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.
The Adventures of Theseus
Theseus’s rock at Troezen.
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.
Cercyon
The Sow of Crommyon
Procrustes
Sciron
Sinis
Bull of Marathon
The Deeds of Theseus. Athenian red-figured cup by the Kodros Painter, 430s. London, British
Museum.
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, 470457
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.