THESEUS

1. THESEUS Kirk, Chris, Gabriel, Laura

2. Heroic Qualities Flaws • Trust issues • Too much pride • Dose not keep promises • Adventurous • Strong • Fair leader • Kind • Model Citizen • Brave

3. Quest: To get sword and shoes from under the stone • When the king of Athens, Aegeus, has his son, Theseus, he tells his mother to take Theseus to the stone. If Theseus was able to lift it and take the sword and pair of shoes he could go to Athens and claim • Aegeus as his father. When his mother finally took him to the stone he lifted it with no problem and headed to Athens to look for his father.

4. Task: To go to Athens Theseus mother and grandfather had a ship ready for him to go to Athens by sea but because of the many bandits, robbers, he decided to go by land. Once he got to Athens he was known as a hero since he had cleared the land. Because of this the King, who was also his father and didn’t know it, invited him to dinner so he could poison and kill him since he was afraid that the people would make him king since he was so well liked. During dinner Theseus drew his sword and the King quickly recognized it and knowledge him as his son.

5. Task: To kill the Minotaur and save the children • Many years before Theseus arrived to Athens, Minos invaded the country and swore that he would destroy it unless every nine years Athens sent seven maidens and seven youths to be killed and eaten by The Minotaur. The Minotaur was the son of Mino and his wife Pasiphae, he was half bull, half human. • The Minotaur was put into a labyrinth and once anyone went in it was impossible to come out. • After a while of Theseus being in Athens he finally offered himself as one of the victims to go to the labyrinth, maze, where The Minotaur was.

6. Theseus had a plan, he would go to the labyrinth and kill The Minotaur and save all of the children and maidens. He fasten a string to himself and attached the end of it on the door to be able to find his way back. Once he found The Minotaur asleep he killed him with his sword and led the rest of the victims to the way out. Before he had killed The Minotaur he promised Ariadne, Minos’ daughter, that if they escaped he would marry her. On their way back to Athens by sea they stopped in the island of Naxos and abandoned Ariadne. Once he got to Athens he was supposed to change the flag to white so he could indicate to the king, his father, that he was alive if it was left black it meant that he had died. Since Theseus didn’t change the flag to white his father thought he was dead and killed himself, leaving Theseus to be the king of Athens.

7. Motif and Theme: • Motif: Fate • Theme: Even if you try to change the way things go or are you can never change your fate. • Democracy over Tyranny

8. Hero: Theseus Theseus shows he is a true hero by: • Clearing the land of the banes to travelers • Killing the Minotaur • Saving most of the youths and maidens from the labyrinth and the Minotaur • Came back to Athens and became king bringing happiness and equality • Protected and secured Attica for as long as he lived • Saved Pirithous’ wife from a Centaur, half man half horse, and killed it

9. Sacrificial Victim: Pirithoüs Pirithoüs cold be portrayed as a sacrificial victim because after Theseus kidnapped Helen who had two brothers, Castor and Pollux. They looked for Theseus to get Helen back but he was already on his way to the underworld with Pirithoüs. Once they both got there the Lord of Hades sat them down in a chair called the Chair of Forgetfulness, which was a chair that erased your memory once you sat on it. Hercules came to Theseus rescue but could not save Pirithoüs and he sat there forever. Since he stayed there forever so Theseus could be saved he is considered a sacrificial victim.

10. Unfaithful Wife: Phaedra Theseus married Phaedra and had son named Hippolytus. When Hippolytus was born they sent him away to where Theseus had grown up, in which he grew into a good man and better athlete. Although Hippolytus hated people who lived a wealthy life and people who believed in love he looked up to his father Theseus. Once Theseus went back to the see his son with his wife Phaedra, Phaedra fell in love with him and when she confessed this love for him he denied her . After her denial her only solution was to kill herself. This shows how Phaedra was unfaithful and in love with not only another man but her stepson.

11. Story Summation Our hero, Theseus, learned that no matter what he did he couldn’t overcome or alter his fate. Even though he went to Athens, killed the Minotaur, got saved from the Chair of Forgetfulness and made up with his son he could never change how he would die. When Theseus went to the court of his friend King Lycomedes he got killed by the King who he thought was his friend. This shows that no matter what Theseus did he could never change or overcome his fate.

12. Culture Values in Story • Family and loyalty to the family members was a big value that many people had • Helping people who had helped them in the past • Revenge to anyone who had done them wrong no matter how much time had passed. • Democracy is best