Classical Mythology

Polis and Hero: Theseus

Aegeus, King of Athens, consulting the Delphic Oracle. Tondo of a cup attributed to the Kodrus Painter, ca 430. Berlin, Antikensammlung.

Theseus’s rock at Troezen.

The Adventures of Theseus

Theseus and the Minotaur (detail). Master of the Campana Cassone, early XVI. Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais.

Ariadne and Dionysus. Derveni krater, IV. Thessaloniki, Archaeological Museum.

Geranos-dance ("crane dance"). Relief pithos from Tinos, VII.

François vase, details of Theseus’s Cretan adventure. Athenian volute krater by Cleitias and Ergotimus ca 570. Florence, Museo archeologico.

Theseus and the Minotaur (detail). Master of the Campana Cassone, early XVI. Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais.

Knossos, plan and aerial view.Sir Arthur Evans. Portrait by Sir William Richmond, before 1921. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum.

Bull-leaping fresco from palace of Knossos, XVII. Herakleion, Archaeological Museum.

The Deeds of Theseus. Athenian red-figured cup by the Kodros Painter, 430s. London, British Museum.

Cercyon

Procrustes

Sciron

Bull of Marathon

Sinis

The Sow of Crommyon

Sinis

The Sow of Crommyon, Phaea

Sciron

Cercyon

Procrustes

Bull of Marathon

Theseus attacking an Amazon. Athenian red-figured dinos from the Group of Polygnotus, 440s.

Model of Temple of Zeus, Olympia, 470-457

Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs. Western pediment of the Temple of Zeus, 460s

Pierre Narcisse Guerin, Phèdre et Hippolyte, early XIX. Paris, musée du Louvre

Helen Mirren as Phèdre and Dominic Cooper as Hippolyte in Jean Racine’s Phèdre (1677), translated by Ted Hughes, at the National Theater, London, June 2009.

Above, an assembly of gods: Pan, Apollo, Athena, Aphrodite and Poseidon. Below, an old retainer watches as a Fury and a bull terrify Hippolytus' team so that he falls to his death. The scene was perhaps inspired by Euripides' Hippolytus.Apulian pottery red-figured volute-krater by the Darius Painter, ca 330. London, British Museum.

The Athenian Treasury at Delphi, early V. Metopes 1-8 show the deeds of Theseus; 9-14 an Amazonomachy, and 15-27 the deeds of Heracles.