Who is theseus father

Article Navigation. Close mobile search navigation Article Navigation. Volume Theseus and his parents and stepmother. Select Format Select format. Permissions Icon Permissions. Article PDF first page preview. School of Advanced Studies, University of London. Issue Section:. You do not currently have access to this article.

Download all slides. Sign in Don't already have an Oxford Academic account? The mix gave Theseus a combination of divine as well as mortal characteristics in his nature;. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams?

Learn more. Who was the father of Theseus? Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 6 months ago. Active 3 years, 6 months ago. Viewed 3k times. Who was his father? Improve this question. Andrew Johnson 6, 2 2 gold badges 24 24 silver badges 74 74 bronze badges. I've heard of Theseus' paternity being in question, but the confusion is usually between Aegeus, a King, and Poseidon.

I haven't heard of Zeus being his father - could you clarify where that myth is from? Ah, I see. Now, he could have taken the easy route to Athens by sea, but he chose the dangerous land route because he wanted to have plenty of opportunities to perform heroic deeds. He had heard of the great deeds of Heracles, of course, and he wanted to show that Heracles was not the only hero in Greece.

Theseus could not defeat him with brute strength, but he was clever and quick as well as being strong, so he managed to maneuver around Periphetes and take away his club. Once Theseus had the club, it was not difficult to overpower and kill Periphetes. Having done so, Theseus continued on his journey. Theseus did the same to Sinis. He then decided to go a little out of his way to kill the Crommyonian Sow.

He dispatched her easily and returned to his journey, stopping next at the Sceironian Rocks, named for the thief who lived at the top, Sceiron. This thief would terrorize travelers by forcing them to wash his feet and while they were doing that, kick them off the cliffs to a giant turtle living below them which would eat the travelers.

Theseus defeated Sceiron by taking a hold of the thief by the legs before he could kick and threw him over the edge. The two last major deeds Theseus accomplished along the way happened just outside Athens. First, he met the King of Eleusis, Cercyon, who would challenge anyone who passed by to a boxing match and kill his opponent.

Theseus overpowered him with his speed and killed Cercyon. Again, Theseus treated his foe to the same punishment he dealt out to his victims. Finally, Theseus arrived in Athens and went to the palace of Aegeus. Tales of his deeds on his journey had arrived before he did. Aegeus was impressed and invited the young hero to feast with him. Medea was a witch, and by this time sixteen years after Aegeus had consulted the oracle she had married Aegeus and had born him a son, Medon.

Needless to say, Medea and Medon were banished from Athens. The Athenians had to do this every nine years to atone for a previous crime. When Theseus heard about this, he was appalled that Athens — which was a great and powerful city — was so subservient to King Minos of Crete. So Theseus volunteered to be one of the youths taken. Theseus vowed to kill the Minotaur, to bring back all the Athenian youths and maidens alive, and to free Athens from such a terrible burden.

Aegeus was distraught; he had finally found the son he had longed for, and now the boy was about to be taken away again. But he finally agreed to let his son go because Theseus was doing it for such a noble cause. But Aegeus asked only one thing. Theseus agreed, and they all sailed to Crete. Now the Minotaur was a monster, half-man and half-bull, who lived in the labyrinth [See Minotaur ].

Ariadne knew that Theseus would need her help to kill the Minotaur and then escape from the labyrinth. So, she secretly visited Theseus in prison, the night before the Athenians were going to be fed to the Minotaur, and she gave him a sword and a ball of thread. She told him to tie the thread to the entrance of the labyrinth, and, after he had killed the Minotaur, he could use the thread to find his way out again.