Athens, Hephaisteon: Metopes with Theseus and different bandits on his journey around the Isthmos, plus the Bull of Marathon and the Minotaur
Theseus and Sinis
C.H. Morgan, “The Sculptures of the Hephaisteion I,” Hesperia vol. 31.2, 1962, pl. 74b
Theseus and Skiron
B. Sauer, Das sogenannte Theseion und sein plastischer Schmuck (1899), pl. 5
Photo E. R. Deats pre 1948
Theseus and Kerkyon
B. Sauer, Das sogenannte Theseion und sein plastischer Schmuck (1899), pl. 5
Photo E. R. Deats pre 1948
Theseus and the Bull of Marathon
B. Sauer, Das sogenannte Theseion und sein plastischer Schmuck (1899), pl. 5
C.H. Morgan, “The Sculptures of the Hephaisteion I,” Hesperia vol. 31.2, 1962, pl. 75a
Theseus and the Sow of Krommyon
B. Sauer, Das sogenannte Theseion und sein plastischer Schmuck (1899), pl. 5
Photo E. R. Deats pre 1948
Theseus and the Minotaur
B. Sauer, Das sogenannte Theseion und sein plastischer Schmuck (1899), pl. 5
Photo E. R. Deats pre 1948
Theseus and Periphetes?
B. Sauer, Das sogenannte Theseion und sein plastischer Schmuck (1899), pl. 5
Photo E. R. Deats pre 1948
Theseus and Prokroustes?
B. Sauer, Das sogenannte Theseion und sein plastischer Schmuck (1899), pl. 5
C.H. Morgan, “The Sculptures of the Hephaisteion I,” Hesperia vol. 31.2, 1962, pl. 74a
Four Theseus metopes from southeast corner of Hephaisteion, Wikimedia Commons
Four Theseus metopes from northeast corner of Hephaisteion
London, British Museum E36: Attic red-figure cup with Theseus and the Bull of Marathon, the Sow of Krommyon, Prokroustes, Kerkyon, and the Minotaur.
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
Florence, Museo Archeologico 91456: Attic red-figure cup with Theseus and Sinis, Minotaur, Prokroustes, Skiron, Kerkyon and the Bull of Marathon.
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
Paris, Cabinet des Medailles fragments 535A, 536A and 647: Attic red-figure cup with Theseus and Sinis, Skiron, Kerkyon, Prokruustes and the Bull of Marathon.
Theseus and Kerkyon from interior of cup, J.E. Harrison, “Two Cylices Relating to the Exploits of Theseus,” Journal of Hellenic Studies (1889), pl. 2
Drawing by J.D. Beazley of head of Theseus from interior of cup, from Beazley Archive Pottery Database
Theseus and Prokroustes from exterior of cup, J.E. Harrison, “Two Cylices Relating to the Exploits of Theseus,” Journal of Hellenic Studies (1889), pl. 2
Drawing by J.D. Beazley of Theseus from exterior of cup, from Beazley Archive Pottery Database
Euripides Suppliants 714-717:
Then he seized a fearsome club, weapon of Epidaurian warfare, and using it like a sling, he tore apart necks and covered heads at once, reaping and snapping off helmets with the cudgel. Scarcely even then they turned themselves to fly (Original Greek).
Diodorus Siculus Library of History 4.59.2:
The first, then, whom he slew was he who was called Corynetes, who carried a korynê, as it was called, or club which was the weapon with which he fought, and with it killed any who passed by, and the second was Sinis who made his home on the Isthmus.
(Original Greek).
Ovid Metamorphoses 436-437:
All unknown to him
came Theseus to his kingly court.—Before
the time his valor had established peace
on all the isthmus, raved by dual seas.
Medea, seeking his destruction, brewed
the juice of aconite, infesting shores
of Scythia, where, ’tis fabled, the plant grew
on soil infected by Cerberian teeth (Original Latin).
Ovid Ibis 405-406:
(Original Latin).
Hyginus Fabula 38:
(Original Latin).
Hyginus Fabula 158:
(Original Latin).
Plutarch Theseus 8.1:
And so in the first place, in Epidauria, when Periphetes, who used a club as his weapon and on this account was called Club-bearer, laid hold of him and tried to stop his progress, he grappled with him and slew him. And being pleased with the club, he took it and made it his weapon and continued to use it, just as Heracles did with the lion’s skin. That hero wore the skin to prove how great a wild beast he had mastered, and so Theseus carried the club to show that although it had been vanquished by him, in his own hands it was invincible (Original Greek).
Pausanias Description of Greece 2.1.4:
At the beginning of the Isthmus is the place where the brigand Sinis used to take hold of pine trees and draw them down. All those whom he overcame in fight he used to tie to the trees, and then allow them to swing up again. Thereupon each of the pines used to drag to itself the bound man, and as the bond gave way in neither direction but was stretched equally in both, he was torn in two. This was the way in which Sinis himself was slain by Theseus. For Theseus rid of evildoers the road from Troezen to Athens, killing those whom I have enumerated and, in sacred Epidaurus, Periphetes, thought to be the son of Hephaestus, who used to fight with a bronze club (Original Greek).
Apollodorus Library 3.16.1:
Aethra bore to Aegeus a son Theseus, and when he was grown up, he pushed away the rock and took up the sandals and the sword, and hastened on foot to Athens. And he cleared the road, which had been beset by evildoers. For first in Epidaurus he slew Periphetes, son of Hephaestus and Anticlia, who was surnamed the Clubman from the club which he carried. For being crazy on his legs he carried an iron club, with which he despatched the passers-by. That club Theseus wrested from him and continued to carry about (Original Greek).
Munich, Antikensammlung 2670: Attic red-figure cup by the Pistoxenos Painter, Theseus and Periphetes.
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
Edited by R. Ross Holloway, Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor Emeritus, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown Univ., and by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, July 2016.
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