Mythology: 73 Works by the Great Artists, following Theseus, Part 1, The Minotaur

Theseus

Aegeus (1282–1234 BC), one of the primordial kings of Athens,. Still without a male heir, Aegeus asked the oracle at Delphi for advice. Her cryptic words were "Do not loosen the bulging mouth of the wineskin until you have reached the height of Athens, lest you die of grief."

John Collier, (1850–1934)

The priestess of the oracle at ancient Delphi, Greece, c. 1891

Oil on canvas

160 × 80 cm (63 × 31.5 in)

Art Gallery of South Australia

The Honourable John Maler Collier OBE RP ROI (27 January 1850 – 11 April 1934) was a leading English artist, and an author. He painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style, and was one of the most prominent portrait painters of his generation. Both his marriages were to daughters of Thomas Henry Huxley. He studied painting at the Munich Academy where he enrolled on 14 April 1875 (Register: 3145) at the age of 25. More

Kodros Painter

Themis and Aegeus

Attic red-figure kylix, 440–430 BC

From Vulci.

Altes Museum

Aegeus did not understand the prophecy and was disappointed. This puzzling oracle forced Aegeus to visit Pittheus, king of Troezen, who was famous for his wisdom and skill at expounding oracles. Pittheus understood the prophecy and introduced Aegeus to his daughter, Aethra, when Aegeus was drunk.

Angelica Kauffman, R.A. (1741-1807).

Athena and Aethra (?)

Oil on canvas

173.99cm by 150.5cm.

Angelica Kauffman, R.A. (1741-1807), see below

But following the instructions of Athena in a dream, Aethra left the sleeping Aegeus and waded across to the island of Sphairia that lay close to Troezen's shore. There she poured a libation to Sphairos (Pelops' charioteer) and Poseidon, and was possessed by the sea god in the night. The mix gave Theseus a combination of divine as well as mortal characteristics in his natures. After Aethra became pregnant, Aegeus decided to return to Athens. Before leaving, however, he buried his sandals and sword under a huge rock and told Aethra that when their son grew up, he should move the rock, if he were heroic enough, and take the tokens for himself as evidence of his royal parentage. In Athens, Aegeus was joined by Medea, who had left Corinth after slaughtering the children she had borne, and had taken Aegeus as her new consort. Priestess and consort together represented the old order in Athens.

Gustave Moreau, (6 Apr 1826 - 18 Apr 1898)

Ariane et Thésée, c. 1886

Oil on Canvas

1470 x 1119

Paris, musée Gustave Moreau

Gustave Moreau (French: [mɔʁo]; 6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a French Symbolist painter whose main emphasis was the illustration of biblical and mythological figures. Moreau was born in Paris. His father, Louis Jean Marie Moreau, was an architect, who recognized his talent. His first painting was a Pietà which is now located in the cathedral at Angoulême. He showed A Scene from the Song of Songs and The Death of Darius in the Salon of 1853. In 1853 he contributed Athenians with the Minotaur and Moses Putting Off his Sandals within Sight of the Promised Land to the Great Exhibition.

Moreau became a professor at Paris' École des Beaux-Arts in 1891 and among his many students were fauvist painters Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault. Jules Flandrin, Theodor Pallady and Léon Printemps also studied with Moreau.

During his lifetime, Moreau produced more than 8,000 paintings, watercolors and drawings, many of which are on display in Paris' Musée national Gustave Moreau at 14 rue de la Rochefoucauld (9th arrondissement). The museum is in his former workshop, and began operation in 1903. André Breton famously used to "haunt" the museum and regarded Moreau as a precursor of Surrealism. More

Photo: Michael Holford

Theseus lifts the boulder while his mother Aethra looks on

Roman relief, first century A.D.

Thus Theseus was raised in his mother's land. When Theseus grew up and became a brave young man, he moved the rock and recovered his father's tokens.

Antonio Balestra, (1666–1740)

Theseus Discovering his Father's Sword

Oil on canvas

Height: 287 cm (113 in). Width: 159 cm (62.6 in)

Antonio Balestra (12 August 1666 – 21 April 1740) was an Italian painter of the Rococo period. Born in Verona, he first apprenticed there with Giovanni Zeffio. By 1690 he moved to Venice, where he worked for three years under Antonio Bellucci, then moved to Bologna and then to paint in Carlo Maratta's workshop in Rome. In 1694, he won a prize from the Accademia di San Luca. He later painted both in Verona and Venice; although his influence was stronger in the mainland. More

His mother then told him the truth about his father's identity and that he must take the sword and sandals back to king Aegeus to claim his birthright. To journey to Athens, Theseus could choose to go by sea (which was the safe way) or by land, following a dangerous path around the Saronic Gulf, where he would encounter a string of six entrances to the Underworld, each guarded by a chthonic enemy. Young, brave, and ambitious, Theseus decided to go alone by the land route and defeated a great many bandits along the way.

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.

Unknown

Theseus and Sinis

At the Isthmian entrance to the Underworld was a robber named Sinis, often called "Pityokamptes" ("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.

: Theseus and the Crommyonian Sow

Terracotta from the island of Melos, ca. 460 BC.

Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Bavaria

Willem van Herp I, (Antwerp 1613-1677)

The hunt for the wild boar

oil on copper

66.8 x 92 cm.

Willem van Herp I, Antwerp 1612-1677

THE CALYDONIAN BOAR HUNT

oil on copper

30 1/4 by 39 3/4 in., 76.8 by 101 cm.

Willem van Herp (1614–1677) was a Flemish Baroque painter specializing in religious paintings and small cabinet paintings of "low-life" genre scenes. For a long time Willem van Herp was believed to have been a pupil of Peter Paul Rubens. Even though he was not his pupil he did borrow many of Rubens' motifs and touched up copies after Rubens for the art dealer Matthijs Musson. He was listed as an independent master in the Guild of St. Luke beginning in 1637. He spent his entire career in Antwerp. He was the master of Norbertus van Herp and Melchior Hamers More

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. Some versions name the sow herself as Phaea.

Euphronios, potter; Onesimos, painter

Sciron beaten by Theseus.

Latium.

H. 9.6 cm (3 ¾ in.), Diam. 39.9 cm (15 ½ in.), W. 49 cm (19 ¼ in.)

Louvre Museum

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 (or, in some versions, a giant turtle). Theseus pushed him off the cliff.

Aison

Theseus fights Cercyon, circa 430 BC

Red-figure ceramic

National Archaeological Museum of Spain

Theseus and Sciron

JC Andrä: "Greek heroic legends for youth processed"

Berlin: Verlag von Neufeld & Henius, 1902

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. Cercyon was a "year-King", who was required to do an annual battle for his life, for the good of his kingdom, and was succeeded by the victor. Theseus overturned this archaic religious rite by refusing to be sacrificed.

Krut, Ansel (b.1959)

The Bed of Procrustes

Oil on copper

Ansel Krut (born 1959), Cape Town, South Africa is a painter who lives and works in London, United Kingdom. Ansel graduated with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 1986, after which he was awarded the Abbey Major scholarship to the British School in Rome. He attended the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (1982-1983), and completed his BA in Fine Art at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (1979-1982). More

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.

Kerstiaen de Keuninck (Belgian, 1560–1633)

Theseus on the road to Athens

Oil on panel

26.7 x 40.6 cm. (10.5 x 16 in.)

When Theseus arrived at Athens, he did not reveal his true identity immediately. Aegeus gave him hospitality but was suspicious of the young, powerful stranger's intentions. Aegeus's wife Medea recognized Theseus immediately as Aegeus' son and worried that Theseus would be chosen as heir to Aegeus' kingdom instead of her son Medus. She tried to arrange to have Theseus killed by asking him to capture the Marathonian Bull, an emblem of Cretan power.

On the way to Marathon, Theseus took shelter from a storm in the hut of an ancient woman named Hecale. She swore to make a sacrifice to Zeus if Theseus were successful in capturing the bull. Theseus did capture the bull, but when he returned to Hecale's hut, she was dead. In her honor Theseus gave her name to one of the demes of Attica, making its inhabitants in a sense her adopted children.