3. Theseus.—Theseus is the national hero of the Ionians, just as Heracles is of the Æolians. He has not unjustly been called the second Heracles; and he has, indeed, many features in common with the Æolian hero, since the national jealousy of the Ionians led them to adopt every possible means of making their own hero rival that of their neighbours. They therefore strove to represent him, likewise, as a hero tried in numberless contests—generous, unselfish, and devoted to the interests of mankind—and of course ascribed to him a multitude of adventurous exploits. There is no great undertaking of antiquity in which Theseus is not supposed to have taken part, and he was even sent on an expedition to hell, in imitation of Heracles.
He was the son of the Athenian king Ægeus, whom mythological tradition made a great-grandson of Erechtheus. After his father Pandion had been driven out by his relations, the sons of Metion, Ægeus betook himself to Megara, where he was hospitably received by the ruler, Pylas. From Megara, Ægeus, Pallas, Nisus, and Lycus, the sons of Pandion, undertook an expedition against Athens, which ended in the expulsion of the Metionidæ, and the restoration of the former royal family in the person of Ægeus. Such, at least, is the tradition; although it is more probable that Athens never had a king of this name, and that Ægeus (wave-man) is only a surname of Poseidon, the chief deity of the seafaring Ionians. Ægeus, though twice married, had no heir, and now undertook a journey to Delphi to seek the advice of the oracle. On his way back he stopped at the court of Pittheus, king of Trœzen, and became, by his daughter Æthra, the father of Theseus. Before his departure, he placed his sword and sandals beneath a heavy stone, and commanded Æthra to send his son to Athens as soon as he was able to move the stone and take his father’s sword. Theseus was carefully trained in music and gymnastics by the sagacious Pittheus, and soon developed into a stately youth. He is also supposed to have been educated by the Centaur Chiron, whose instruction had now become a necessary item in the education of a real hero.
When Theseus was sixteen, his mother took him to the stone beneath which lay his father’s sword and sandals. With a slight effort he raised the stone, and thus entered on his heroic career. His earlier adventures consisted in overcoming a series of obstacles that beset him in his journey from Trœzen to Athens. They are generally supposed to have been six in number.
1. Between Trœzen and Epidaurus he slew Periphetes, the son of Hephæstus—who was lame, like his father—because he was in the habit of murdering travellers with his iron club; whence he is called Corynetes, or club-bearer.
2. He next delivered the Isthmus from another powerful robber called Sinis. He used to fasten travellers who fell into his hands to the top of a pine tree, which he bent to the earth, and then allowed to recoil; after which, on their reaching the ground, he would kill them outright; whence he is called Pityocamptes, or pine-bender. Theseus inflicted the same fate on him.
3. In the woody district of Crommyon he destroyed a dangerous wild sow that laid waste the country.
4. Not far from this, on the rock of Sciron, on the borders of Megara, dwelt another monster, called Sciron, who compelled travellers to wash his feet, and then kicked them into the sea. Theseus served him in a similar fashion.
5. In the neighbourhood of Eleusis he vanquished the giant Cercyon, who compelled all who fell into his hands to wrestle with him.
6. His last combat awaited him on the confines of Eleusis, where dwelt the inhuman Damastes. This monster used to lay his victims in a bed: if this was too short, he would hack off their projecting limbs; if too long, he would beat out and pull asunder their limbs, whence he is called Procrustes. He was also slain by Theseus.
On reaching Athens, he found his father Ægeus in the toils of the dangerous sorceress Medea, who had fled from Corinth to Athens. She was on the point of making away with the newcomer by poison, when Ægeus, fortunately, recognised him by the sword he bore, and preserved him from his impending fate.