1. Theseus

2. Parents, Birth, Childhood
Aegeus of Athens
Aethra of Troezen
Young princess who sleeps with Aegeus, who’s visiting her dad
Dream from Athena leads Aethra into the sea
Poseidon; Double Paternity?
Sword & Sandals

3. The Adventure Begins

4. Periphetes
Roamed road, beat and robbed with a bronze club. Theseus asked to see if the club was really bronze, beat him with it.

5. Sinis/Pityocamptes
Version 1: Lets go
Version 2: Tying and tearing

6. Crommyonian Sow
Sow – female pig
Ravaged countryside; Theseus kills it

7. Sciron
Sciron forces you to wash his feet, or he cuts your head off. While you’re doing it, he shoves you off the cliff to the monster/turtle.

8. Procrustes

9. In Athens Daddy Aegeus & Queen Medea Marathonian Bull
Medea tries poison
Flees after failing
Next Task: Minotaur

10. Minotaur Background King Minos & Queen Pasiphae of Crete
Minos & Poseidon
Cretan Bull
Minos tries to trick Poseidon
Pasiphae & the bull
Daedalus’s help

11. Minotaur Background The Labyrinth Minos’s son in Athens
7 Athenian youths & 7 maidens
Theseus volunteers

12. Theseus’s Quest Setting sail Minos’s daughter Ariadne helps
Slays Minotaur
Escapes with Ariadne & sister Phaedra

13. Sad Times
Ariadne; Dionysus
Oops, the sails…
Aegean Sea

14. Theseus & Pirithous Pirithous, Prince of the Lapiths
Lapiths vs Centaurs
Pirithous’s great idea
Chair of Forgetfulness

15. Theseus & Phaedra Ariadne’s sister who wasn’t abandoned
Theseus marries Phaedra
Phaedra & Hippolytus, one of Theseus’s sons
Aphrodite made advances on Hippolytus
Hippolytus rejected her because he was a virgin follower of Artemis
Aphrodite punished Hippolytus by having Phaedra fall in love with him
Hippolytus rejects Phaedra as well
Phaedra accuses him of rape, Theseus kills his own son, Phaedra commits suicide

16. Theseus and Athens
Theseus brings together Attica, region around Athens, under one rule
Transfers much of his power to the assembly
Helps poor & oppressed
Bad decisions in middle age; loses popularity
Pushed off island of Scyros – various/unclear reasons
Body not returned to Athens for burial
Bones “found” during Persian Wars, returned, buried

17. 23 Hero Traits Mother is a royal virgin Father is a king
Father often a near relative to mother
Unusual conception
Hero reputed to be son of a god
Attempt to kill hero as an infant, often by father or maternal grandfather
Hero spirited away as a child
Reared by foster parents in a far country
No details of childhood
Returns or goes to future kingdom
Is victor over king, giant, dragon or wild beast
Has a helper, sidekick, or group of them
Marries a princess (often daughter of predecessor)
Becomes king
For a time he reigns uneventfully
He prescribes laws
Later loses favor with gods or his subjects
Driven from throne and city
Meets with mysterious death
Often at the top of a hill
His children, if any, do not succeed him
His body is not buried
Has one or more holy sepulchers or tombs