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Theseus1: The growth of a myth in history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

W. Den Boer
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Extract

Athens had a founder. His identity lies concealed in the twilight of myth. When the historians first sought him, and that was centuries after the city had been established, they constructed a traditional picture which—with the necessary modifications to fit current needs—persisted into late Antiquity. A historical picture, even one of a past as distant as the founding of Athens, is never created out of thin air, however. Remnants of ancient customs, no longer understood, remained part of social and religious practices. When the Greek—in the time that also saw the first written recording of history, roughly in the fifth century B.c.—posed his questions about the how and why of the relics, he encountered the stories belonging to oral and written tradition that mentioned and honoured a founder. These shreds of ideas about an ancient past he used, together with the products of his tireless imagination, to create a picture with such a general appeal that it has remained alive and has even become a piece of history whose development can be followed, even though the journey is a difficult one and does not always hold to one path or lead to the same conclusion. The legend becomes history in two ways. Firstly, the human spirit, which loves to make fables and cannot accept its own ignorance, fills out shadowy images from an ancient and incomprehensible past until they become distinct figures. These elaborations then give rise to a new development, which might be called the history of the legend. To trace and describe the evolution of the legend is an extraordinarily fascinating occupation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , April 1969 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1969

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References

page 1 note 2 A virtually complete treatment of all data is to be found in the article ‘Theseus’ in Roscher, W. H.'s Lexikon für griechische und ramische Mythologie, Bd. v (1924).Google Scholar Also of importance are Herter, H.'s Theseus studies in RM, lxxxv (1936), 77–191; 193–239Google Scholar; lxxxviii (1939), 244–86; Ixxxix (1940), 273–92. The archaeological data are the main subject of ane xhaustive study by Dugas, Ch., L'Évolution de la légende de Thésée, REG, lvi (1934), 1–24.Google Scholar The historical development of the Theseus legend is discussed by Ruschenbusch, E., Historia-, vii (1958), 398 ff., esp. 408 ff.Google Scholar

page 2 note 1 The proper name te-se-u occurs on several Pylos tablets (En 03 and Eo 03), see Ventris, M. and Chadwick, J., Documents in Mycenaean Greek (Cambridge, 1956), nos. 115 and 120.Google Scholar

page 2 note 2 Butterfield, H., The Whig Interpretation of History 2 (London, 1959), 17–18.Google Scholar

page 3 note 1 Recently, J. D. Smart has proposed a different chronology of Cimon's capture of Eion and his success at Skyros: It may be that Cimon brought home the bones of Theseus in 469/8 (JHS, lxxxvii [1967], 136 f.).Google Scholar The chronology does not affect my argument. I am bound to say, however, that Smart's arguments are extremely interesting and valuable, and deserve to be considered seriously.

page 4 note 1 Thuc. ii. 15Google Scholar; Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 41. 2Google Scholar; Pausanias i. 3. 2Google Scholar (the quotation is given in the translation of W. H. S. Jones in the Loeb Classical Library).

page 5 note 1 Plutarch, , Thes. 24–5, 32, 35.Google Scholar The most recent detailed interpretation of these chapters is given by F. Jacoby in his commentary on the fragments of Philochorus, , FGrHist. iiib, i (1954), 309 ff.Google Scholar In contrast with the above argumentation, Jacoby explains the different aspects of Theseus on the basis of differences in the sources.

page 6 note 1 In dramatic poetry Theseus is important in Eur. Suppl. 403–8Google Scholar and in Sophocles, ' Oed. Col. 551 ff., 631 ff.Google Scholar; the praise of Athena in the chorus (668 ff.). Compare my article ‘Oedipus’ in Meesterwerken der Literatuur (Masterpieces in Literature) (Amsterdam, 1948), ed. Haantjes, J. and Smit, W. A. P., 77 and 79.Google Scholar

page 8 note 1 Bolkestein, H., Wohltätigkeit und Armenpflege im vorchristlichen Altertum (Utrecht, 1939). 246Google Scholar: the German quotations are taken from him. His views are opposed on this point and others by Festugière, A.-J. in the REG, liii (1940), 237–41.Google Scholar

page 8 note 2 Jacoby, , loc. cit. 549Google Scholar (commentary on Philochorus, fragm. 177). Herter, , RM, lxxxviii (1939), 289 ff.Google Scholar

page 9 note 1 Cf. Ventris and Chadwick, loc. cit.

page 10 note 1 According to Jacoby, (loc. cit., 294)Google Scholar Athena Skiras is the goddess to whom the Oschophoria were dedicated. I hope to publish my divergent opinion elsewhere.

page 11 note 1 Kriatensen, W. B., ‘De goddelijke heraut en het Woord van God’ (The sacred herald and the Word of God), in Verzamelde bijdragen tot kennis der antieke godsdiensten (Amsterdam, 1947), 144.Google Scholar See also by the same author, ‘De slangenstaf en het spraakvermogen van Mozes en Aaron’ (The caduceus and the power of speech of Moses and Aaron), in Symbool en Werkelijkheid (Arnhem, 1954), 259, cf. 174.Google Scholar

page 12 note 1 Hartman, J. J., De Avondzon des Heidendoms (The Decline of Paganism) (Leiden, 1912), 78.Google Scholar

page 12 note 2 Plut. Thes. i. 1.Google Scholar For this, see Wardman, A. E., ‘Myth in Greek Historiography,’ Historia, ix (1960), 403 ff., esp. 408–11.Google Scholar

page 13 note 1 For the relationship between tragedy and history see in addition to the article mentioned in the previous note (especially 410, note 53): Walbank, F. W., ‘History and Tragedy,’ Historia, ix (1960), 216–34Google Scholar, and Speeches in Greek Historians (The Third J. L. Myres Memorial Lecture) (Oxford, without date), 2.Google Scholar