Theseus
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- a king of Athens, son of Aegeus (acc. to others, of Neptune) and Aethra; husband of Ariadne, and afterwards of Phaedra; father of Hippolytus, by the Amazon Hippolyte; friend of Pirithoüs; conqueror of the highway-robbers Periphetes, Sinnis, etc., and of the Minotaur, Ov. M. 7, 433 sq.; id. H. 10, 3; Stat. Th. 12, 576; Cic. N. D. 3, 18, 45; 3, 31, 76; id. Fin. 1, 20, 65; Prop. 2, 14 (3, 6), 7; Ov. F. 6, 737; Verg. A. 6, 618; Hor. C. 4, 7, 27 al.—Hence,
- A Thēsēus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Theseus, Thesean: carina, Prop. 1, 3, 1: laus, Ov. M. 8, 263: fides, id. Tr. 1, 3, 66: crimen, i.e. the desertion of Ariadne, id. F. 3, 460; id. A. A. 3, 459.—Transf., poet., for Athenian: via, Prop. 3 (4), 21, 24: Hymettus, Mart. 13, 104, 1: favi, id. 4, 13, 4.—
- B Thē-sēïus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Theseus: heros, i.e. Hippolytus, Ov. M. 15, 492: dicta, Stat. Th. 12, 681: Troezen, ruled by the ancestors of Theseus, id. ib. 4, 81.—
- C Thēsīdes, ae, m., the offspring of Theseus, i.e. Hippolytus, Ov. H. 4, 65; Aus. Epigr. 20. — Transf., poet., for an Athenian, Verg. G. 2, 383.—
- D Thēsēis, ĭdis, f., the title of a poem concerning Theseus, Juv. 1, 2.
Desiodicitur, ut recte conjectat Goldastus. Sic vero appellatur mensis Junius a Macedonibus, Græc.
(Θησεύς), the great legendary hero of Attica, is one of those mythological personages, whose legends it is by no means easy to disentangle, and represent in their original shape. The later belief of the Athenians, adopted and strengthened by writers of authority, represented him as a very much more historical person than he really was; and, in consequence, the rationalistic mythologists took considerable pains to draw up a narrative of his life in which the supernatural should be kept as much as possible in the back ground, and the character in which the Athenians loved to regard him, as the founder of Attic nationality, be exhibited in as prominent a light as the received traditions allowed. This was avowedly the method upon which Plutarch proceeded.
According to the commonly received traditions Theseus was the son of Aegeus, king of Athens, and Aethra, the daughter of Pittheus, king of Troezen [Aegeus]. Other legends, however, maintained their ground, which represented him as the son of Poseidon by Aethra. (Plut. Thes. 6 ; Diod. 4.59; Paus. 1.17.3; comp. Aethra.) When no reached maturity, Theseus, by his mother's directions took the sword and sandals, the tokens which had been left by Aegeus, and proceeded to Athens. Eager to emulate Hercules, he went by land, displaying his prowess by destroying the robbers and monsters that infested the country. Periphetes, Sinis, Phaea the Cromyonian sow, Sciron, Cercyon, and Procrustes fell before the invincible hero. Arrived at Cephisus, he was purified by the Phytalidae. At Athens he was immediately recognised by Medea, who laid a plot for poisoning him at a banquet to which he was invited. By means of the sword which he carried, Theseus was recognised by Aegeus, acknowledged as his son, and declared his successor. The sons of Pallas, thus disappointed in their hopes of succeeding to the throne, attempted to secure the succession by violence, and declared war; but, being betrayed by the herald Leos, were destroyed. The capture of the Marathonian bull was the next exploit of Theseus [comp. Hecale]. It was this same enterprise in which Androgeos, the son of Minos, had perished. When the occasion returned on which the Athenians had to send to Minos their tribute of seven youths and seven maidens, Theseus voluntarily offered himself as one of the youths, with the design of slaying the Minotaur, or perishing in the attempt. When they arrived at Crete, Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, became enamoured of Theseus, and provided him with a sword with which he slew the Minotaur, and a clue of thread by which he found his way out of the labyrinth. Having effected his object, and rescued the band of victims, Theseus set sail, carrying off Ariadne. (For the variations in the story, given by Cleidemus, the reader is referred to Plut. Thes. 19.) There were various accounts about Ariadne [Ariadne], but most of them spoke of Theseus as having either lost or abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos. He was generally believed to have had by her two sons, Oenopion and Staphylus. As the vessel in which they sailed approached Attica, they neglected to hoist the white sail, which was to have been the signal that the expedition had had a prosperous issue. The neglect led to the death of Aegeus [Aegeus]. A vessel was in existence up to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, which it was pretended was the very ship in which Theseus had sailed to Crete. It was this vessel which was sent every year to Delos with the sacred envoys. It is worth noting, that although Homer mentions Ariadne as having been carried off by Theseus from Crete (Od. 11.321), he says nothing about the Minotaur. All that part of the story is probably a later addition. The expedition to Crete was probably, in its original form, only one of the somewhat numerous amatory adventures of Theseus. several of which are noticed by Plutarch (Thes. 29). Soon after he landed, Theseus is said to have instituted the festival termed Oschophoria (Dictionary of Antiquities, s. v. Oschophoria). The origin of the Pyanepsia, and the reinstitution of the Isthmian games, were also ascribed to Theseus.
One of the most renowned of the adventures of Theseus was his expedition against the Amazons. He is said to have assailed them before they had recovered from the attack of Hercules, and to have carried off their queen Antiope. The Amazons in their turn invaded Attica, and penetrated into Athens itself, the final battle in which Theseus overcame them having been fought in the very midst of the city. Of the literal truth of this fact Plutarch (Thes. 27) finds evidence in the names of the localities and the tombs of the fallen Amazons. Cleidemus pretended even to point out the precise position of the contending forces and the fluctuatins of the combat. (Compare the remarkable passage of Aeschylus, Eumen. 685.) By Antiope Theseus was said to have had a son named Hippolytus or Demophoon, and after her death to have married Phaedra [Hippolytus,;Phaedra]. Theseus figures in almost all the ancient heroic undertakings. He was one of the Argonauts (the anachronism of the attempt of Medea to poison him does not seem to have been noticed); he joined in the Calydonian hunt, and aided Adrastus in recovering the bodies of those slain before Thebes. He contracted a close friendship with Peirithous, and aided him and the Lapithae against the Centaurs. Aided by Peirithous he carried off Helen from Sparta while she was quite a girl, and placed her at Aphidnae under the care of Aethra. In return he assisted Peirithous in his attempt to carry off Persephone from the lower world. Peirithous perished in the enterprise, and Theseus was kept in hard durance until he was delivered by Hercules. Later writers endeavored to turn this legend into history by making Peirithous attempt to carry off Core, the daughter of Aidoneus, a king of the Molossians. (Plut. 100.31.) Meantime Castor and Pollux invaded Attica, and carried off Helen and Aethra, Academus having informed the brothers where they were to be found [Academus]. Menestheus also endeavoured to incite the people against Theseus, who on his return found himself unable to re-establish his authority, and retired to Scyros, where he met with a treacherous death at the hands of Lycomedes. The departed hero was believed to have appeared to aid the Athenians at the battle of Marathon. In B. C. 469 a skeleton of large size was found by Cimon in Sevros [Cimon], and brought to Athens. It was believed to be that of Theseus, in whose honour a temple was erected, in which the bones were deposited. A considerable part of this temple still remains, forming one of the most interesting monuments of Athens. A festival in honour of Theseus was celebrated on the eighth day of each month, especially on the eighth of Pyanepsion. Connected with this festival were two others : the Connideia, in memory of Connidas, the guardian of Theseus; and the Cybernesia, having reference to his voyage. (Dict. of Antiq. s. v. Thescia.)
There can be little question that Theseus is a purely legendary personage, as thoroughly so as his contemporary Hercules. Nevertheless, in later times the Athenians came to regard him as the author of a very important political revolution in Attica. Before his time Attica had been broken up into a number of petty independent states or townships (twelve is the number generally stated) acknowledging no head, and connected only by a federal union. Theseus, partly through persuasion, partly by force, abolished the separate council chambers and governments, did away with all separate political jurisdiction, and erected Athens into the capital of a single commonwealth. The festival of the Synoecia was celebrated in commemoration of this change. The festival which was called Athenaea was now reinstituted and termed the Panathenaea (Thuc. 2.15). Theseus is said to have established a constitutional government, retaining in his own hands only cartain definite powers and functions. The citizens generally he is said to have distributed into the three classes of. Eupatridae, Geomori, and Demiurgi (Plut. Thes. 24-26). That this consolidation took place some time or other, there can be no doubt. Whether is was accomplished by Theseus is another question. The authority of Thucydides has usually been allowed to settle the matter. Thucydides, however, did but follow the prevailing opinion of his countrymen ; and if his belief raises Theseus to the rank of an historical king, it must also make the Trojan war a matter of history. It is a vain task now to attempt to decide whether there is any historical basis for the accounts of Theseus that were handed down, and still more so to endeavour to separate the historical from the legendary in what has been preserved. The Theseus of the Athenians was a hero who fought the Amazons, and slew the Minotaur, and carried off Helen. A personage who should be nothing more than a wise king, consolidating the Athenian commonwealth, however possible his existence might be, would have no historical reality. It has been urged that we have no ground for denying the personality of Theseus. In matters of this kind the question is rather " Have we any ground for affirming it ?" And for this we find nothing but the belief of the Athenians. The connection of Theseus with Poseidon, the national deity of the Ionic tribes, in various ways (the name Aegeus points to Aegae, the sanctuary of Poseidon), his coming from the Ionic town Troezen, forcing his way through the Isthmus into Attica, and establishing the Isthmia as an Ionic Panegyris, rather suggest that Theseus is, at least in part, the mythological representative of an Ionian immigration into Attica, which, adding perhaps to the strength and importance of Ionian settlers already in the country, might easily have led to that political aggregation of the disjointed elements of the state which is assigned to Theseus. It was probably from the relation in which he stood to the Athenian commonwealth as a whole, that his name was not connected with any particular phyle. (Plut. Theseus ; Diod. l.c. ; Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 281, &c., vol. ii. p. 29, vol. iii. p. 91; Wachsmuth, Hellenische Alterthumskunde, § 40. vol. i. p. 351, &c., § 128. vol. ii. p. 488.) [C.P.M]
(Θησεύς), a Greek historian of unknown date, wrote the lives of illustrious men (βίοι ἐνδόξων) in five books, and a work on Corinth (Κοριιθιακά) in three books, in which he gave an account of the establishment of the Isthmian games. (Suidas, s.v. Etymol. M. s. v. ̓́αρνη ; Stobaeus, Floril. 7.67, 70; Schol. ad Lycophr. 644.)
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…quaeque Minerva probat. his tu semper eris nostrae gratissima vitae, taedia dum miserae sint tibi luxuriae. Qualis Thesea iacuit cedente carina languida desertis Cnosia litoribus ; qualis et accubuit primo Cepheia somno libera iam duris cotibus Andromede ;…
Propertius, Elegies
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…, Threïcia fretus cithara fidibusque canoris, si fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit, itque reditque viam totiens. Quid Thesea, magnum quid memorem Alciden Et mi genus ab Iove summo. Talibus orabat dictis, arasque tenebat, cum…
Vergil, Aeneid
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…magis. ergo hi dei sunt habendi mortalibus nati matribus. Quid Aristaeus qui olivae dicitur inventor Apollinis filius, Theseus qui Neptuni, reliqui quorum patres di, non erunt in deorum numero quid quorum matres opinor etiam magis ;…
M. Tullius Cicero, de Natura Deorum
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…quam vos iracundiam esse vultis, sustulit fortitudo, iratumne censes conflixisse cum Erymanthio apro aut leone Nemeaeo an etiam Theseus Marathonii tauri cornua conprehendit iratus vide ne fortitudo minime sit rabiosa sitque iracundia tota levitatis. Neque enim est ulla…
M. Tullius Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes
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…tam multis tamque variis ab ultima antiquitate repetitis tria vix amicorum paria reperiuntur, ut ad Orestem pervenias profectus a Theseo. at vero Epicurus una in domo, et ea quidem angusta, quam magnos quantaque amoris conspiratione consentientis tenuit…
M. Tullius Cicero, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum
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…promissum sit, vel ei, qui promiserit. Nam si, ut in fabulis est, Neptunus, quod Theseo promiserat, non fecisset, Theseus Hippolyto filio non esset orbatus ; ex tribus enim optatis, ut scribitur ,…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Officiis
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…. haec igitur praemeditatio futurorum malorum lenit eorum adventum, quae venientia longe ante videris. itaque apud Euripiden a Theseo dicta laudantur ; licet enim, ut saepe facimus, in Latinum illa convertere Nam qui hae c audita a…
M. Tullius Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes
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…qui promiserit. Nam si, ut in fabulis est, Neptunus, quod Theseo promiserat, non fecisset, Theseus Hippolyto filio non esset orbatus ; ex tribus enim optatis, ut scribitur, hoc erat tertium, quod de…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Officiis
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…optationes Neptunus dedisset, optavit interitum Hippolyti filii, cum is patri suspectus esset de noverca ; quo optato impetrato Theseus in maximis fuit luctibus. Quid, quod Agamemnon cum devovisset Dianae, quod in suo regno pulcherrimum natum esset…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Officiis
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…Terra Teucer Thebanus Themistocles Theodectes Theodorus Cyrenaicus. Theombrotus rectius Cleombrotus Theophrastus in Callisthene de vita beata. Theramenes Thermopylae Theseus. Thyestes. Timaeus v. Plato Timocreon rectius Nicocreon Timon μισάνθρωπος Timotheus Tiresias Titanes Torquatus v. Manlius Trabea…
M. Tullius Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes
(Θησεύς). The great national hero of Attic legend. He was the son of Aegeus, king of Athens, and of Aethra, the daughter of Pittheus, king of Troezen. This, however, was the Attic tradition, which aimed at making Theseus a prince of Athenian descent. The older legend of Troezen itself made Theseus the son of Poseidon (Pausan. i. 17, 3; Diod. iv. 59; Plut. Thes. 6; Eur. Hipp. 887). Plutarch in his Theseus has gathered into a connected story various legends, some of Athenian origin, some from other countries: (1) his journey from Troezen to Athens, an Attic glorification of their hero;
(2) the Cretan story of the Minotaur adapted to the Attic legends;
(3) his later adventures, some of which are of Spartan origin. But the story may be related consecutively as Plutarch has given it.
Theseus was brought up at Troezen, and when he reached maturity he took, by his mother's directions, the sword and sandals, the tokeus which had been left by Aegeus, and proceeded to Athens. Eager to emulate Heracles, he went by land, displaying his prowess by destroying the robbers and monsters that infested the country. Periphetes, Sinis, Phaea the Crommyonian sow, Sciron, Cercyon, and Procrustes fell before him. At Athens he was immediately recognized by Medea, who laid a plot for poisoning him at a banquet to which he was invited. By means of the sword which he carried, Theseus was recognized by Aegeus, acknowledged as his son, and declared his successor. The sons of Pallas, thus disappointed in their hopes of succeeding to the throne, attempted to secure the succession by violence, and declared war, but, being betrayed by the herald Leos, were destroyed. The capture of the Marathonian bull, which had long laid waste the surrounding country, was the next exploit of Theseus. After this Theseus went of his own accord as one of the seven youths whom the Athenians were obliged to send every year, with seven maidens, to Crete, to be devoured by the Minotaur. When they arrived at Crete, Ariadné, the daughter of Minos, became enamoured of Theseus, and provided him with a sword with which he slew the Minotaur, and a clue of thread by which he found his way out of the labyrinth. Having effected his object, Theseus sailed away, carrying off Ariadné. There were various legends about Ariadné; but according to the general account Theseus abandoned her in the island of Naxos on his way home. (See Ariadné.) He was generally believed to have had by her two sons, Oenopion and Staphylus; yet this does not agree with the account in the Odyssey, which represents her as dying before her wedding with Theseus was brought about, and apparently after her union with Dionysus ( Od. xi. 320). As the vessel in which Theseus sailed approached Attica, he neglected to hoist the white sail which was to have been the signal of the success of the expedition; whereupon Aegeus, thinking that his son had perished, threw himself into the sea. (See Aegeus.) Theseus thus became king of Athens. Other adventures followed, again repeating those of Heracles. Theseus is said to have assailed the Amazons before they had recovered from the attack of Heracles, and to have carried off their queen Antiopé. The Amazons in their turn invaded Attica, and penetrated into Athens itself; and the final battle in which Theseus overcame them was fought in the very midst of the city. (See Amazones.) By Antiopé Theseus was said to have had a son named Hippolytus or Demophoön, and after her death to have married Phaedra. (See Hippolytus; Phaedra.)
Theseus figures in almost all the great heroic expeditions. He was one of the Argonauts (the anachronism of the attempt of Medea to poison him does not seem to have been noticed); he joined in the Calydonian hunt, and aided Adrastus in recovering the bodies of those slain before Thebes. He contracted a close friendship with Pirithoüs, and aided him and the Lapithae against the Centaurs. With the assistance of Pirithoüs he carried off Helen from Sparta while she was quite a girl, and placed her at Aphidnae, under the care of Aethra. In return he assisted Pirithoüs in his attempt to carry off Persephoné from the lower world. Pirithoüs perished in the enterprise, and Theseus was kept in hard durance until he was delivered by Heracles. Meantime Castor and Pollux invaded Attica, and carried off Helen and Aethra, Academus having informed the brothers where they were to be found. (See Academus.) Menestheus also endeavoured to incite the people against Theseus, who on his return found himself unable to re-establish his authority, and retired to Scyros, where he met with a treacherous death at the hands of Lycomedes. The departed hero was believed to have appeared to aid the Athenians at the battle of Marathon. In 469 the bones of Theseus were discovered by Cimon in Scyros, and brought to Athens, where they were deposited in a temple (the Theseum) erected in honour of the hero. A considerable part of this temple still remains, forming one of the most interesting monuments of Athens. A festival in honour of Theseus was celebrated on the eighth day of each month, especially in Pyanepsion. See p. 151.
There can be no doubt that Theseus is a purely legendary personage. Nevertheless, in later times the Athenians came to regard him as the author of a very important political revolution in Attica. Before his time Attica had been broken up into twelve petty independent States or townships, acknowledging no head, and connected only by a federal union. Theseus abolished the separate governments, and erected Athens into the capital of a single commonwealth. The festival of the Panathenaea (q.v.) was instituted to commemorate this important revolution. Theseus is said to have established a constitutional government, retaining in his own hands only certain definite powers and functions. He is further said to have distributed the Athenian citizens into the three classes of Eupatridae, Geomori, and Demiurgi. It would be a vain task to attempt to decide whether there is any historical basis for the legends about Theseus, and still more so to endeavour to separate the historical from the legendary in what has been preserved. The Theseus of the Athenians was a hero who fought the Amazons, and slew the Minotaur, and carried off Helen. A personage who should be nothing more than a wise king, consolidating the Athenian commonwealth, however possible his existence might be, would have no historical reality. The connection of Theseus with Poseidon, the national deity of the Ionic tribes, his coming from the Ionic town Troezen, forcing his way through the Isthmus into Attica, and establishing the Isthmia as an Ionic Panegyris, rather suggest that Theseus is, at least in part, the mythological representative of an Ionian immigration into Attica, which, adding perhaps to the strength and importance of Ionian settlers already in the country, might easily have led to that political aggregation of the disjointed elements of the State which is assigned to Theseus.
- hunts the Calydonian boar: Apollod. 1.8.2
- son of Aegeus and Aethra: Apollod. 3.15.8
- son of Poseidon and Aethra, daughter of Pittheus: Paus. 1.17.3, Paus. 2.30.9, Paus. 10.25.7
- mother of Theseus carried away captive by Dioscuri: Paus. 1.41.4
- great-grandson of Pelops: Paus. 1.41.5, Paus. 5.10.8
- called an Erechthid: Paus. 7.17.7
- born at Genethlium near Troezen: Paus. 2.32.9
- story of young Theseus and the lion's skin of Herakles: Paus. 1.27.7
- procures the tokens left by Aegeus: Paus. 1.27.8, Paus. 2.32.7, Apollod. 3.15.8
- clears the road from Troezen to Athens of rogues: Paus. 2.1.4, Apollod. 3.15.8, Apollod. E.6.3
- slays Periphetes in Epidaurus: Apollod. 3.15.8
- slays robber Sinis at Isthmus of Corinth: Paus. 1.37.4, Paus. 2.1.4
- kills Sinis, the Pinebender: Apollod. 3.15.8, Apollod. 3.16.2
- destroys Cromyon sow: Paus. 2.1.3
- slays the Crommyon sow: Apollod. 1.9.28
- hurls Sciron into sea: Paus. 1.3.1, Paus. 1.44.8, Apollod. 1.9.28
- overthrows Cercyon in wrestling: Paus. 1.39.3
- invents art of wrestling: Paus. 1.39.3
- slays Procrustes: Paus. 1.38.5
- slays Cercyon and Damastes or Polypemon: Apollod. 2.1.1
- purified by sons of Phytalus: Paus. 1.37.4
- demonstrates his manhood to masons: Paus. 1.19.1
- his friendship with Pirithous: Paus. 10.29.9
- his covenant with Pirithous: Paus. 1.18.4
- joins Pirithous in expedition to obtain a wife: Paus. 1.41.5
- Theseus and Pirithous carry off Helen from Lacedaemon: Paus. 1.18.4, Paus. 3.18.15, Paus. 3.24.11
- Theseus takes Helen to wife: Paus. 2.32.7
- father of Iphigenia by Helen: Paus. 2.22.6ff.
- his abduction of Helen into Attica: Hdt. 9.73, Apollod. 2.3.2
- carries off Helen to Aphidnae: Apollod. 3.10.7
- in the Argo: Apollod. 1.9.17
- goes to Thesprotis with Pirithous to carry off king's wife: Paus. 1.17.4, Paus. 1.18.4, Paus. 2.22.6
- kept prisoner in Thesprotis: Paus. 1.17.4, 5, Paus. 3.18.5
- descends with Pirithous to hell: Paus. 9.31.5
- attempts to win Persephone for Pirithous, but is detained with him in Hades: Apollod. 2.3.2
- rescued by Herakles and sent back to Athens: Apollod. 2.3.2
- bound fast in hell but rescued by Herakles: Paus. 1.17.4, Paus. 10.29.9, Apollod. 2.5.12
- in Hades: Apollod. 3.10.7
- allies himself with Pirithous in the war with the centaurs: Apollod. 2.2.2, Apollod. 2.3.1
- Theseus fights Centaurs at wedding of Pirithous: Paus. 1.17.2, Paus. 5.10.8
- comes to Athens: Apollod. 2.1.3
- sent against the Marathonian bull: Apollod. 2.1.3
- drives bull of Marathon to Acropolis and sacrifices it: Paus. 1.27.9ff.
- recognized by Aegeus: Apollod. 2.1.3, Apollod. 2.1.3
- his adventures with the Minotaur, Phaedra, and Ariadne: Apollod. 3.1.4
- sent with the third tribute to the Minotaur: Apollod. E.1.6
- sails for Crete to beard the Minotaur: Paus. 1.1.2, Paus. 1.22.5, Paus. 1.42.2
- fetches ring of Minos from sea: Paus. 1.17.3
- fights bull of Minos (Minotaur): Paus. 1.24.1, Paus. 3.18.16
- vanquishes Asterion, son of Minos: Paus. 2.31.1
- by means of a clue furnished by Ariadne he enters the labyrinth and kills the Minotaur: Apollod. E.1.6, Apollod. E.1.9
- goes with Ariadne to Naxos: Apollod. E.1.9
- robbed of Ariadne by Dionysus: Paus. 9.40.4, Paus. 10.29.4
- dedicates image of Aphrodite to Delian Apollo: Paus. 9.40.4
- holds games in Delos in honour of Apollo: Paus. 8.48.3
- forgets to hoist white sails instead of black on his return from Crete: Paus. 1.22.5
- succeeds to the sovereignty of Athens: Apollod. E.1.11
- founds temple of Saviour Artemis on his return from Crete: Paus. 2.31.1
- collects Athenians into one city: Paus. 1.22.3
- institutes worship of Vulgar Aphrodite: Paus. 1.22.3
- Panathenian games get their name in his time: Paus. 8.2.1
- false tradition that Theseus instituted democracy at Athens: Paus. 1.3.3
- goes with Herakles against the Amazons: Apollod. 2.1.5, Paus. 1.2.1, Paus. 5.11.4
- carries off Antiope or Hippolyte: Apollod. E.1.15
- carries off Amazon Antiope: Paus. 1.2.1
- vanquishes the Amazons at Athens: Apollod. E.1.16
- defeats Amazons in Attica or Troezenia: Paus. 1.15.2, Paus. 1.41.7, Paus. 2.32.9, Paus. 5.11.7
- said to have slain Timalcus, son of Megareus: Paus. 1.41.3ff.
- hunts Calydonian boar: Paus. 8.45.6
- refuses to surrender children of Herakles to Eurystheus: Paus. 1.32.6
- receives the banished Oedipus: Apollod. 3.5.9
- with the Athenians, captures Thebes and gives the Argive dead to be buried: Apollod. 3.7.1, Paus. 1.39.2ff.
- has a son Hippolytus by the Amazon: Apollod. 2.1.5
- marries Phaedra: Apollod. E.1.16, Paus. 1.22.2
- sends Hippolytus to Troezen: Paus. 1.22.2
- curses his son Hippolytus: Apollod. E.1.16
- by his curses causes death of Hippolytus: Paus. 2.27.4
- father of Acamas and Demophon: Apollod. E.1.16, Apollod. E.5.21
- banished by Menestheus: Apollod. E.1.22, Apollod. E.1.24
- father of Demophon: Paus. 10.25.7
- father of Melanippus by daughter of Sinis: Paus. 10.25.7
- kills the fifty sons of Pallas: Apollod. E.1.11
- slays Pallas and his sons: Paus. 1.22.2
- tried for slaughter of Pallas and his sons: Paus. 1.28.10
- goes to Troezen to be purified: Paus. 1.22.2
- killed by Lycomedes: Apollod. 2.4.1
- goes to Scyros: Paus. 1.17.6
- treacherously murdered there by Lycomedes: Paus. 1.17.6
- his bones brought back from Scyros to Athens by Cimon, Paus. 1.17.6, Paus. 3.3.7
- sanctuaries of Theseus: Paus. 1.17.2, 6, Paus. 1.30.4
- Theseus at battle of Marathon: Paus. 1.15.3
- sacrifice offered by Athenians to Theseus and Poseidon at Rhium: Paus. 10.11.6
- pictures of Theseus at Athens, Olympia, and Delphi: Paus. 1.3.3, Paus. 1.15.2, 3, Paus. 1.17.2, 3, Paus. 5.11.5, Paus. 10.29.9
- statues and images: Paus. 1.3.1, Paus. 1.8.4, Paus. 1.24.1, Paus. 1.27.8, Paus. 4.32.1, Paus. 5.11.4, Paus. 10.10.1
- images of Theseus in all Greek gymnasiums: Paus. 4.32.1
- Theseus sculptured in gables of temples at Olympia and Tegea: Paus. 5.10.8, Paus. 8.45.6
- represented in relief on throne of Apollo at Amyclae: Paus. 3.18.15, 16, on chest of Cypselus: Paus. 5.19.1, and on footstool of Zeus at Olympia: Paus. 5.11.7
- rock of Theseus: Paus. 2.32.7
- sons of Theseus flee to Euboea: Paus. 1.17.6
- sons of Theseus in Wooden Horse: Paus. 1.23.8
- altar of children of Theseus at Phalerum: Paus. 1.1.4