Theseus in Greek Mythology: Minotaur Slayer, King of Athens

Theseus was the national hero of Athens: the prince who cleared the road from Troezen of murderous bandits, killed the Minotaur in the labyrinth of Crete and, as king, united the towns of Attica into a single city. He was the son of Aethra and of either the Athenian king Aegeus or the sea god Poseidon. Our fullest account is Plutarch's Life of Theseus.

Theseus quick facts

Who was Theseus' father, Aegeus or Poseidon?

Both. The childless Aegeus was told by the Delphic oracle not to open his wineskin until he reached home. At Troezen, King Pittheus understood the riddle and arranged for Aegeus to sleep with his daughter Aethra. Apollodorus adds that Poseidon lay with her the same night. Plutarch, more skeptical, suggests Pittheus spread the Poseidon story to give the boy a grander birth.

Aegeus hid a sword and sandals under a heavy rock: if Aethra bore a son strong enough to lift it, he should bring the tokens to Athens. Plutarch says Theseus moved the rock as a young man and chose the dangerous road overland, wanting to match Heracles.

In Bacchylides' Ode 17, Theseus stands up to Minos on the voyage to Crete when the king lays hands on one of the Athenian girls. Minos, a son of Zeus, throws a gold ring into the sea and dares Theseus to prove his own divine father by fetching it. Theseus dives in, is received by Amphitrite in Poseidon's palace and comes back up dry, proving whose son he is.

What were the six labors of Theseus?

On the road to Athens, Theseus met six killers and mostly gave them the deaths they had dealt to others (Plutarch and Apollodorus).

What happened when Theseus reached Athens?

He found Medea married to Aegeus. Seeing a threat, she persuaded the king to poison the stranger at a banquet. Plutarch says Theseus drew his sword to carve the meat so his father would notice it; Aegeus knocked the cup away, recognized his son and drove Medea out.

Theseus then captured the Marathonian bull and sacrificed it to Apollo. In Apollodorus the order is reversed: Medea first sends him against the bull, hoping it will kill him, and tries the poison only when he survives.

How did Theseus kill the Minotaur?

After Minos' son Androgeos was killed in Attica, Minos forced Athens to send seven young men and seven young women to Crete, every nine years according to Plutarch. They were shut in the labyrinth built by Daedalus and fed to the Minotaur, the bull-headed son of Minos' wife Pasiphae.

Theseus sailed with the third group. Minos' daughter Ariadne fell in love with him and gave him a ball of thread to find his way back out. Apollodorus says Daedalus suggested the trick, and that Theseus killed the Minotaur in the innermost part of the labyrinth with his fists. More on the creature in our guide to mythological monsters.

Why did Theseus abandon Ariadne?

On the way home Theseus left Ariadne asleep on the island of Naxos (called Dia in some sources). The ancient authors do not agree on why:

• Dionysus claimed her. Apollodorus says Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off.
• Theseus loved someone else. Plutarch quotes a line of Hesiod saying Theseus was consumed by love for Aegle.
• He simply deserted her. Catullus 64 and Ovid's Heroides 10 give Ariadne's own lament as a woman betrayed.
• She died. In Homer's Odyssey, Artemis kills Ariadne on Dia on the word of Dionysus.

Why is it called the Aegean Sea?

Aegeus had told his son to swap the ship's black sail for a white one if he came home alive. Theseus forgot. Seeing the black sail, Aegeus believed his son was dead and threw himself to his death. Pausanias says he leapt from the Acropolis; Hyginus says he leapt into the sea, which was then named the Aegean after him. Catullus 64 makes the lapse a punishment: Ariadne's curse made Theseus forget.

What did Theseus do as king of Athens?

According to Thucydides, Theseus merged the scattered towns of Attica under one council and one government at Athens, an act still marked by a festival in Thucydides' day. Plutarch adds that he founded the Panathenaea and gave up some royal power to the people. Plutarch also records the ship of Theseus, kept for centuries with its rotten planks replaced one by one, which philosophers debated as a puzzle about identity.

Who were Theseus' wives?

The Amazon. Theseus, alone or with Heracles, carried off an Amazon queen. Plutarch calls her Antiope; Apollodorus notes that some call her Melanippe and that the poet Simonides called her Hippolyta. The Amazons invaded Attica to recover her and were defeated at Athens. Their son was Hippolytus.

Phaedra. Theseus later married Ariadne's sister Phaedra. In Euripides' Hippolytus, Aphrodite makes Phaedra fall in love with her chaste stepson, who worships only Artemis. Rejected, she hangs herself, leaving a tablet accusing him. Theseus curses his son with one of three wishes Poseidon granted him; a bull from the sea panics Hippolytus' horses and he is dragged to death.

Did Theseus go to the underworld?

Yes, with his friend Pirithous, king of the Lapiths. The two first abducted the young Helen of Sparta; her brothers Castor and Polydeuces rescued her and took Aethra captive. Then Pirithous resolved to marry Persephone, and the pair went down to Hades to take her.

Apollodorus says Hades seated them on the Chair of Forgetfulness, where they stuck fast. Heracles, come for Cerberus, pulled Theseus free, but the earth shook when he tried to raise Pirithous, who stayed below. Plutarch rationalizes the story into a raid on a mortal king of the Molossians who kept a dog named Cerberus.

How did Theseus die?

While he was away, Menestheus turned the Athenians against him. Exiled to Skyros, Theseus was led up a high place by King Lycomedes and pushed off. Plutarch says the Athenians later believed his ghost fought for them at Marathon, and that around 475 BC, following an oracle, the general Cimon found his bones on Skyros and brought them home to Athens.

In the sources

• Plutarch, Life of Theseus — the fullest biography, often weighing rival versions.
• Apollodorus, Library and Epitome — a compact summary of the whole life.
• Bacchylides, Odes 17 and 18 — the dive to Poseidon's palace and the road to Athens.
• Euripides, Hippolytus — Phaedra's passion and Hippolytus' death.
• Catullus 64 and Ovid, Heroides 10 and Metamorphoses — Ariadne abandoned.
• Homer, Odyssey Book 11; Thucydides, Book 2; Pausanias, Description of Greece; Hyginus, Fabulae.

Where the sources disagree:

• His father. Aegeus or Poseidon, or both on the same night (Apollodorus); Plutarch suspects Pittheus invented the divine version.
• Medea and the bull. Plutarch has the poisoning first; Apollodorus sends Theseus against the bull first.
• Ariadne. Taken by Dionysus (Apollodorus), deserted for Aegle (Hesiod in Plutarch), or killed by Artemis (Homer).
• The Amazon bride. Antiope, Melanippe or Hippolyta.
• Aegeus' leap. From the Acropolis (Pausanias) or into the sea (Hyginus).

In popular culture

• Mary Renault, The King Must Die (1958) and The Bull from the Sea (1962). Theseus as a Bronze Age prince who becomes a bull-leaper in Crete, with the monsters explained away. The realism is Renault's; the outline is Plutarch's.
• Immortals (2011). Henry Cavill plays Theseus as a peasant fighting the tyrant Hyperion over a magic bow, with Phaedra as an oracle. Almost none of this is ancient.
• Hades (Supergiant Games, 2020). Theseus and the Minotaur Asterius fight side by side as a boss pair, a joke on the myth in which Theseus kills him.

For more films, see our list of Greek mythology movies.

Keep exploring

Medea reached Athens after the voyage in Jason in Greek mythology, and Theseus' model and rescuer has his own page in Heracles in Greek mythology. Browse the Greek gods family tree or try the Greek mythology quiz.