Egeus,
the king of Athens, was very sad because he could not have any children
with his wife. So he decided to secretly marry another woman and then
left to Troy where he slept with Aithra, the daughter of his friend
Pittheus. Before leaving, he hid his sword and his sandals under a big
rock a told Aithra that if she would have a son from him and the boy
would be strong enough to lift the rock, then she should send the child
to him to Athens. After he returned and did not tell anybody about
his son.
And the story
happened as he had told. Aithra gave birth to a boy and when he grew up
she brought him to the place where the rock stand and told him the story
of his father. Theseus did not wait one minute to start his way to
Athens, which was not that easy and safe. Already on the way to Corinth
he met the robber Periphetes, who he quickly killed before he would get
him with his cudgel.
But
this was not the only robber he met ready to attack the travelers with
cruel methods. He killed also the famous Sinis, who put his victims up
between two trees to rip them to pieces, Skiron, who punched down the
travelers of the coast, and Prokrustes, who chopped off the victims'
legs. Because of all this, when he got to Athens they already knew about
him, and there he found his father waiting for him impatiently, since
the years had not made him younger.
During this
time the Athenians had had a hard time because of the tribute Crete had
imposed on them. Some years ago, the son of Minos had been killed in a
shooting and since then Minos had attacked and occupied Athens. As a
tribute, the city had send each year seven boys and seven young maids to
Crete to feed the Minotaur. Again, the ambassadors of the king Minos
came for a third time and asked for the tribute. Theseus offered himself
as one of the seven boys planning to kill the Minotaur. Before leaving,
he arranged with his father that coming back with black sails on his
boat would be a sign for victory.
Just by his
arrival, Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with the young boy
and gave him a ball of wool to find his way back from the labyrinth.
This labyrinth was a work by the famous inventor Daidalos, who built it
specially for the Minotaur of the king. Theseus unrolled the ball of
wool from the beginning of the labyrinth so that he could follow it back
to the entrance on his way out.
There he met
the Minotaur, killed it and succeeded in the task of getting out of the
labyrinth thanks to the ball of wool. Then he took Ariadne, made holes
on the ships of the Cretan fleet to stop them from following them, and
ran away. However, in Naxos the God of the sea Poseidon, who desired
Ariadne, took her from the boat. When they arrived to Athens, Theseus
was so sad that he forgot to put the black sail... and his father killed
himself jumping out of the cliffs thinking his son was dead.
Such a sad arrival had Theses in
Athens, although the Athenians received their new king with joy and
gratitude.
Up / Perseus / Heracles / Theseus / The Argonauts / Odyssey / Phaethon / Orpheus
