Theseus
Founder-King of Athens
THEE-see-us
Athens's own hero, volunteered as tribute to the Minotaur, and came home to a father who had already jumped.
Domains
KingshipCivic OrderCunning
Symbols
Ball of ThreadSandals and SwordBlack SailClub
The Story
He grew up not knowing his father, lifted the rock hiding Aegeus's sword and sandals, and took the bandit-infested land road to Athens rather than the safe crossing. When the third tribute of youths was levied for Crete, he put himself on the ship.
Ariadne's thread got him out of the labyrinth; he abandoned her on Naxos on the way home, and then forgot to change the black sail for a white one. Aegeus, watching from the cliff, saw black and threw himself into the sea that carries his name. Theseus went on to unify Attica, which is why Athens claimed him.
Did You Know?
- The Athenians preserved his ship for centuries, replacing planks as they rotted, which produced the oldest identity puzzle in philosophy: at what point is it no longer the same ship.
- Cimon brought a set of large bones back from Skyros in 476 BC and Athens received them as Theseus's, with a festival and a shrine. It was a political act as much as a religious one.
- He is credited with the synoikismos, the merging of Attica's villages into one state, an event that actually took centuries, compressed into one king's decision.