Transcript The Begetting of Theseus

Chapter 16
Lecture Two of Two
Theseus
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THE BEGETTING OF THESEUS
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The Begetting of Theseus
• Aegeus, a king of Athens, had no sons
• Delphi: do not open the wine skins until you
return home
• At Troezen, Pittheus understands the
prophecy
• Sends his daughter Aethra
• Poseidon also gets involved
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The Begetting of Theseus
The sword and the sandal (Fig. 16.6).
(© Trustees of the British Museum / Art Resource, New York
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THE LABORS OF THESEUS
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Fig. 16.7 The Labors of Theseus
(© Trustees of the British Museum / Art Resource, New York
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The Labors of Theseus
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Periphetes, the Clubber
Sinis, the Pinebender
Cormmyonian Sow
Sciron
Circyon
Procrustes
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ARRIVAL AT ATHENS
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Arrival at Athens
• Under a spell cast by Medea, Aegeus doesn’t
realize that this is his son
• Aegeus sends him out to kill a bull on the
plains of Marathon
• Then she tries to poison him, but Aegeus
recognizes his own sword in time – Medea
flees
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Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Fig. 16.9
Theseus and the bull of Marathon.
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Fig. 16.8
Aegeus greets Theseus in Athens.
Musée du Louvre, Paris; Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, New York
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THESEUS AND ANTIOPÊ
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Theseus and Antiopê
• On his way back from his adventure in Crete
with the Minotaur (Chapter 17), Theseus
forgets to change the ship’s flag to white
• Aegeus drowns himself in the sea (Aegean
Sea)
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Theseus and Antiopê
• Athens is “founded” again with Theseus’s wise
reforms
– Synoicism
– Festival: Panathenaia
– social reforms: classes
– assembly
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Theseus and Antiopê
• Goes off in search of more adventure
– Abducts the Queen of the Amazons: Hippolyta or
Antiopê
• Leads to an Amazonomachy in Athens
– The Areopagus
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The Amazons
PERSPECTIVES
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The Amazons
• Mythic homeland is north of the Black Sea
(southern modern-day Russia)
– a mazos ?
– constructed the temple to Artemis at Ephesus?
• A purely myth invention
– the world turned upside down
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The Amazons
• Contrary to the ideal for the Athenian woman
– Always defeated by Greek heroes
• Given political significance after the Battle of
Marathon
– The Amazonomachy identified with the Athenian
victory over the Persians
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Fig. 16.10
Theseus and Perithous battle a
mounted Amazon.
Museo Etrusco Gregoriano/Photo Vatican Museums
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THESEUS AND HIPPOLYTUS
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Theseus and Hippolytus
•
•
•
•
Remarries to Phaedra, a daughter of Minos
Their son is Hippolytus
Story told by Euripides in his Hippolytus
Hippolytus worships only Artemis and neglects
Aphrodite
• Aphrodite makes Phaedra, his mother-in-law,
lust after him
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Theseus and Hippolytus
• The slave intermediary
• Hippolytus curses women, but vows not to tell
anyone
• Phaedra kills herself, but leaves behind a note
for Theseus
• Theseus orders Poseidon to kill Hippolytus
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Perspective 16
In Boccaccio's De casibus virorum
illustrium, Phaedra admits how she
falsely accused Hippolytus.
(© British Library Board. All Rights Reserved. Harley 1766, f.39
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Folktale of “Potiphar’s Wife"
OBSERVATIONS
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Folktale of “Potiphar’s Wife"
• Story of the Two Brothers
– Anubis (not the god)
– Bata
• Joseph and Potiphar’s wife
• Bellerophon and the wife of King Proteus
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EXPLOITS OF THESEUS AND
PIRITHOÜS
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Exploits of Theseus and Pirithoüs
• The Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapiths (at
Perithoüs’s wedding to a Hippodamia)
• Caeneus (formerly Caenis)
• The two now seek appropriate wives
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Exploits of Theseus and Pirithoüs
• Theseus tries for Helen, but she is too young
and is sent away for safekeeping
• The two visit the underworld for Pirithoüs’s
choice: Persephonê
• They are trapped but Theseus is eventually
rescued by Heracles
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Fig. 16.11 Heracles and Theseus
Johannes Laurentius/Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, New York
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DEATH OF THESEUS
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Death of Theseus
• Lost favor of the people of Athens and
expelled by Menestheus of Athens
• Fled to Scyros, King Lycomedes
• Killed by the king
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Myth and Propaganda
OBSERVATIONS
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Myth and Propaganda
• Theseus originally a minor figure
• Becomes more important with the rise of
Athens beginning in the 6th century
– Theseïs
• Expansion and popularization begins with
Pisistratus
– Uses Theseus to glorify his own accomplishments
for the city
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Myth and Propaganda
• After the Pisistratid dynasty fell from
popularity, Theseus remade again
– To a hero of democracy and the defender of
freedom
• Cimon (son of Miltiades)
– Modeled some of his career leading the Athenian
rise to empire after Theseus
– The “bones” of Theseus; new festivals to Theseus;
leader of Ionian Greeks against Sparta
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End
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