page_title: Theseus
section_title: Adaptations of the myth
hierarchical_section_title: Theseus / Adaptations of the myth
caption_attribution_description: Theseus with the Head of Minotaur
context_page_description: Theseus was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. Like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, Theseus battled and overcame foes that were identified with an archaic religious and social order. His role in history has been called "a major cultural transition, like the making of the new Olympia by Hercules."
  Theseus was a founding hero for the Athenians in the same way that Heracles was the founding hero for the Dorians. The Athenians regarded Theseus as a great reformer; his name comes from the same root as θεσμός, meaning "rule" or "precept". The myths surrounding Theseus—his journeys, exploits, and friends—have provided material for fiction throughout the ages.
  Theseus was responsible for the synoikismos —the political unification of Attica under Athens—represented emblematically in his journey of labors, subduing ogres and monstrous beasts. Because he was the unifying king, Theseus built and occupied a palace on the fortress of the Acropolis that may have been similar to the palace that was excavated in Mycenae. Pausanias reports that after the synoikismos, Theseus established a cult of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho on the southern slope of the Acropolis.
caption: Theseus with the head of Minotaur
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