THESEUS, the Athenian Culture-Hero

• Theseus was the son of AITHRA, daughter of Pittheus, king of Troezen.
• His FATHER was either (a) AEGEUS, king of Athens; or (b) POSEIDON

• son of AITHRA, daughter of King PITTHEUS of Troezen (a son of Pelops, and thus a brother of Atreus and Thyestes). Theseus was therefore first-cousin of Agamemnon, Menelaus, Thyestes, Eurystheus, and Alcmene.
  
  
• son of POSEIDON, who slept with Aithra on the same night that King Aegeus of Athens slept with her (in a temple of Poseidon on an island off the shore of Troezen). He was brought up at Troezen at the court of his grandfather.
  
  

-Sciron, PROCRUSTES, Corynetes (at Epidauros), Sinis
-the Crommyonian sow (cf. the Erymanthian boar of Heracles' saga)
-wrestled with and killed KING KERKYON of Eleusis

• -Thread of ARIADNE (daughter of Minos and Pasiphae) He abandoned her on the island of Naxos, where she was taken up by DIONYSUS
  
  
• -freed Athens of the tribute of 7 boys and 7 girls (human sacrifice ?!) to King Minos of Knossos on Crete (the Labyrinth)
  
  
• -return to Athens: Theseus was supposed to change his sails if he survived, but forgot. King Aegeus leapt into the sea which bears his name. Theseus later died by leaping (or being pushed) into the sea from the Island of Skyros whien he was the guest of its king Lykomedes. Achilles hid on the island of Skyros before being drafted for the Trojan War!
  

• -Wedding banquet: Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs
  
  
• -Visit to Underworld: adventure to steal away Persephone. trapped when they sat down in stone chairs ('Thrones of Memory') that acted like Super Glue. Theseus was eventually freed by Heracles!
  
  

• Euripides' play Hippolytus