40 Fun Facts About Theseus

Which dystopian series about child 'tributes' did its author base partly on the myth of Theseus?

The Hunger Games echoes the seven youths and seven maidens Athens had to send to the Minotaur. Suzanne Collins named the myth as her main classical inspiration.

The Ship of Theseus thought experiment asks if an object stays the same after what?

Every part is replaced in the puzzle, one plank at a time. Athenians were said to keep the hero's ship for centuries by swapping rotten timbers for new ones.

What did Ariadne give Theseus so he could find his way back out of the Labyrinth on Crete?

A ball of thread did the job: Theseus tied one end to the doorpost and unwound it on the way in. With the Minotaur dead, he simply followed it back out.

Theseus left for Crete under a black sail; in the usual telling, which colour meant he had lived?

White was the agreed signal, but Theseus forgot to change the sail. His father saw black on the horizon, took his son for dead and leapt to his death.

Which master craftsman built the Labyrinth on Crete that Theseus had to enter to kill the Minotaur?

Daedalus built the maze so cunningly that he could barely find his own way out of it. He later escaped the island with his son on home-made wings.

Which bandit killed by Theseus made guests fit his bed by stretching them or cutting them short?

Procrustes met the same end, made to fit his own bed. His name survives in 'Procrustean', for any rule that forces everything to one arbitrary size.

In most tellings, which hero pulled Theseus off a rock in the underworld but left his friend behind?

Heracles was passing through to fetch Cerberus, the last of his twelve labours. When he reached for the second prisoner the ground shook, so he gave up.

In which Shakespeare comedy is Theseus, Duke of Athens, busy preparing for his own wedding?

A Midsummer Night's Dream ties its tangled plots together with the wedding of Duke Theseus. Shakespeare cast him as Duke of Athens again in The Two Noble Kinsmen.

Which god found Ariadne on the island where Theseus had left her, and made her his wife?

Dionysus came upon her asleep on the shore, fell in love and married her. In some versions he had ordered Theseus to leave her there for him.

Which sorceress, once the wife of Jason, tried to poison Theseus when he first arrived in Athens?

Medea had married the king of Athens and wanted the throne for her own son. The king recognised Theseus just in time and knocked the poisoned cup away.

Which king of Athens, the mortal father of Theseus, leapt to his death at the sight of a black sail?

Aegeus believed the dark sail meant his son had died on Crete. In one telling he fell into the sea, which has carried his name ever since as the Aegean.

On which Greek island did Theseus leave Ariadne behind while sailing home from Crete?

Naxos is where most accounts say he abandoned her, though they disagree about why. The island later held festivals in her honour.

Besides a mortal king, Theseus was said to be the son of the Greek god of what?

The sea god Poseidon was said to have visited his mother on the same evening as the king of Athens. A double parentage, one mortal and one divine, was a mark of Greek heroes.

What did Theseus's father bury under a huge rock for his son to claim once he could lift it?

A sword and sandals lay under the rock as proof of royal birth. Years later the same tokens saved Theseus, when his father recognised them just before he drank poisoned wine.

In most tellings, a robber Theseus killed kicked travellers off a cliff to feed which sea creature?

A turtle waited under the rocks for each victim. Sciron made travellers kneel to wash his feet at the cliff edge, then kicked them over, until Theseus threw him down the same way.

Which daughter of Zeus did Theseus abduct as a girl, until her brothers Castor and Pollux freed her?

Helen was hidden with the hero's mother until she was old enough to marry. Her twin brothers came for her while Theseus was away and took both women back to Sparta.

Theseus went down to the underworld to help a friend carry off which goddess as a bride?

Persephone was already the wife of the lord of the dead. The plan failed at once: the two men sat down to rest in his realm and found they could not get up.

Which people attacked Athens after Theseus sailed home with one of their queens?

The Amazons reached the city itself before Theseus beat them in a battle near the Areopagus. Tellings differ on whether he seized their queen or she chose to go.

Which creatures got drunk at a Lapith wedding Theseus attended and tried to carry off the bride?

Centaurs were invited as guests, but the wine went to their heads. Theseus helped the Lapiths win the brawl, a fight later carved on the Parthenon.

Which sister of Ariadne later married Theseus and fell disastrously in love with her own stepson?

Phaedra was a daughter of King Minos, like the sister Theseus had abandoned. When her stepson refused her she accused him to his father, and the young man paid with his life.

Which king of the Lapiths became the closest friend of Theseus after first stealing his cattle?

Pirithous stole the herd to test the hero's reputation. When the two met to fight, each so admired the other that they swore an oath of friendship instead.

Which son of Theseus was dragged to death by his own chariot horses after his father cursed him?

Hippolytus had been falsely accused by his stepmother, and Theseus believed her. In the best-known version a monster rose from the sea, the horses bolted, and the truth came out too late.

Theseus captured a bull roaming which plain near Athens, later the site of a famous battle?

Marathon was where the beast had settled after breaking loose from its first captor. Theseus caught it alive and led it to Athens to be sacrificed.

Before Theseus was born, his childless father asked which oracle for advice and got only a riddle?

Delphi told him not to open the wineskin until he was back in Athens. He missed the meaning, but a wiser king he visited on the way understood it at once.

A king of Eleusis killed every traveller he beat at which sport, until Theseus defeated him at it?

Wrestling was how Cercyon murdered passers-by, forcing them into bouts against their will. Theseus was said to have won by skill rather than brute strength.

The bandit Sinis, whom Theseus killed near Corinth, murdered travellers by bending which trees?

Pines were bent to the ground and let go, tearing a victim apart in one telling and flinging him through the air in another. Theseus killed Sinis by his own method.

Which weapon did Theseus take from the first bandit he killed and carry as his own from then on?

A club was the weapon of Periphetes, a robber known as the Club-bearer who killed travellers with it. Theseus liked it so much that he kept it and went on using it himself.

Which daughter of King Pittheus was the mother of Theseus and raised him far from Athens?

Aethra kept his royal father's name from him until Theseus was strong enough to claim his birthright. She was later taken captive and lived as a slave at Troy until her grandsons found her there.

Which blind exile from Thebes did Theseus shelter at Colonus in a tragedy by Sophocles?

Oedipus repaid the kindness with a strange gift: his own grave, which he promised would bring Athens victory in any future war with Thebes.

Which actor played Theseus in the 2011 fantasy film Immortals before going on to play Superman?

Henry Cavill's Theseus fights King Hyperion, who wants a magic bow to free the Titans. One later review called the role an important precursor to his casting as the Man of Steel.

Athenians credited Theseus with uniting the scattered towns of which region into a single state?

Attica's towns had each run their own councils until Theseus was said to have closed them and set up one government in Athens. A feast of union was held in memory of it.

In which town across the Saronic Gulf from Athens, his mother's home, was Theseus born and raised?

Troezen was ruled by his grandfather, and Theseus grew up there not knowing who his father was. The rock he lifted to find out was still being shown to travellers centuries later.

Which queen of Crete, the wife of King Minos, gave birth to the Minotaur that Theseus later killed?

Pasiphaë was cursed by a god to fall in love with a bull her husband had failed to sacrifice. Their half-human offspring was shut away in the Labyrinth.

On which sacred island did Theseus and the rescued Athenians perform the winding Crane dance?

Delos was said to have kept the dance alive for centuries afterwards. Its twists and turns copied the circling passages of the Labyrinth.

In which of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales does Duke Theseus imprison the cousins Palamon and Arcite?

The Knight's Tale has both prisoners fall for the same woman, glimpsed from their cell window. Theseus first means to execute them, then lets a tournament decide who marries her.

On which island was Theseus said to have died, pushed from a cliff by its king, Lycomedes?

Skyros was where Theseus fled after losing his hold on Athens. By one account its king saw how the islanders honoured the famous guest and feared for his own throne.

Which Athenian general said he found the bones of Theseus on a conquered island and took them home?

Cimon said an eagle tearing at a mound showed him where to dig. He found the coffin of a huge man with a bronze spear, and Athens greeted the relics with processions.

By what personal name was the Minotaur, the monster of Crete killed by Theseus, also known?

Asterion was the name used on Crete itself, and it is linked to the Greek word for star. He shared it with the Cretan king who had raised Minos as a foster-son.

Which founder of information theory built a maze-solving mechanical mouse and named it Theseus?

Claude Shannon and his wife Betty built the mouse, which learned its way through a maze by trial and error. It is counted among the first experiments in artificial intelligence.

Which ancient biographer paired his Life of Theseus with a life of Romulus, the founder of Rome?

Plutarch matched the founder of Athens with the father of Rome as counterparts. He opened by admitting he was dealing in fable and hoping to make it submit to reason.