out of Athens by demagogues and factions, and killed on Skyros by Lycomedes, who led him up to the high places on pretence of showing him his lands and threw him down the cliffs.
After the Median wars the Pythia told the Athenians to bring the bones of Theseus home; Cimon took Skyros, dug where an eagle was tearing at a mound, and found a coffin of a man of extraordinary size with a bronze spear and a sword beside it.
Plutarch records the tomb as a sanctuary and place of refuge for runaway slaves and for men of low estate who were afraid of men in power.

The thread in the dark

Theseus is the hero Athens claimed as its own king. Athens has to send young people to Crete as tribute, a payment owed by one city to another. Theseus volunteers to go with the third group. On Crete they are sent into the Labyrinth, the maze where the Minotaur lives.

Courage alone cannot bring the captives home. Ariadne has learned the way out from Daedalus, the man who knows the maze, and she gives Theseus a thread before he goes in. He reaches the last chamber with the thread running out behind him and the Minotaur in front of him. In the version of Apollodorus, an ancient writer who retold the myths, he kills the Minotaur with his fists, gathers up the thread and follows it back to the door.

This is the hero Athens wants to remember: a prince who chooses to share the danger forced on the city’s young people, and ends it. Yet every part of the success depends on someone else. Ariadne supplies the plan, Daedalus the knowledge, and the rescued children give the voyage its meaning for the city. Theseus sails away from Crete with Ariadne and then leaves her behind on the island of Naxos. The act that saves Athens also begins her own story of being abandoned.

The ship Athens kept

For Athens, the story did not end when the ship came home. The later writer Plutarch says the city kept the 30-oared ship of Theseus until the time of Demetrius of Phalerum. As old timbers rotted, they were replaced with new ones. Philosophers used the ship, repaired again and again, to argue a question: does an object stay the same when every part of it has changed? The puzzle later called the Ship of Theseus began as the upkeep of a city treasure.

The voyage to Delos

The yearly voyage that went with the ship had real effects. Athens had promised to send a sacred mission to the island of Delos each year if Theseus and the captives came home. The philosopher Plato explains that the city allowed no public execution from the day the ship was crowned with garlands until it came back.

Its stern was crowned the day before the trial of the philosopher Socrates. That kept him alive in prison until the ship returned. So a rescue from myth set the timetable of Athenian justice centuries after the voyage was supposed to have happened.

Death on Skyros

In Plutarch, Theseus loses the power he had won. Rival groups in Athens overpower him. He sends his children to Euboea, curses the Athenians at a place called Gargettus, and sails to Skyros, where his family claims land.

King Lycomedes of Skyros leads him up to high ground, saying he will show him the estate. Plutarch does not decide whether Lycomedes is afraid of Theseus or is acting for Menestheus, an Athenian rival. Lycomedes throws the exile from the cliffs, and at the time hardly anyone pays attention to his death.

The ending shows the limit of his power. Theseus can enter the Labyrinth for Athens, but he cannot make Athens go on accepting his rule. The city that made him its founding king lets him die on another island without honour.

The bones come home

After the wars against the Persians, Athens asks the oracle at Delphi, a shrine where a god was believed to answer questions, what to do about the forgotten hero. The Pythia, the priestess who gives the answers, tells the Athenians to bring back the bones of Theseus, bury them with honour and guard them.

The Athenian commander Cimon captures Skyros. Plutarch says Cimon sees an eagle tearing at a mound and has it dug up. Inside is the coffin of a man of unusual size, with a bronze spear and a sword beside it.

Cimon carries the bones, said to be those of Theseus, home on his trireme, a warship. Athens welcomes them with sacrifices and processions, as if Theseus himself were coming home. In Plutarch’s day his tomb stands near the centre of the city. Its later use changes the picture of the king. The tomb became a sanctuary, a place of safety, for runaway slaves and for poor people afraid of the powerful. The dead king who once ruled Athens became a protector for people escaping their masters.

Places to visit

Athens

Cities

Theseus is king of Athens in the myth, and the city kept his ship and his bones. Plutarch says the Athenians preserved his ship down to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, and buried his bones, brought from Skyros on Cimon's trireme, in the heart of the city, where the tomb became a refuge for runaway slaves.
Athens
Skyros

Sporades

In Plutarch, Theseus is driven out of Athens and sails to Skyros, where his family held lands, and Lycomedes leads him up to high ground to show him the lands and throws him from the cliffs. Cimon later took the island and dug for the grave where an eagle was tearing at a mound.
Skyros