CC 303/352: Lecture Outline, October 18, 2001

Theseus

I. The myths

• conception and birth: Aegeus, Pittheus, Aethra, Poseidon, sword and sandals
• Travel to Athens: the Six Labors

1. Periphetes: club
2. Sinis: pine bender
3. Crommyonian sow
4. Sciron: turtle
5. Cercyon: wrestling
6. Procrustes: "procrustean bed"

• Arrival in Athens

1. Bull of Marathon
2. Medea

• The Minotaur

1. Pasiphae, Daedalus, and the bull
2. Minos avenges Androgeus
3. Theseus goes with seven youths and maidens sacrificed each year
4. gift from Amphitrite
5. Ariadne and the clue
6. kills Minotaur
7. Ariadne abandoned
8. Theseus forgets to change sails and Aegeus kills himself

• Later adventures

1. Antiope, Amazonomachy
2. Hippolytus and Phaedra
3. Pirithous, Lapiths, and Centaurs
4. Attempts to capture Helen and Persephone
5. Exile and death at Scyros

II. Perspectives

• history: Theseus myths and Minoan Crete (Minoan Civilization, c. 3500-1450 BC)

1. 1899: Sir Arthur Evans uncovers Knossos
2. large palaces with central courts
3. bulls important in ritual
4. bull leaping in frescoes
5. can we rationalize the Minotaur?

• religion: Cimon recovers bones of Theseus from Scyros (5th century BC)
• functions / recurring elements / folktale motifs
• initiation: separation, liminality, trials, reintegration
• Theseus myths as Athenian propaganda

1. 560-527 BC: Pisistratus dictator at Athens: attributes synoecism and coinage to Theseus
2. 508 BC: Athens becomes a democracy: Theseus becomes founder of democracy
3. 499-479 BC: Athens fights Persians: Amazonomachy becomes model
4. 431-404 BC: Athens fights Sparta in Peloponnesian War: Theseus becomes Athenian hero to match Dorian Heracles

III. Other myths of Athens and Crete

• Cecrops: autochthony
• Erichthonius
• Aglaurus, Herse, Pandrosus
• Procris and Cephalus
• Procne, Tereus, Philomela, and Itys
• Daedalus and Icarus

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