Napolean ordered it for the Corso in Milan ; Emperor Franz I bought it for the Theseus Temple in the Volksgarten in Vienna ; moved to Kunsthistorisches Museum in 1891.

Plutarch mentions that the Athenians saw the phantom of King Theseus, the mythical hero of Athens, leading the army in full battle gear in the charge against the Persians, and indeed he was depicted in the mural of the Stoa Poikile fighting for the Athenians, along with the twelve Olympian gods and other heroes.

When Heracles had pulled Theseus first from his chair, some of his thigh stuck to it ( this explains the supposedly lean thighs of Athenians ), but the earth shook at the attempt to liberate Pirithous, whose desire to have the wife of a god for himself was so insulting he was doomed to stay behind.

In the same play the character Hermia is told by the Duke Theseus that she must either wed the character Demetrius " Or on Diana's alter to protest for aye austerity and single life ".

One popular solution to the problem of the Ship of Theseus is to say that the meaning of " same " depends on what purpose the word is being used for.

This act secured the throne for Theseus.

As Heracles was the Dorian hero, Theseus was the Athenian founding hero, considered by them as their own great reformer: his name comes from the same root as (" thesmos "), Greek for " institution ".

Plutarch's vita ( a literalistic biography ) of Theseus makes use of varying accounts of the death of the Minotaur, Theseus ' escape, and the love of Ariadne for Theseus.

At the time, Theseus was called the Mother Dog for many reasons.

Dionysus later saw Ariadne crying out for Theseus and took pity on her and married her.

According to Plutarch's Life of Theseus, the ship Theseus used on his return from Crete to Athens was kept in the Athenian harbor as a memorial for several centuries.

The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place ...

Regardless of these issues of the originality of the ship's structure, for Athenians the preserved ship kept fresh their understanding that Theseus had been an actual, historic figure — which none then doubted — and gave them a tangible connection to their divine providence.

For many months in half darkness, Theseus sat immovably fixed to the rock, mourning both for his friend and for himself.

So Theseus was restored to the upper air but Pirithous never left the kingdom of the dead for when he tried to free Pirithous, the Underworld shook.

Theseus, believed either to be in the company of Heracles, or of his own accord, had been on a quest in the land of the Amazons, a race of all-female warriors who had sex with men for reproduction but killed or banished any male children born.

After boarding the ship, Theseus left for Athens, claiming Hippolyta as his bride.

Hippolyta eventually bore a son for Theseus, whom they named Hippolytus ( Ἱππόλυτος ).

Theseus lost his love for Hippolyta, however, after he had seen Phaedra.

In Crete, both Minos ' daughters, Ariadne and Phaedra fell madly in love with Theseus.

The slaying of the Minotaur by Theseus in that case indicates the breaking of Athenian tributary relations with Minoan Crete.

To reconcile the contradictory aspects of his character, as well as to explain how Minos governed Crete over a period spanning so many generations, two kings of the name of Minos were assumed by later poets and rationalizing mythologists, such as Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch — " putting aside the mythological element ", as he claims — in his life of Theseus.

On his arrival in Crete, Ariadne, King Minos ' daughter, fell in love with Theseus and, on the advice of Daedalus, gave him a ball of thread.

Mary Renault's The King Must Die ( 1958 ) is a dramatic retelling of the Theseus legend through the return from Crete to Athens.

Theseus is played by Bob Mathias in the 1960 film Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete, and by Tom Hardy in the 2006 film Minotaur.

Theseus had been sent to his overlord Minos of Crete as an offering to the Minotaur.

One legend has it that in the Heroic Age before the Trojan War, Theseus abandoned the princess Ariadne of Crete on this island after she helped him kill the Minotaur and escape from the Labyrinth.

In a few versions of the myth, Dionysus appeared to Theseus as they sailed away from Crete, saying that he had chosen Ariadne as his wife, and demanded that Theseus leave her on Naxos for him ; this has the effect of absolving the Athenian culture-hero of desertion.

Theseus then went to Crete where he killed the Minotaur with the help of Minos ' daughter Ariadne.

* Minotaur, The ( 1961 ) a. k. a. Theseus Against the Minotaur, a. k. a. The Warlord of Crete

* Minotaur, The ( 1961 ) a. k. a. Theseus Against the Minotaur, a. k. a. The Warlord of Crete

For the Greeks, the bull was strongly linked to the Bull of Crete: Theseus of Athens had to capture the ancient sacred bull of Marathon ( the " Marathonian bull ") before he faced the Bull-man, the Minotaur ( Greek for " Bull of Minos "), whom the Greeks imagined as a man with the head of a bull at the center of the labyrinth.

Reclaiming his rightful place as the son of Athenian king Aegeus, Theseus insisted on traveling to Crete to face the dreaded Minotaur.

There are legends, such as that of Theseus and the Minotaur, which indicate that tribute of some sort was collected by Crete from overseas locations, but its legendary history is far different from the wars and warriors of the mainland.

Ariadne, the wife of the god Dionysus in Minoan Crete, possessed the spun thread that led Theseus to the center of the labyrinth and safely out again.

Simon Tidworth in The Quest for Theseus summarises: " Lucas invents another sweetheart for Theseus, Aegle, one of the sacrificial maidens who accompany him to Crete.

According to the story in Plutarch ( Theseus, 18 ), Theseus, before setting out to Crete to slay the Minotaur, repaired to the Delphinium and deposited, on his own behalf and that of his companions on whom the lot had fallen, an offering to Apollo, consisting of a branch of consecrated olive, bound about with white wool ; after which he prayed to the god and set sail.

Theseus moved for a while to Crete and the Pallantides assumed he would not return.

It was said to have been named after the Greek town of Aegae, or after Aegea, a queen of the Amazons who died in the sea, or Aigaion, the " sea goat ", another name of Briareus, one of the archaic Hecatonchires, or, especially among the Athenians, Aegeus, the father of Theseus, who drowned himself in the sea when he thought his son had died.

According to a version of the Ariadne legend noted by Plutarch, Theseus abandoned Ariadne at Amathousa, where she died giving birth to her child and was buried in a sacred tomb.

He was accompanied by his friend Theseus, who carried off the princess Antiope, sister of Hippolyta, an incident which led to a retaliatory invasion of Attica, in which Antiope perished fighting by the side of Theseus.

In some versions, however, Theseus marries Hippolyta and in others, he marries Antiope and she does not die ; by this marriage with the Amazon Theseus had a son Hippolytus.

According to ancient sources, ( Plutarch Theseus, Pausanias ), Amazon tombs could be found frequently throughout what was once known as the ancient Greek world.

The work which first established his fame at Rome was Theseus Vanquishing the Minotaur, now in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, in London.

The victorious Theseus is represented as seated on the lifeless body of the monster.

The Theseus was regarded with fervent admiration.

Theseus Fighting the Centaur ( 1804 – 1819 ), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Palamedes, Creugas and Damoxenus, the Combat of Theseus and the Centaur, and Hercules and Lichas may close the class of heroic compositions, although the catalogue might be swelled by the enumeration of various others, such as Hector and Ajax, King Ferdinand of Naples, and others.

Arrival or departure of a young warrior or hero, maybe Theseus arriving at Athens and being recognized because of his sword by Aegeus.

The " goat-man " who gave his name to the Aegean Sea was, next to Poseidon, the father of Theseus, the founder of Athenian institutions and one of the kings of Athens.

This continued until Theseus killed the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne, Minos ' daughter.

In Troezen, Theseus grew up and became a brave young man.

Theseus decided to go to Athens and had the choice of going by sea, which was the safe way, or by land, following a dangerous path with thieves and bandits all the way.

Young, brave and ambitious, Theseus decided to go to Athens by land.

When Theseus arrived, he did not reveal his true identity.

Medea tried to have Theseus killed by encouraging Aegeus to ask him to capture the Marathonian Bull, but Theseus succeeded.

She tried to poison him, but at the last second, Aegeus recognized his sword and knocked the poisoned cup out of Theseus ' hand.

However, when Theseus returned, he forgot these instructions.