Theseus
possesses a prominent place among the Ionian heroes as he performed a great number of challenges, took part in
the Argonautic Expedition, fought with Hercules against the Amazons, but also
united all the cities of Attica giving
them the name Athens to honor goddess Athena ( who had beaten Poseidon in the fight for the city in the
years of Cecrops).
Theseus’ father was Aegeus and Aethra , daughter of the king of Troezen, was
his mother. Despite having already been wedded twice, Aegeus could not have a successor. For this reason,
he asked for an oracle from the sacred precinct of Apollo at Delphi. The
Delphic Sibyl, gave him the following oracle. : “Do not loosen the bulging
mouth of the wineskin, until you have reached Athens.”
Unable to
understand the meaning of the oracle, he visited Pittheus king of Troezen
renowned for his wisdom, to consult him.
Pittheus realized that Aegeus would soon have a son, and
that the will of the gods was that this child be born in Athens, in order to
provide continuity in the generation of the king. But he pretended he could not
interpret the oracle. Pittheus who had a daughter of marriageable age Aethra,
took this occasion to hold a feast in honor of Aegeus. Wine flowed abundantly,
and in the end Aegeus being drunk, spent
the night with Aethra. The next morning, realizing what he had done, he told Aethra that if a child was acquired from
intercourse with her the previous night, the event should be kept in
secret as Pallantides , the 50 sons of
his brother Pallanta, claimed his throne.
Leaving, he placed his
sword and a pair of sandals under a rock, and told Aethra that if the child were a boy, when he became a teenager, he would have
to lift the rock , take the sword and sandals and go to
Athens to find him.
So, Aethra gave birth
to a boy ,Theseus, who grew up in Troezen. He was 7 years of age, when Hercules
visited Troezen. Theseus was playing with other children when they saw
Hercules, approach wearing his terrible lion skin. And while all the kids were scared and ran to
hide, Theseus, believing that the lion's hide was a real lion, grabbed an ax
and lunged at Hercules to kill the lion, catching him unawares!
When
Theseus was 16, Aethra led him to where his father Aegeus, had left his sword and
sandals. Theseus lifted the large stone with ease, and decided to go to Athens
to find his father Aegeus. The lifting of the rock (world of matter)
represents the ability to free oneself from such circumstances and to acquire the
sandals (which would allow him to proceed on his spiritual path) and sword
symbol of the spirit. (We can find
parallels in this story with King). Essentially, one’s consciousness and their
heroic qualities have developed sufficiently to allow them to take further substantial
steps upon their spiritual journey.
His grandfather
Pittheus and his mother Aethra, begged him to travel by boat because the road
was extremely dangerous and full of brigands. But Theseus wanted to defeat the brigands
and become a hero like Hercules, whom he so deeply admired.
The challenges
1. On the way to Athens, his first trial was to confront the
notorious brigand Periphetes, Hephaestus’ son, who was active in Arahneo mountain, near Epidaurus. There, Periphetes
waited in ambush for passers-by to kill them with a large metal club that is
why he was also called Korynitis. (the «κορύνη» means club in ancient Greek.)
After Theseus killed Periphetes he took the club with him.
2. When Theseus reached
Kenchreai near Corinth, he met Poseidon’s son, Sinis the Pityocamptes
. Sinis killed passers-by
by tying them on bent pine tops
which he suddenly released, thus
, tearing his victims in half. Sinis was
defeated after a short battle and was punished in the way his victims died, by Theseus.
3. Passing by Corinth, he arrived in Krommyona. There he
killed the Cromyonian Sow, Phaea, offspring
of Typhon and Echidna and mother of Calydonian
and ERYMANTHOS boar, which caused disasters in the region.
4. Then in Skironides Stones (current Wicked Skala), met Sciron
Corinth’s son and Pelops’ grandson, at a
point where the road ended in a narrow path, which could only take a single traveler. There Sciron made
passers-by bend over to wash his feet. Then he kicked them and they fell over the cliff, where a huge
carnivorous turtle devoured them. Theseus
paid Sciron in the same coin, and
later went to the beach and killed the turtle
turning its shell into a shield.
5. At Eleusis Theseus defeated
Poseidon’s son Cercyon, the wrestler, who challenged passers-by to a
death wrestling match. Theseus beat Cercyon
at wrestling and then killed him by lifting
him high up and dropping him with force.
6. In his sixth feat, Theseus encountered Poseidon’s son Procrustes, the bandit. Procrustes offered
hospitality to passers-by, but asked them to lie down in the two beds he had.
He placed the tall ones on a short bed and the short ones on a long bed. He cut
off the protruding limbs of the tall ones and stretched the limbs of the short
ones to meet the bed size. After having finished with torturing them, he killed
them and took their money.
Procrustes followed
the fate of the former bandits. Theseus turned the tables on Procrustes,
cutting off his legs the same way he did with his victims.
Theseus was then
welcomed in the Sacred Road by Fytalides offering sacrifice to Zeus, purging
him of the murders he had committed.
At that time Aegeus was married to the sorceress
Medea, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis. Medea , unlike Aegeus, knew Theseus’ identity. Medea warned Aegeus
that Theseus will come to conquer his
kingdom not revealing to him that it was
his son, who had now come of age. In this way
she persuaded him to kill Theseus when he arrived
in Athens.
Indeed, Aegeus
welcomed Theseus,
whose exploits
had already made him famous in the city, with honors, and organized a symposium
where he offered wine with poison, influenced by Medea’s
lies. During the ceremony of libation
Theseus raised his sword to cut a piece of the sacrificed animal. At that moment,
Aegeus saw the sword and the sandals, and threw the poison away from the hands of Theseus, recognizing that
this is actually his son.
Wishing to punish
Medea who had deceived him, he exiled
her to her home and presented Theseus to the people of Athens. His
nephews (Pallanta’s sons), divided into two groups and attempted to kill
Theseus. Theseus was not fooled, as he
had been informed of their intention by
herald Leos, ( the people) and
killed many of them, while those who escaped
death ,fled. Thus, Theseus with the help of "the people"
as the story indicates, ensured his
dominion over Attica.
Shortly after his
arrival in Athens, Theseus accompanied Hercules on retrieving the Amazon
Hippolyte’s girdle, feat.There , Theseus fell in love
with the queen of the Amazons Antiope, whom he
took to Athens and married. The Amazons to avenge the rape of Hippolyte
attacked Athens. Theseus, defeated them and Antiope died battling alongside her husband.
7. The next feat was the capture
of a bull, which according to one version was the one which emerged from the
sea in Crete and with which queen Pasiphae mated, giving birth to the Minotaur.
The bull had been brought by Hercules from Crete at the command of Eurystheus. On the way to Marathon
there was a storm and Theseus was
offered shelter by Ekali, an elderly woman in honor of whom the area was named
after, wishing to thank him for having killed Cercyon whose victims
were both her sons. Theseus managed to capture the bull, alive. He led the
bull tied by the horns, to Athens,
climbed the Acropolis where he sacrificed it on the altar of Apollo Delphinium.
8. Later Theseus wished to put
an end to the brutal toll paid by the city every nine years by sending seven
young boys and seven young girls to Minoan Crete. The brutal punishment was set
by Minos because Androgeos , Minos’ son , had taken part in competitions in
Panathenaia achieving many victories, something which provoked envy and the
Athenians killed him. To punish the Athenians,
Minos declared victorious war on Athens. The sentence he passed on was that
each year seven young Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls were to be sent to
Crete to be sacrificed to carnivorous Minotaur.
But who was the Minotaur? Before
becoming King, Minos had asked Poseidon,
god of the sea, for a sign as to who would ascend the throne, his brother or himself ? The God sent a
beautiful white bull and asked Minos to
sacrifice this bull to him. Minos,
however, impressed by the bull, sacrificed another bull hoping that the God
would not notice it.
Neptune who realized
what had happened was angered and made Pasiphae Mino’s wife, fall in love with
the Taurus The woman could not satisfy her passion, and sought help from
Daedalus, the engineer. He created a
hollowed out effigy of a cow.
Pasiphae went inside, and the bull mated
with her. From this illicit coupling the Minautar, a bloodthirsty -half man and
half bull- beast, was born.
Unable to tolerate
the sacrifice of the Athenians, Theseus, volunteered to go with them to Crete,
to be sacrificed to the formidable Minotaur.
The ship had black sails sign of mourning. Aegeus had given them white sails to put up
on their return if Theseus were victorious.
When Theseus arrived
in Crete, Ariadne ,King Minos’ daughter fell in love with him. For this reason,
just before the young Athenians were led in the Labyrinth (which Daedalus had
invented), she gave him a ball of string(known as the Ariadne’s clue), advising
him to tie one end at the entrance to
the Labyrinth and as he progressed to wind off the reel, so that he could find his way to the exit. Theseus managed to
defeat the Minotaur, saved his comrades and using Ariadne’s clue, they got out
of the Labyrinth. Theseus with his
companions and Ariadne, sailed secretly from the port of Knossos.
On their way they
stopped at Naxos (then called Dia), where Ariadne,remained, as God Dionysus
appearing in Theseus dream , told them to
leave Ariadne behind as she
was meant to become the God’s wife.. Approaching Athens feeling on top of the world , they forgot to
put up the white sails. Thus Aegeus
waiting for his son’s return ,
on the Sounion rock, saw the
black-sailed ship approach and concluding
that his son had died fell into
the sea and drowned . The sea was named after him The Aegean Sea.
Later in his fifties, Theseus saw Helen of Troy dancing
at the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia and
he wished to get her. Theseus grabbed her and left her in the care of
his mother Aethra in Afidnes. It was the first time Helen was the cause of a
bloody war (the second time was in the
Trojan war), as her brothers came to claim her back so there
was a clash with defenders of Afidne.
The Dioscuri managed to take Helen back. They also took Aethra who later followed Helen in Troy.
9. The Labours of Theseus end
in a rash venture. The descent with his
friend Peirithoos to Hades with
intention of abducting Persephone ( Pluto’s
wife) . They entered the realm of the dead through an inlet at Cape Tainaro ,
deceived Charon, the boatman and managed to
pass to the opposite bank, alive. In the palaces of
the underworld they were stopped by the Furies/ Erinnyes who at
Hades behest, tied them on thrones carved on the rock of Lethe. Lethe
kept both presumptive robbers captured
sunk into oblivion. The hubris they had committed invading the Underworld, and especially their
intention of abducting Persephone,
thereby upset the cosmic balance, could not be left unpunished. Salvation came
through Hercules. Hercules met the two heroes when he descended in Hades to
capture Cerberus. He saved the doomed Theseus freeing him, but could not do the
same for Peirithoos. Theseus’ faithful friend had already been torned to pieces
by Cerberus, the three-headed guardian of the gate of the Underworld.
The end of Theseus
came from king Likomidis in Skyros, when the second one pushed him from a cliff. Theseus’ remains were found many years later in
Skyros, on Delphi oracle recommendation.
"Dig down the hill where a huge eagle, has its nest" had said the
priestess. Indeed there were the bones of Theseus, which later were
transferred to Athens and placed in today’s
Thisio, which was established as a place of worship of the hero. This is
Theseus ‘ story, in a nutshell ,according to Greek mythology. An attempt to interpret the feats on a second
level of interpretation of the allegories beyond the myth
Will follow. It should first be noted that for the ancient
Greeks, heroes signalized the ability to transcend and elevate man, as heroes were
thought of Divine descent.
They symbolized the
link with the past and the glorious ancestors, they were the ones who followed
the difficult track, going beyond human.
This does not mean that they were not
submitted to their fate and the Gods’ requisitions. Through the tragic
nature of their course , they were the saviours of their generation, as by pain and death, they came
one way or another in
triumph, leaving in time, legacy of man’s longing for immortality , participation in the Divine, the pursuit after all of the
true destination of the soul. It seems that in ancient times this was achieved,
with the initiation during ceremonies held locally.
The
Initiation
Theseus was a hero
who was initiated into the Eleusinian and Cretan/Minoan "mysteries",
and was confronted with both visible and invisible forces, even with death
(Hades), as he wanted Persephone’s rape to defeat death and the cosmic order.
The
"mysteries" had to do with events and officiating at dark caves and temples in deep secrecy There
allegorical representations were held in the myth of a deity who usually died and was reborn, symbolizing the soul `s fate after death, but at the same time the
unity connecting all beings.
The initiatory
process aimed at examining the conscience,
so that the actual position of man in the universe and the self in its entirety
can be understood . A universe being destroyed (dying) and created
(resurrected) perpetually. The one that
was achieved by an “extraordinary
and ecstatic experience of transition" from the material to the spiritual
domain, strengthened by abolition of the strongest human fear, death.
The experiential
initiatory death experience corresponding to
the cycle time of death and rebirth, enhanced the primordial tradition believed that
everything in the world as interconnected parts of a single homogeneous
substance with quality and composition (Ancient beliefs encountered today, the
findings of quantum physics). This process exceeded everyday cognition, which
is why he needed special tools: symbols, pictures, non-public reason. The
symbolic "initiatory Death" at such a level is the gate, the passage
from matter to spirit the matrix of all beings.
Initially in
primitive societies through initiation young men and women becoming adults ,were admitted to the tribe.. Through the ritual of
initiation the young members of the
tribe coming of age, underwent an initiatory
ceremony to accept the morals, customs and traditions of the local community
where they belonged and consequently their
mutual acceptance by the community. The young people were required for
some time to stay away from home , to
get inured through a rigorous style of life. This was intended to eliminate
child ignorance and initiate to
knowledge, learning to face hardships
and survive in adverse conditions.
The initiates were called through the sacred rites to accept the
sacred and inviolable laws and rules of the race, and having proved its worth ,
“die" to be "reborn" as
an equal and adult member of the tribe.
Each ritual
transition according to Arnold van Gennep
was characterized by three stages. First is the stage of
"separation",during which the
individual distances him/herself from
where he/she belonged or the identity the person had then. Then the person enters the process of "transition" from
the previous stage of life to the new
one. Eventually the person is in the third stage of "integration" or
"accession", during which he/she
becomes a member of a new way of life. So the person goes from something
old, to something intermediate and
finally to something new.
Man as an infant
unconsciously passes three initiatory steps preparing him to join for the first
time the hard external environment. Originally he is forced to leave the
darkness and the safety of the mother's uterus (referring to darkness and the
caves of initiatory ceremonies), then struggle and strive to acclimate to the
new harsh outdoor conditions. The shock is terrible, (tests of initiatory rites)
he does not wish to exit from the womb of "bliss", but finally
obeying the call of nature and destination, taking the last fluids from the lungs,
breathing air, tasting for the first time the milk from the breast of his
mother. He belongs to a family to a country, to humanity...
This is the first
involuntary ritual transition, defined and organized by its very nature. This
way somehow, the arduous journey of life begins for all of us.
Beyond
the myth
The Theseus challenges could be considered as "initiatory
stages" the hero goes through on
his way to "Divinity". The labors of Theseus are nine. The initiation into the Eleusinian
mysteries lasted for nine days, as number nine symbolizes the closing of a
cycle and the beginning of another. Something that the next number, the tenth,
reveals too as it consists of the unit and the zero. Let us consider the labors one by one.
In the first task,
Theseus as the first stop of initiation faces Periphetes. Periphetes is
Hephaestus ‘ son (the only God who was using his hands making weapons and
tools, and this was a shame for Jupiter). Periphetes uses a bat. The bat is the phallic symbol of strength and power, which
if used irrationally it causes pain.
Pytheas’ victory symbolizes victory over
matter and violent internal impulses.
In the second feat,
he faces Sinis Poseidon’s son, ruler of
the seas (the astral world and the world of emotions) . Sinis uses two pine
trees. The two trees symbolize the two opposing forces at work in the universe,
and how the average person can perceive the positive and the negative, the good
and the bad, the male and the female. The two opposing forces which are
reflected on Mercury’s , caduceus
and the yin and yang. When the man manages to distinguish behind
the opposing forces, that unifying power which both consist of, then he acquires a new "holistic
consciousness."
In the third feat
Theseus kills the sow Phaea (dark)
monsters’ daughter, symbolizing the victory in the lower passions and physical
dependencies. It is not coincidental tthat they sacrificed sows for atonement
in honor of Demeter and Daughter in the Eleusinian Mysteries, or that Circe
transformed Odysseus's companions into pigs because of their greed. In the fourth feat he faces Sciron. The path of knowledge chosen
by the adept is difficult and dangerous, as it would be faced with his worst
subliminal fears (turtle) and the risk
to be terrified by them. But if you manage to overcome the trials, the
challenges, then he will be able to control his feelings (sea)
and with humility (foot washing) he may be able to get to know his true
self.
The victory over the
barbarian primitive in instincts boxer
Cercyon in the fifth feat, is
accomplished by symbolic "lifting" off the ground. The initiate must be "lifted
spiritually to his superior self,"
conquering balance and harmony. (See
Trofonios cave) In the sixth feat he
faced Procrustes, the adept is invited to leave behind everything that is
binding his spiritual evolution, while he is called to implement the teaching
of "All in moderation", in his everyday life. In the
seventh feat Theseus captured the bull that Hercules had brought to Marathon, ordered by Minos. The bull was sacrificed on the altar of the sun god Apollo
symbolizing the radiant face of his soul. This feat should be interpreted in
relation to the eighth, and they are bound by the struggle against the bull. Theseus symbolizes the conscious self
that is strong enough to face the "beasts", ie the primitive instincts.
The Minotaur like all
monstrous creatures in mythology represents
animalistic passions, mental deficiencies, defects, perversions and
phobias, which dissolve in sunlight, ie, when the causes are
enlightened by internal knowledge (Sun - Apollo). Without the force of “consciousness
transformation “in this path, the mystic is in danger of being trapped in the
lower aspects of creativity, related to sexuality. The taurus also represents the matriarchal
society, and the world of "the other" world of magic and invisible
forces of the Moon, as its horns symbolize the moon. The Labyrinth symbolizes the subconscious,
and the unexplored aspects and potentialities of Mind. A dark world, unknown, atrocious, and unexplored. If
someone tries to enter this world
unprepared, he will face a
"monster", which is none other than the primitive and uncontrolled
instincts.
The word Labyrinth
derives from the word "labrys"
which means double ax. The double ax is also a lunar symbol. Ariadne's Thread
(API = very adni = pure thought) getting
Theseus out. The Cretan Labyrinth might have been an initiatory descent ceremony and the
subsequent ascent from the
Underworld, a ritual process of death
and rebirth. This is what led the
initiate to death and taught him how to return! This is perhaps reinforced by
the fact that the Minotaur was named Asterios (in illustrations he was presented with the body dotted by
stars). Dionysus as a boy and child of sacraments, was addressed by this name.
Dionysus seems to be identical in substance with the Minotaur. Generally where
the Minoan influence was strong, Dionysus was worshiped clearly as a bull.
By killing the
Minotaur, Theseus defeated his former "self" and after passing
the threshold of death, he saw Asterios
the Divine/ Dionysian reborn
in the supreme knowledge self in the
form of celestial, cosmic child.
So-always under the guidance of Ariadne
a new integrated man, emerged . After Theseus killed the Minotaur, he
took Ariadne who helped him, with him,
but passing by Naxos where
the “Sacred wedding ceremony” of
Ariadne and Dionysus will take place, he abandons her Historically, it is
obvious that the myth also describes an era borderline, as the Minotaur
represents a matriarchal and
"chthonic" priesthood. He dies
by Theseus, the bearer of patriarchal Olympian priesthood, and the God of ecstasy Dionysus who marries
the "chaste virgin daughter", takes his place..But, at the
same time, Dionysus is a Chthonius God.
Of the first zoomorphic forms of
Dionysus the Taurus holds the leading place.
On
"Bacchae" the Chorus calls him
a bull, and Pentheus sees him
coming as a bull. In Orphic myth, Dionysus
the son of Zeus and Persephone (Goddess
of the Underworld), as a baby
"Zagreus" (hunter of souls), looked
in a mirror (not the perception of real situations and beings but a
false reflection ...) That very moment the Titans rushed towards him to kill
him with their knives. Then, to avoid them, the little God began to transform:
he became an adolescent Jupiter, Saturn,
a horned snake, a horse, a tiger,
a bull. Hera nevertheless encourages the
Titans not to hesitate, and so by order they tear Zagreus
the moment he was a bull, boiled
his meat and ate it.
Incensed, Zeus
blasted the Titans and sent them to Tartarus. From their ashes, mankind which bore the divine element, was born, as
the Titans had eaten the God. Dionysus
Zagreus dies as a chthonic deity and rises
as "Dionysus the Deliverer" as liberator of human souls from the bondage
of matter. The death of Dionysus Zagreus symbolizes the death of his Titanic
nature. Correspondingly on the human level, death of his Titanic nature
symbolizes the death of his passions, namely the elimination of his
deficiencies. Then he comes back to life transformed into a celestial deity,
Dionysus the Deliverer.. The Orphic Dionysus is the possessor and guardian of
the mysteries of life and death, the divine spirit in evolution in the
universe, the heart of which must be sought in order to regenerate the human
spirit and the sublimation of the soul. So he is also named
"Zagreus", the hunter
'chasing' souls and leading them out of
the body to reach "deification".
In the cult of
Dionysus "Zagreus" people sacrificed
bulls, because the god liked transforming into a bull. By eating the raw flesh
of the bull the initiates believed they
assimilated the flesh of God Himself and thus came into full contact with him.
After their death they believed that "Dionysus Zagreus", would
recognize them and thanks to him they
would live in other bodies, as the Orphic believed in reincarnation.
In the ninth and last labor Theseus descends
to Hades. It is the absolute moment when by
the initiatory death of his personality, union with Divinity, and the
abolition of death is being attempted
,as he recognizes that nothing, in fact, is lost. That everything is
just a change of situation or action and
form. It is the time when everything becomes
"one", the part that all unite and nothing is separated - even the soul. It is the time and place where
the hero, the mystic or the philosopher, after having defeated
the terrible monsters, having defeated
the darkness ,"sees the midnight
light."
The skylight, the
soul of man, where we can dive in "true Abyss", from. Plutarch describes it in
his work On Socrates' Demon (590V): "The human soul emanated from the
divine Mind. A part of it, as it mingles with the passion of matter, changes,
but another wonderful part of it keeps our head
aloft to inhale free air, like an airway Contact with the
diver’s diving suit. The part existing
in the underwater body is called
The Soul. Whereas the part which is not altered, is seen by the majority as a reflection in the mirror, believing that
it reflects in them. But those
who have intuition, know that it is out
of their body , and call it Demon ...
".
Theseus was trapped
in the underworld/Tartarus in limbo .
This is a dangerous journey because if the man loses his individuality, he can
be trapped in another world, forgetting about mundane affairs. The battle must
be done in the present seeking harmony and balance to equally honor matter and
spirit. For this reason Hercules with his muscle strength, helped Theseus to extricate
himself from oblivion, and the bonds of death. The person able to find harmony
and identify "sanctity within” ‘will win the battle, manage to overcome
the world of shadows and illusions, and emerge from the cave of Plato. The goal of spiritual integration will have been
achieved.
This is the
mythological story of Theseus, which if explained allegorically, patterned upon
Plato and the Stoics; it reveals archetypal truths that accompany man from the
beginning of history until these days.
The Interpretation of Legends requires great attention and poses many
risks of misinterpretation. This effort of unrevealing the archetypes motives and
the allegories of the myth does not claim correctness or uniqueness of its
interpretation. Moreover the doctrine has no place in the search for knowledge
and history. The only certain 'message' these
stories convey, is that no dogma, no ritual can lead us to
"self-realization", but only
our own honest "internal" effort..
Chletsos Vassilis
