Theseus: A Tragic Hero

Even in his youth, Theseus’ story takes a giant leap ahead of Perseus’ based on his heroic first call to adventure. King Aegus, Theseus’ father, knew before he was born that he was going to lead on greatness, so his father hid weapons for Theseus to claim upon his manhood to seek out his father in the vast and dangerous lands surrounding Theseus. “[Father Aegus] did this without the knowledge of his wife and told her that whenever the boy -if it was a boy- grew strong enough to roll away the stone and get the things beneath it, she could send him to Athens to claim him as his father”(Hamilton 210). Theseus is proving to be a stronger boy while becoming of age, being given a quest at the turn of his manhood, while Perseus had waited until his opportunity arrived with his mother, and King Polydectes, who wanted to marry his mother, Danaë.
Theseus defeats his enemy, the Minotaur, while defeating the Labyrinth, therefore choosing more of a fight than Perseus, since Perseus had help from the Gods. “Once inside, one would go endlessly along its twisting paths without ever finding the …show more content…
While the ship was on its way back to Athens, they stopped at the island of Naxos, where Theseus lost Ariadne, and forgot to set out the white sail. Upon his urgency, “King Aegus, from Acropolis, where for days he had watched with straining eyes. It was to him the sign of his son’s death and he threw himself from a rocky height into sea, and was killed”(216). Theseus took the throne as King of Athens, making him an even greater hero by taking his father's empty crown, instead of mourning or falling into a depression, he fell into his father’s shoes, making him a greater hero for being