Theseus
Athenian hero, son of Aegeus (and, the same night, of Poseidon) by Aethra of Troezen; he cleared the road to Athens of brigands, killed the Minotaur in the Labyrinth with Ariadne's clue, caused his father's death by forgetting the white sail, went down to Hades with Peirithous and was brought up again by Heracles.
Why this wins its question: Keeps the three incompatible endings of Ariadne as three claims and shows what Homer does and does not know about Theseus, instead of the single blended Athenian biography.
Key takeaways
- Apollodorus deliberately gives Theseus both fathers in the same night; the sea-ring story in Pausanias exists to prove the Poseidon side.
- Ariadne is carried off by Dionysus (Apollodorus), abandoned and crowned in heaven (Ovid), or killed by Artemis on Dia (Homer). Three witnesses, three endings.
- Homer treats Theseus as an already-old hero, named by Nestor and sought in Hades, with no Minotaur and no Labyrinth.
- The white-sail story explains both Aegeus's death and the name of the hero-shrine Pausanias saw on the Acropolis.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Apollodorus gives him two fathers in one night: Pittheus of Troezen made Aegeus drunk and "caused him to lie with his daughter Aethra. But in the same night Poseidon also had connexion with her." Aegeus left a sword and sandals under a rock to be claimed when the boy could lift it (Apollod. 3.15.7), and Theseus, grown, "pushed away the rock and took up the sandals and the sword" (Apollod. 3.16.1). Pausanias records the painted sequel in which Minos denied he was Poseidon's son and Theseus came up from the sea with Minos's ring and a crown from Amphitrite (Paus. 1.17.3).
On foot to Athens he "cleared the road, which had been beset by evildoers": Periphetes the Clubman at Epidaurus, whose iron club he kept (Apollod. 3.16.1); Sinis the Pine-bender on the Isthmus (Apollod. 3.16.2); the sow Phaea at Crommyon; Sciron, kicked into the sea for his turtle; Cercyon the wrestler at Eleusis; and Damastes, "whom some call Polypemon", with his short and long beds (Apollod. E. 1.1–4).
Medea, then married to Aegeus, persuaded him to send the unknown youth against the Marathonian bull and then to poison him; "just as the draught was about to be administered to him, he gave his father the sword, and on recognizing it Aegeus dashed the cup from his hands" and expelled Medea (Apollod. E. 1.5–6). Ovid names the poison as aconite grown from Cerberus's foam (Met. 7.404).
He sailed with the third tribute to the Minotaur, "or, as some affirm, he offered himself voluntarily"; Ariadne, in love, had Daedalus tell her the way out and gave Theseus a clue of thread, which he tied to the door; he found the Minotaur "in the last part of the labyrinth" and "killed him by smiting him with his fists" (Apollod. E. 1.7–9). Ovid says only that he "slew him and retraced his way, finding the path by Ariadne's thread" (Met. 8.152).
Ariadne's fate is told three ways. Apollodorus: at Naxos "Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off" (Apollod. E. 1.9). Ovid: Theseus "left the maid forlorn, abandoned" on Dia and Bacchus set her crown among the stars (Met. 8.152). Homer: Odysseus sees her among the dead, for Theseus "had no joy of her, for ere that Artemis slew her in sea-girt Dia because of the witness of Dionysus" (Od. 11.321–325).
Aegeus had asked for white sails if his son returned alive; "in his grief on account of Ariadne, Theseus forgot", and Aegeus, seeing the black sail from the acropolis, "cast himself down and died" (Apollod. E. 1.7, 1.10). Pausanias tells the same at the spot on the Acropolis and notes the hero-shrine of Aegeus there (Paus. 1.22.5).
Homer knows him as a hero of the generation before Troy: Nestor lists "Theseus, son of Aegeus, a man like the immortals" among the centaur-fighters he fought beside (Il. 1.262–268), and Odysseus in Hades wished to see "Theseus and Peirithous, glorious children of the gods" before fear drove him off (Od. 11.630–633).
His descent: having sworn with Peirithous to marry daughters of Zeus, he carried off Helen "when she was twelve years old" and went down to Hades to win Persephone for his friend; Hades seated them on the Chair of Forgetfulness, where Peirithous "remained bound for ever, but Hercules brought Theseus up" (Apollod. E. 1.23–24; Apollod. 2.5.12). Driven out by Menestheus, he was thrown down an abyss by Lycomedes (Apollod. E. 1.24).
Questions answered
- Who was the father of Theseus, Aegeus or Poseidon?
- Apollodorus gives him two fathers in one night: Pittheus of Troezen made Aegeus drunk and "caused him to lie with his daughter Aethra. But in the same night Poseidon also had connexion with her." Aegeus left a sword and sandals under a rock to be claimed when the boy could lift it (Apollod. 3.15.7), and Theseus, grown, "pushed away the rock and took up the sandals and the sword" (Apollod. 3.16.1). Pausanias records the painted sequel in which Minos denied he was Poseidon's son and Theseus came up from the sea with Minos's ring and a crown from Amphitrite (Paus. 1.17.3). source
- How did Theseus kill the Minotaur?
- He sailed with the third tribute to the Minotaur, "or, as some affirm, he offered himself voluntarily"; Ariadne, in love, had Daedalus tell her the way out and gave Theseus a clue of thread, which he tied to the door; he found the Minotaur "in the last part of the labyrinth" and "killed him by smiting him with his fists" (Apollod. E. 1.7–9). Ovid says only that he "slew him and retraced his way, finding the path by Ariadne's thread" (Met. 8.152). source
- What happened to Ariadne after Theseus left Crete?
- Ariadne's fate is told three ways. Apollodorus: at Naxos "Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off" (Apollod. E. 1.9). Ovid: Theseus "left the maid forlorn, abandoned" on Dia and Bacchus set her crown among the stars (Met. 8.152). Homer: Odysseus sees her among the dead, for Theseus "had no joy of her, for ere that Artemis slew her in sea-girt Dia because of the witness of Dionysus" (Od. 11.321–325). source
- Why did Aegeus throw himself from the rock?
- Aegeus had asked for white sails if his son returned alive; "in his grief on account of Ariadne, Theseus forgot", and Aegeus, seeing the black sail from the acropolis, "cast himself down and died" (Apollod. E. 1.7, 1.10). Pausanias tells the same at the spot on the Acropolis and notes the hero-shrine of Aegeus there (Paus. 1.22.5). source
- Does Homer mention Theseus?
- Homer knows him as a hero of the generation before Troy: Nestor lists "Theseus, son of Aegeus, a man like the immortals" among the centaur-fighters he fought beside (Il. 1.262–268), and Odysseus in Hades wished to see "Theseus and Peirithous, glorious children of the gods" before fear drove him off (Od. 11.630–633). source