Theseus reigned many years with wisdom and skill.
He united the different courts, hamlets and municipalities to make the
stronger city state of Athens. He created a constitution that he
undertook himself, and made Athens became the model of many other
cities. He had a happy marriage with his wife, the Amazon Hippolyte and
mother of his son Hippolytos.
However, Hippolyte died during an
attack to the Amazons, and so Theseus started to search for another
woman who would bring him the same happiness at home. The woman he
finally found was the sister of Ariadne, Phradra, and their marriage
brought the alliance between Athens and Crete. Phadra gave him two sons,
but she never really loved him. In fact, she had fallen in love with
Hippolyos, the fruit of Theseus first marriage, but the desire of his
stepmother sickened the boy so much that he always tried to avoid her.
With the
time, Phädra could not stand her defeat any more and she hanged herself. Theseus found her
at his return from a trip, with a letter in her hand where she said that
she could not resist any more Hippolytos' harassment.
After this, Theseus banished his son from his land. Soon came an old
wet-nurse and told him the truth, but it was already too late:
Hippolytos had had an accident and was dead.
At this point it was the king who
was banished from the city by the villagers. He died
in the island of Skyros, where the king Lykomedes pushed him down the
cliffs. However,
the oracle of Delphi said that if they gave a honorable funeral to
Theseus, Athens would have a glorious future, so the Athenian
Kimon left
to search the moral remains of Theseus and returned to Athens with his body
to bury him.
Perseus / Heracles / Theseus / The Argonauts / Odyssey / Phaethon / Orpheus
