Theseus and Athens

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Theseus and Athens

The city of Athens ascribes its name according to mythical lore to Athena , the Goddess , and that it was founded by Sais , a native of Egypt It is also known that it was Theseus , son of King Aegeus , who was responsible for making the city into a real kingdom . According to Plutarch : Theseus suppressed crime and brought the natives of Attica together into the first democracy . He saved the Athenian children from the Minotaur , but his kidnap of the queen of the Amazons

brought trouble , and he ended his days in disgrace

The figures of myth are particularly important in the self definition of the city and its understanding of the world , because myths concern the distant past and can be retold in different ways , according to the examples that the society needs to draw from them (Mills ,1 ) Athenian literature has plenty of it . The myth surrounding the birth of Theseus has different versions . Theseus is considered as the great mythological hero of Athens . According to one version Poseidon , God of the sea , was his father and Aethra , daughter of Pittheus , his mother . However , more often Theseus ' father was known to be the Athenian king Aegeus According to this version King Aegeus , the ruler of Athens wanted a son who would be the heir to the throne . He therefore went to the oracle at Delphi for advice . The oracle advised Aegeus to refrain from intercourse with all women outside Athens . It also told him not to worry and sent him back to Athens with the instruction not to untie his wine skin until he returned home . On his way back he visited his friend Pittheus in Troezan to consult him , as he was considered to be a wise man and the words of the oracle seemed ambiguous to Aegeus . Pittheus understood the meaning of the oracle , and he deceived Aegeus . He got him drunk and then made him to lie with his daughter Aethra , who conceived that very night Aegeus , when he came to know that Aethra was pregnant through him put a sword and a pair of shoes under a large rock . He then gave her instructions that if she gave birth to a son who could lift up the rock the sword and shoes would be his . She was then to send their son to Athens but she had to keep this a secret from all , as he was frightened that if his brother Pallas 's fifty sons came to know about his son , his son 's life may be in danger . Aethra gave birth to Theseus , though Pittheus claimed that he was Poseidon 's son as mythology says that Aethra after having made love with Aegeus went to Poseidon that very night and lay with him . Theseus was thus raised in his maternal grandfather 's house at Troezan and he grew up to be a lad of immense courage and intelligence . When Theseus came of age his mother took...