Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 1 (Greek and Roman).djvu/258



N the story of his life as it now stands Theseus is frankly an imitation of Herakles, although this does not mean that his figure owes its entire existence to its model. Apparently, legends of a certain Theseus were very early brought from Crete to the coasts of the Argolid about Troizen, and through long years of repetition they became so familiar to the people as to be regarded as of local origin and thus as fit themes for local poets. By means of poetry and cult the name of Theseus was spread throughout Greece, but in Athens it won especial recognition because of friendly relations between Athens and Troizen and her neighbour cities, thus supplying a foundation for the conscious manufacture of new myths and the compounding of old ones. When the Athenians reached the stage of possessing a political consciousness, they found themselves very different from their older neighbours in that they were without an organized body of myth extolling their descent and detailing the glorious exploits of a great hero-forefather. Just like upstart wealth in a modern democracy concocting its aristocratic coat of arms, the Athenians resolved to set up a national hero and to drape his figure in the narrative of his alleged exploits. Theseus was ready at hand, partly Athenian, partly outsider. As an Athenian he could easily win local affection; as an outsider he was in a position to square with the people's political aspirations by breaking with the aristocracy and introducing a new order of things. The Athenians, therefore, took him as he was, and, for the sake of fixing him still more definitely in their locality, added a number of stories of