Greetings fans of Greek and Roman mythology! After having recently written about Hades, Hephaestus, and Ares, I'm going to take a break from the major Olympians and tell some of fabulous tales of the heroes, beginning with Theseus.
Aethra, Queen of Athens, has given birth to a baby boy, Theseus! A joyful event to be sure, except for the fact that Athens, led by her husband, King Aegeus, is at war with King Minos of Crete. King Aegeus and Queen Aethra together determine that it is not safe for Theseus to remain in war-torn Athens, so Aethra, with a retinue of slaves, departs for the countryside to the land of Troezen, where she raises Theseus.
Theseus grew into a very powerful young man. Not only was he good at hunting, throwing the spear, and wielding the sword, but he could out wrestle anyone else his age. One day, upon his 16th birthday, Theseus begged his mother Aethra to tell him where and who his father was. Relenting, she led him out into a field in which there was a huge boulder. She said that if Theseus could roll aside the boulder, he would be old enough to know who his father was. Theseus, excited by this proclamation, did not roll aside the boulder, but picked it up and hurled it away instead!
Theseus found, to his great astonishment, a pair of sandals and a sword lying underneath, ancient symbols of royalty. Theseus looked towards his mother in puzzlement. Aethra told Theseus that his father had given these to her for safe keeping, and were not to be given to him until he had reached the age of manhood.
The goodbye was heart-wrenching for Aethra, but Theseus was more than thrilled to set off for Athens to discover his long-lost father. The journey, however, was not to be easy, in fact it was not easy at all. The Labors of Theseus were four, and required not only strength to complete, but also brains.
The countryside through which Theseus was traveling alone was beset by thieves and robbers. The great oaf Corunetes first attacked Theseus with his great brazen (bronze) club. Although Theseus did not match Corunetes in strength, he was more agile than he was, and soon Corunetes was panting with exhaustion; Theseus easily finished him off, and commandeered his club, which he kept with him ever after.
Theseus next was walking innocently along when all of a sudden he heard a slight sound beneath him—it was a trap! Because Theseus had such great dexterity he was able to leap out of the way of a rope just in time.
The rope would have encircled him, stretching him to the breaking point as two pliant pine trees snapped upwards, holding the victim of the trap at full arms’ length, and then some, spreadeagled and unable to move. Theseus managed to reset the trap, and then lured Sinis, the creator of the trap, into it. The second robber was thus defeated by his own diabolical trap.
Theseus continued along, quite pleased with himself, until he was walking along a cliffside, the sea roaring beneath him. Suddenly he came upon an old man, Sciron by name, who asked him if he would help him tie his sandal as he had a hard time bending over due to a bad back. Theseus gladly acquiesced, his back to the cliff. Suddenly the old man tried to kick Theseus over the cliff, but luckily Theseus was so dexterous and agile that he managed to dodge and fling Sciron over the cliff instead! There he saw that a huge turtle devoured the robber, who was in league with the turtle: Sciron would kick unwary travelers over the edge of the precipice, the turtle would eat them, but would spit out all their valuables, which Sciron gathered for his own. The third labor was completed.
Theseus, tired after a long journey, approached an inn. There he met an innkeeper, whose name was Procrustes. Procrustes said that he had a special bed for Theseus that he would certainly enjoy after his long journey. Unbeknownst to Theseus, Procrustes would tie sleeping travelers to this bed, and cut off their legs if they were too long for the bed, or stretch them until their limbs popped if they were too short. Luckily Theseus was a light sleeper; as soon as Procrusted snuck into the room where he was sleeping and started tying on the bonds, Theseus figured out what he was up to and dodged him nimbly. He tied Procrustes to his own iron bed, leaving him to rot.
Theseus at long last reached Athens, a little bit disenchanted with the world. As he walked into the city, he noticed that everyone was sad, wearing black clothes of mourning. Puzzled, he approached an old man, who told him this sad tale:
“Today is the day that 7 youths and 7 maidens are to be chosen to be sent to Crete to be eaten by the Minotaur, a horrible half-man, half-bull. No one knows for sure how the horrible Minotaur came to live at the palace of King Minos at Knossos; some say that Pasiphae gave birth to this man monster, others that it was sent as a curse by the gods. The toddler Minotaur was an absolute terror, running about the palace and ramming his horns into everything, smashing everything into smithereens. Finally both Minos and Pasiphae had had enough, so they hired Daedalus, the great inventor, to create a home for the Minotaur. Daedalus invented the Labyrinth, a place that one could never escape from after entering because of its winding passages that completely confused those who entered. After the Minotaur was placed within the Labyrinth, no amount of food could satisfy his hunger. He would wail and caterwaul and cry so loudly that everyone in the palace was going insane. Whole cows, huge sows, enormous boars were fed to him, but nothing availed. Until one day, one of Minos’s slaves died, and, in his desperation, King Minos fed the corpse to the Minotaur, and he was quiet for a month.
After King Aegeus lost the war to King Minos, one of the conditions of the treaty was that the Athenians must send 7 youths and 7 maidens to be eaten by the Minotaur once every 9 years. This is now the 3rd time we have to do it. This horrible condition was for the payment of the death of King Minos’s son, Androgeos. So today is that same fateful day. Alas and alack!”
What will Theseus do? How much tougher can life get? 4 nasty robbers! A man-eating Minotaur! His father’s city in mourning, having to send away 14 of its children! Stay tuned for my next blog post as I continue the mighty story of Theseus and the Minotaur!!
Book Corner: Check out Rick Riordan's new book, The Heroes of Olympus, Book One: The Lost Hero. My students all say they love it!
*Interesting Fact* The people of Crete were known as the Minoans, after their traditional King Minos.
*Interesting Fact* The Minotaur comes from two different words: Mino- comes via Minos, and taur comes from the Latin taurus, bull, or Greek tauros, bull. Hence, the Minotaur was the Bull of Minos.
*Interesting Fact* The palace of King Minos at the capital of Crete, Knossos, was labyrinthine in form, with many winding halls and many,many rooms in which it was easy to get lost.
*Interesting Fact* The Minoans were into bull-leaping or bull-vaulting , in which the bull vaulter would valiantly run forth head on towards a bull, leap into the air, place his hands between his horns (hence becoming one with the bull, or a half-man, half-bull for a fraction of a second) and gracefully leap over the bull, just as the modern vault is performed today in gymnastics. And you thought that today's gymnastics were difficult!
*Interesting Fact* The word “Procrustean” refers to someone who deliberately and forcefully tries to make others conform to existing modes of thought, even in a violent fashion. What is the connection between the meaning of this word (a mythological eponym) and the robber Procrustes?
*Interesting Fact* The personal name of the Minotaur was Asterion or Asterius.
Interested in English vocabulary and its Latin and Greek roots? Take a look at
www.wordempire.com, a site which describes the most comprehensive dictionary available based on English derivatives that come from Latin and Greek root words.
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