---
title: Theseus
description: Theseus
author:
  name: Graciela Paula Caldeiro
  url: http://graciela-caldeiro.idoneos.com
canonical: https://mitologiagrecorromana.idoneos.com/en/312164/
source: en/312164/index.md
---

<h2 id="teseo">Theseus</h2>

<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-legacy-role="lead-image" alt="Theseus" class="itemImage" src="/img.foros/312164.gif">Theseus was one of the most famous men in Greece. It was said that he had two fathers, King Aegeus of Athens and the sea god Poseidon, but he grew up without knowing who his father was. Even as a boy he showed his heroic qualities: when Heracles arrived and terrified the children by throwing his great lion skin over a bench, Theseus seized an axe to confront the beast. At the age of sixteen, Theseus's mother, Aethra, told him that his father was Aegeus. She led him to the altar of mighty Zeus, where Aegeus had left his sword and sandals beneath a heavy rock, so that if Aethra bore him a son, the son could claim them when he was strong enough to come to Athens. Theseus moved the rock with ease, claimed the tokens of his birth, and set out on his journey to Athens. Along the way he encountered many hardships, which he overcame with a skill comparable to that of his cousin Heracles.

Having at last been received in Athens as a hero, Theseus was then invited to the king's banquet. Aegeus did not know Theseus's identity, but his wife, the sorceress Medea, suspected him and attempted to poison him. As she did so, Aegeus recognized Theseus as his own son. Medea and her son fled.