T h e s e u s _ Phaedra _ Hippolytus ; P e r i t h o u s

Morpho telemachus, M. theseus, M. hercules; Archaeoprepona phaedra, Eulepidotis ilirias, Troides hypolitu syn. Ornithoptera hippolytus
Minois dryas syn. Papilio phaedra, Pedaliodes phaedra, Leptotes pirithous, Chloreuptychia herseis
Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, Myrtus communis, Banksia integrifolia





  T h e  S i x  L a b o r s   
  j o u r n e y  to  A t h e n s
At the first site, which was Epidaurus, sacred to Apollo and the healer Asclepius, Theseus turned the tables on the chthonic bandit, Periphetes, the Club Bearer, who beat his opponents into the Earth, and took from him the stout staff that often identifies Theseus in vase-paintings.

At the Isthmian entrance to the Underworld was a robber named Sinis, often called "Pityokamptes" ( Πιτυοκάμπτης, he who bends Pinetrees). He would capture travelers, tie them between two pine trees that were bent down to the ground, and then let the trees go, tearing his victims apart. Theseus killed him by his own method. He then became intimate with Sinis's daughter, Perigune, fathering the child Melanippus.

In another deed north of the Isthmus, at a place called Crommyon, he killed an enormous pig, the Crommyonian Sow, bred by an old crone named Phaea. The Bibliotheca described the Crommyonian sow as an offspring of Typhon and Echidna.

Near Megara, an elderly robber named Sciron forced travellers along the narrow cliff-face pathway to wash his feet. While they knelt, he kicked them off the cliff behind them, where they were eaten by a sea monster. Theseus pushed him off the cliff.

Another of these enemies was Cercyon, king at the holy site of Eleusis, who challenged passers-by to a wrestling match and, when he had beaten them, killed them. Theseus beat Cercyon at wrestling and then killed him instead.

The last bandit was Procrustes the Stretcher, who had two beds, one of which he offered to passers-by in the plain of Eleusis. He then made them fit into it, either by stretching them or by cutting off their feet. Since he had two beds of different lengths, no one would fit. Theseus turned the tables on Procrustes, cutting off his legs and decapitating him with his own axe.

  a f t e r  A t h e n s
( capture the Marathonian Bull, an emblem of Cretan power.)