In order to bring balance to his kingdom, Theseus swears to slay the Minotaur, and horrible creature on the island of Crete.
During his reign as king of Athens alongside his father Aegeus, Theseus called upon himself to rid the Greek world of a huge nuisance, the Minotaur. Ever since the Athenians had killed the son of King Minos, Androgeus, they were required to pay the Minoans an annual tribute of seven virgins and seven young men. These young people would journey to Crete, only to be devoured by the monster.
Theseus decided that he should destroy the Minotaur, and went along with the intended victims to the island of Crete. He told Aegeus that if he was successful, his ship would have a white sail; if he was not, it would show it’s regular black sail.
Upon his arrival to Crete, Theseus announced to Minos that he was the son of Poseidon. Minos, as a test, threw a gold ring into the ocean and told Theseus to retrieve it. He, of course, did so, along with a crown from Amphitrite.
All of this impressed Minos’ daughter Ariadne, who fell hard for the Athenian hero. To help him on his quest to kill the Minotaur, she gave him a ball of string to use as a guide for escaping the Labyrinth once he succeeded. This trick helped, and Theseus took Ariadne and her sister Phaedra along with him on his journey back to Athens. Theseus, wise and fair in his political exploits, could not claim the same when it came to matters of the heart, and abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos. He ultimately married Phaedra.
Theseus, elated by his success in ridding Athens of the tribute, and the world from the Minotaur, forgot to change his sail from black to white. When Aegeus saw the black sail, he assumed that Theseus was dead, and threw himself into the sea. Theseus went on to become the sole king of Athens, and one of the most notable heroes of Greek mythology.
Sources consulted:
Graves, R. The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1994.
Bonnefoy, Y. Greek and Egyptian Mythologies. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991.
