22. THESEUS

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Highly recommended: Mary Renault's novels, The King Must Die and The Bull from the Sea.

Six labors--on way from Troezen to father in Athens

• 1. Periphetes (Korynetes = club-man); robber
• 2. Sinis (Pityokamptes = Pine-bender)
• 3. Gray sow of Krommyon; man-eating
• 4. Skiron; robber
• 5. Kerkyon; wrestler
• 6. Damastes (Prokrustes = stretcher).
• --. After reaching Athens, kills Cretan Bull released into plain of Marathon by Heracles; now the Bull of Marathon. 

Theseus and Crete

• Minotaur (means "Minos-bull"; Minos is king, with palace at Knossos)
  • queen Pasiphae loves bull--Daedalus builds her wooden cow so she can sleep with it
  • Minotaur is result--man with bull's head; Daedalus builds labyrinth for it
• Theseus
  • Athens has to send young men, women as victims to Knossos
    • various versions of numbers, frequency; they are sacrificed to Minotaur
  • Theseus volunteers, hoping to kill Minotaur, free Athens
  • Minos' daughter Ariadne gives him thread, so he can find his way out of the maze
  • Theseus kills Minotaur, takes Ariadne with him
    • T. abandons her on Naxos; Dionysus rescues her
  • T. forgets to change black sail to white--his father Aegeus kills self by leaping into the sea, which thus gets the name Aegean Sea
• Daedalus (means 'intricate', 'decorated') and Icarus
  • see separate handout on Daedalus and Icarus
• historical background
  • palace at Knossos--Minoan Bronze Age (2000-1375 B.C.)
    • large, intricate like labyrinth
  • bulls very important in cult, sports
  • double axe very important--Greek name 'labrys'
    • this may be source of word 'labyrinth': the double-axe place
    • -nth ending is pre-Greek