Why is theseus famous

Theseus was thought to have characteristics of both of his potential "fathers". Theseus's Spouse: Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Later, possibly Ariadne before he abandoned her; later her sister Phaedra.

Theseus was the son of King Aegeus of Athens. Theseus grew up separately from his father, who had taken up with the magical Medea. Theseus, after many adventures at different gates of the Underworld and slaying a monstrous Cretan bull, giving him handy career experience for later, eventually ended up in Athens and was recognized by his father as his heir when he showed him his sword and sandals, retrieved from under a rock where Aegeus had hidden them when he left Aethra.

At that time, the Athenians put on a competition somewhat like the Olympian Games, and one of the sons of the powerful King Minos of Crete came to participate. Unfortunately, he won the Games, which the Athenians found to be in bad taste, so they killed him.

King Minos wreaked revenge on Athens and ultimately demanded that seven youths and seven maidens would be sent periodically to Crete to be fed to the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull beast who lived in the prison-like labyrinth.

Theseus chose to put himself in the doomed group and went to Crete, where he formed an alliance with Princess Ariadne, entered the labyrinth with the help of a magical cord given him by Ariadne, fought and slew the Minotaur, and then fled with the princess.

Something went wrong at that point - a storm? Theseus returned home to Greece but forgot that he had told his father that his boat would return with white sails if he were alive or black sails raised by his crew if he died in Crete. King Aegeus saw the ship returning, noted the black sails, and flung himself into the sea in sorrow - which is why the sea is called "The Aegean".

The oligarch Kimon ca. After the first Persian invasion ca. At this time, the Amazonomachy became a key piece of iconography as the Amazons came to represent the Persians as eastern invaders. In B. This act represented the final solidification of Theseus as national hero. Greene, Andrew. Barber, Elizabeth Wayland, and Paul T. Princeton: Princeton University Press, Boardman, John "Herakles. Gehrke, Hans-Joachim. New York: Oxford University Press, Harrison, Evelyn B.

Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Neils, Jenifer. VII, 1, pp. Servadei, Cristina. La figura di Theseus nella ceramica attica: Iconografia e iconologia del mito nell'Atene arcaica e classica.

Bologna: Ante Quem, Shapiro, H. It is originally a metaphorical use of the term. In return—Ariadne has to get something out of this as well—Theseus agrees to take Ariadne with him when he leaves Crete, as well he might. He and Ariadne do then indeed leave Crete. They stop to spend the night on the nearby island of Naxos and supposedly spend the night together.

The next morning, when Theseus wakes up, he sets sail and leaves Ariadne behind, alone on the island of Naxos. Various versions explain why he did this, but the most common one most authors seem to espouse is that he simply flat-out forgot her. He got up in the morning, forgot about Ariadne entirely and set sail without her. When Ariadne awakens, she finds herself abandoned, all alone on an island. Unusually for myth, she has a happy ending to her story.

The god Dionysos supposedly comes, finds Ariadne, rescues her, marries her, and turns her into a goddess. If the story originally was that a Cretan goddess helped Theseus, then it would make more sense that after she helped him, Dionysos married her.

It would be a god marrying a goddess rather than a god turning a human woman into a goddess. But as the story developed, Ariadne was downgraded to a human being, and the story evolved to Theseus leaving her behind on Naxos and Dionysos rescuing her.

Before he left Athens, he had promised his father Aegeus that if he succeeded in killing the Minotaur, he would change the sails on his ship from black to white. When the ship set sail every year for Crete with the 14 doomed boys and girls aboard, it had black sails.

When it came back, having left its human cargo in Crete, it still had black sails. He forgot to do so, and Aegeus, who had been standing either on the Acropolis of Athens or on Cape Sounion—the southernmost tip of Attica—keeping watch every day for the returning ship, saw that the sails were still black, and leaped to his death because he thought Theseus was dead.

Theseus then became king of Athens. Theseus was a half-breed. He had two fathers: One of them the god Poseidon, and the other a mortal, Aegeus. His mother had been with both of them the night she conceived.

Theseus is ultimately famous for slaying the Minotaur, but he was also king of Athens and killed many mythical beasts. Theseus snuck the sword of Aegeus into the labyrinth inside his tunic, and when confronted, he overpowered the Minotaur and stabbed it. Lycomedes, king of Scyros, threw Theseus from a cliff after he cursed Athens. Therefore, Theseus—a hero who is especially associated with Athens—shows up in a great deal of it.

Aegeus consults the Oracle at Delphi. Aethra showing Theseus the place where his father had hidden his sword. The Minotaur in Crete. Theseus succeeds in killing the Minotaur in the labyrinth. Theseus returning home from the labyrinth of Crete in a ship with black sails.

Q: Was Theseus an actual God? Q: Why do we know about Theseus? I spent lots of time looking for information but at last I found the right information. Short and sweet. Perfect for my project. I recommend this information to those who want short , detailed and useful information. Hey guys…. So on the third year, Theseus went.

So this version is correct based on the actual Greek versions of the myth! The annual period is given by J. Zimmerman cites Virgil, Apollodorus, and Pausanias. The nine-year period appears in Plutarch and Ovid. As with many myths and creation stories there are often several different versions. Thank you. One of my favorite myths. There are many other great myths but these mentioned and the myth of Theseus are by far my favorite.

The thing about myths is that, even if there are many differently told versions of them, none of the versions are truly correct.

None of them CAN be correct because they are myths, therefore fictional.