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Theorising Theseus: structuralism vs functionalism

In this essay, both structuralism and functionalism (charter theory) will be
employed to examine the effect that each of these interpretive approaches to myth has
on the heavily constructed narrative surrounding the much-celebrated mythic founder
of Athens. From the structuralist standpoint oppositions between civilisation and
barbarism, royal and democratic authority, and lone exploits over the good of the
community will be considered in relation to this quite paradoxical character of
Theseus, whose image was formed and transformed over many eras and often
manipulated as part of political, cultural and social claims of Athenian hegemony and
primacy. A functionalist approach will then be employed to examine the significance
of the tradition of manipulation and growth of the Theseus myth in order to address
Athenian cultural practices expressed through unification synoikism, as well as
political alliances by presenting important intrusions of aetiological explanations in
relation to geography, and the origins of various festivals and ritual practices in the
Athenian imagination.
Structuralism: Firstly, it is important to consider that in the earliest period
Theseus was known simply for his "heroic" exploits against the Minotaur on Crete
and it is often argued that the later deeds and indeed many of his character attributes
were ascribed in later periods rather consciously by writers who wished to construct a
hero suited to their purpose. In many ways this is perhaps true, and is readily
examinable in Plutarch's Life of Theseus, which was influenced most greatly by the
preceding traditions, however the relevance of earlier examples of Theseus'
representation and characterisation in myth through art, primarily vase-painting, and
song should not be wholly discredited in favour of the ancients' historicising approach
that attempted to construct a neat and concise narrative out of such a diverse tradition.
In the archaic period, the minor character of Theseus is presented in Homer
and Hesiod as any other heroic-age figure - a warrior who is fierce in battle, a loyal
companion and perhaps not so loyal when it comes to women.
1
During the classical
era of ancient Greece, when placed within a distinctly Athenian context (although it
cannot be fully argued that the tradition of such representation did not exist well
before the time of Pisistratus), Theseus comes to be portrayed in Ionic terms - as

1
Walter R. Agard, "Theseus. A National Hero," The Classical Journal 24, no. 2 (1928): 85; H. A.
Shapiro, "Theseus in Kimonian Athens: The Iconography of Empire," Mediterranean Historical
Review 7, no. 1 (1992): 33.
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dancer, musician; as a young Athenian ephebe, who would grow into a man
exhibiting many of the quintessential Athenian civic virtues.
2
In relation to this still
quite early tradition of Theseus' characterisation it is important to discuss
Bacchylides' Dithyramb 17 where the seeds appear to be laid for expressing Theseus'
divine parentage by Poseidon and his connection with the sea (a sign of both Athenian
naval dominance as head of the Delian League and the pre-eminence of Poseidon over
Zeus in archaic ritual within Attica), when he is challenged by Minos on-board ship
and returns with proof, that is both the ring and those gifts bestowed on him by the
goddess Amphitrite (lines 109-129); there is also early evidence here for Theseus as
champion of justice over oppression (lines 16-23, 28-29, 39-44).
3

Theseus' deeds continued to grow in this period and were transported to
mainland Greece where his actions had more relevance to the Athenians, having both
allegorical and explanatory functions within the Athenian mythic imagination. A
number of various sights throughout Attica featured in order to emphasise the
importance of military victories, political alliances and religious practices in Athenian
thought. In this way, Theseus' encounter with the Centaurs and importantly the
invasion of the city by the Amazons, represented also in temple reliefs and portraiture,
stood for the Athenian struggle for freedom over the "barbarian" Persians. This is
most fully represented by Theseus' defeat of the Marathonian bull and the tale that a
phantom of the great mythic hero appeared at Marathon during the invasion of Datis
and Artaphernes.
4

Another important opposition in relation to the figure of Theseus is that, due
to the manipulation of his character at various stages of history, he is presented in the
guise of both a heroic-age tyrant king wanax and quite paradoxically as shepherd of
the Athenian people, upholder of justice and in the most extreme examples as the
founder of democracy. What is most significant in the development of these traits is
that at the same time there is evidence of conscious changes being made in light of
contemporaneous social and political circumstances, as well as clear signs of
Athenian cultural practices and popular opinion affecting the tradition. Indeed, at
various stages Theseus fulfilled many a role in the Greek imagination whereby he

2
Agard, 88; W. Den Boer, "Theseus: The Growth of a Myth in History." Greece and Rome, Second
Series 16, no. 1 (1969): 2.
3
John N. Davie, "Theseus the King of Fifth-Century Athens." Greece and Rome, Second Series 29,
no. 1 (1982): 26; Den Boer, 10; Shapiro, 37, 40.
4
Agard, 88-89; Valerij Gou!chin, "Athenian Synoikism of the Fifth Century B.C., or Two Stories of
Theseus." Greece and Rome, Second Series 46, no. 2 (1999): 169-170, 180.
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stood for a range of sentiments in relation to political power and authority. For the
classical era Greeks who were borrowing the myth in order to establish theirs and
Ionic precedence more generally in relation to the mythic past Theseus was but a
natural choice and the place that the hero occupied within mythic time (despite being
an age of warrior kings) would lend support to those claims of Athenian eminence;
what they were able to do however was to present his deeds and establishment of
various rites, which originally served to bind alliances between various regions and
Athens, as a type of benefaction towards citizens. This in turn led to the notions that
Theseus, the great early king of Athens, was a man for the people.
5
Den Boer argues
that the classical mind could accept the character of this kingship more readily than
future generations due to its instability.
6
The effect of attempts to explain the
contradictory nature of his rule is juxtaposed at the far end of the spectrum, where in
Plutarch's narrative we are told that 'to those of greater power he promised a
commonwealth without monarchy, a democracy or people's government, in which he
should only be continued as their commander in war and the protector of their laws,
all things being equally distributed among them' (Plutarch, Life of Theseus, 15.9.1-2)
but in almost the same breath the author highlights the ego-centric king's behaviour as
lord over the Athenians, whose hybris - in stealing away the young Helen jeopardises
the security of all his subjects and creates an opportunity for Menestheus to stir up his
rebellion among the aristocrats, who quickly abandon their pre-supposition for the
new regime in favour of factional discord (Plut. Th. 19.1-2, 23-25).
7

The most famous deeds of Theseus occurred when he was travelling from
Troezen to Athens where upon choosing the more perilous route 'he set forward with
a design to do injury to nobody, but to repel and revenge himself of all those that
should offer any' (Plut. Th. 3.1). Nonetheless the deeds he performed, those against
his most famous victims, meant that the road became safe for travellers and the
community as a whole; importantly, however, the intention nor the means was not
exactly that which could be characterised as righteous, noble or even civilised; for in
the first instance, Theseus was motivated by a desire to achieve glory which rivalled
that of Herakles and his acts against those most villainous criminals along the route,
were the same sinister punishments meted out by them, and in the case of the

5
Den Boer, 2, 4-5.
6
Den Boer, 5-6.
7
Davie, 29-31; see also Herodotus, 9.73.
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Crommyian sow, identified by some as simply a woman, Theseus had gone out of his
way 'so in order to not seem to perform his exploits out of necessity,' thereby
questioning Theseus' heroic attributes altogether (Plu. Th. 9.1). One cannot also
neglect the emphasis that the ancient poets placed upon the selfishness of Theseus in
his use of Ariadne who laments 'remember to tell them about me too, about how you
abandoned me on a desolate island. Do not silently leave me off your list of
conquests!' (Ovid, Heroides 10, 130-132); nor can one discount the differing
traditions that the nevertheless irresponsible act of forgetting to change the sails upon
his return from Crete, ascribed both to grief over Ariadne and excitement over the
success of the campaign, resulted in the death of his father and Theseus' "improper"
installation as king (Apollodorus, Library, Epitome 1.10-1.11; Plut. Th. 2.2-3).
Finally, the much celebrated conflict with the Amazons, the Amazonomachia as it has
been termed, is said to have been sparked wholly by Theseus' actions in the abduction
of Antiope, where the Athenians were expected to fight for the cause of but one man
(Apollodorus, Library, Epitome 1.16-1.17; Plut. Th. 16.1-3), much as in the case
when later the Dioscuri would wage war on Athens in search of their sister Helen
(Apollodorus, Library, Epitome 1.23; Plut. Th. 31.1).
Functionalism: The myth of Theseus and its development gives precedence
to a number of cultural exploits of the Athenians also. The most significant example
of this in relation to Theseus' deeds is that of unification or synoikism of Attica,
whereby Theseus is typically said to have been responsible for bringing the twelve
townships of Attica under the same jurisdiction (that of the capital - Athens) and
made the inhabitants 'one people of one city, whereas before they lived dispersed, and
they were not easy to assemble upon any affair for the common interest' (Plut. Th.
14.1). This physical synoikism was all too relevant to the Athenian people and a
number of cases have been put forward for historical parallels to such a phenomenon
ranging from the archaic period, with the development of the polis and reliance upon
commercial activities,
8
to the evacuations necessitated by the Persian invasions,
9
to
the mass displacement of country-folk during the Peloponnesian war under Perikles,
who advised that citizens would be safe within the improved fortifications of the city

8
Davey, 29; Steven Diamant, "Theseus and the Unification of Attica." Hesperia Supplements 17
(1982): 47.
9
Gou!chin, 170.
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.
(Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 2.14-16).
10
Gou!chin even goes as
far as to view the unification brought about by the destruction of the city at the hands
of the Persians and the subsequent building program as synonymous with synoikism
and addresses the social/cultural concerns of contemporaneous Athenians in the midst
of mass incursions of foreigners and settlement patterns in the Piraeus district, the
pressure of which led to the passing of Perikles' citizenship laws in 451/0 B.C.
11

As has been mentioned, the character and deeds of Theseus developed
primarily within a classical Athenian context and can often be traced according to
power claims being made by political leaders, who used the myth in order to present
their own agendas.
12
Claims such as these are often made in relation to Kimon's
efforts to combat piracy in the Aegean.
13
Due to the popularity of the mythic figure of
Theseus it is not always easy to discern what traditions were formed within a political,
cultural, social or religious context, or indeed mixtures of each. Most importantly,
however, for this study is that the figure himself did develop and the hero came to
engender many of the important civic attributes that Athenians so prided as exhibiting
themselves. As the Athenian state came to prominence during the fifth century B.C.,
there was undoubtedly a cultural necessity to consider the place of its people with
regards to the surrounding regions, who themselves could boast greater and longer
lasting traditions as expressed in ritual and myth. The most conscious example of this
is the adoption and adaption of the relatively obscure and little known figure of
Theseus as both a national and thoroughly Ionic hero to rival that of the Doric
Herakles; this was done in order to distance Athens from Sparta but also to offer
explanations for many of the celebrated rites associated with both heroes and in order
to make Athenian claims of pre-eminence in relation to mythic-time.
14
Once a few
more deeds were attributed to their hero, presented thoroughly in opposition to those
of Herakles - one labouring under a tyrant, employing wild brutish force... the other
for freedom and justice, employing athleticism, courage and wit in keeping with
Athenian ideals, there was perhaps little way to go to viewing the glorious statesmen
as depicted by the tragic poets or as offered in the most extreme example through his
depiction between personifications of Democracy and the people on the Stoa of the

10
Gou!chin, 178.
11
Den Boer, 6-7; Gou!chin, 177.
12
Diamant, 38.
13
Shapiro, 40.
14
Diamant, 44.
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Twelve Gods.
15
What is interesting about this mythic construction is that there were
also conscious efforts to join the traditions of Herakles and Theseus by establishing
genealogical claims between the two heroes and linking them through their
adventures such as the expedition against the Amazons (Apollodorus, Library,
Epitome 1.16) and the katabasis myth, where Herakles rescued Theseus from Hades
and in turn Theseus gave over his religious rites and all but four sacred places in
Athens over to his saviour as a token of gratitude (Plut. Th. 30.1, 35.1-2).
16

This brings us to the final point in relation to the popularity of the myth of
Theseus in the ancient world, that is the importance of sacrificial rites, festivals and
ritual practices associated with hero-cult worship throughout ancient Greece, which in
many cases led to his tale being offered as aitions for the importance of geographical
locations tied to various festivals, feasts and customary rites, which may have had
their origins in other forgotten traditions, as well as providing the impetus for political
leaders to borrow on the tradition in venerating the mythic founder of the city, itself
spurred on by the public's need and willingness to be appeased in this fashion. For we
see that Theseus was highly honoured in Athenian cult practice as Pausanias'
description of paintings found at the mythic-hero's sanctuary attests (Pausanias,
Description of Greece, 1.17.2-3), a popularity which undoubtedly led to various
leaders' own desire to claim a relationship with the city's great mythic founder - the
most famous example being Kimon's find of the remains of Theseus on Scyros in 475
B.C.
17
Importantly, Theseus is himself remembered as instigating many of Athens'
most important religious festivals and his mythic journey parodies a great number of
sacrificial rites associated with these occasions. Theseus' return to Athens coincided
with the Pyanopsia and Oschoporia, celebrations in honour of both Delian Apollo and
Dionysos, in which the feast of the returning heroes and the lamentations of the
Athenian populous in grief for Aegus' death parallel the traditions associated with
what is believed to be more ancient fertility rights (Plut. Th. 20.5).
18
It has also been
argued that the Naxian episode, featuring Dionysos' rescue of Ariadne and the "cross-
dressing" scene are further attempts to link Theseus with the wine-god and the

15
Agard, 86, 89-90; Davie, 25, 31; Den Boer, 4, 6-7.
16
Davie, 27; This later development may have come about under Kimon, who also venerated
Herakles - see Shapiro, 32.
17
Agard, 88; Davie, 26; Gou!chin, 169.
18
Den Boer, 10-11; Shapiro, 46.
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Oschophoria (Plut. Th. 23.2).
19
Another claim is that the Marathonian bull episode
was used in order to create a ritual association with the patron goddess Athena, linked
to the Synoikia, which culminated in a procession to the Acropolis and the sacrificing
of oxen.
20

What is immediately apparent from Plutarch's account is, due to the great
popularity of Theseus in hero-cult worship throughout the ancient world, there built
up a great number of claims, which attempted to present a ritual association with the
hero according to practice and geographic location - for Theseus is also credited with
instituting sacrifices such as the Hecalesia in honour of Zeus and others to
Delphinian/Delian Apollo (Plut. Th. 14.2, 18.1, 21.1-2), ordaining the common feast
Panathenaea for all united Attica (Plut. Th. 22.4), establishing the Isthmian games in
honour of Poseidon in emulation of Herakles (Plut. Th. 25.4-5), even the Amazon
invasion is remembered in the Boedromion feast, whilst geographic locations
including Naxos, Crete, Cyprus, Troezen, as well as Salamis, Skyros and Marathon
feature in relation to the importance of local sacrificial customs and cultural memory;
Theseus is even claimed to have had a role in the great mystery cult at Eleusis (Plut.
Th. 30.5), perhaps proving that within a religious context Plutarch's recorded proverb
"Not without Theseus" held as much sway as it did in a mythic context.
Upon examining the respective merits and de-merits of these two interpretive
approaches to the again highly-constructed myth of Theseus it is important to
consider that when applying a structuralist approach in order to address binary
oppositions within the narrative, the character of Theseus himself often acts as the
"bridge" between contradictory claims and in many ways his actions cannot be read
outside of the context of those key social and political circumstances which helped
shape this characterisation; both his deeds and transgressions must have contributed to
the Athenians' reception of such a complex figure. On the other hand, the functionalist
viewpoint can allow for complex ritual activities to be gleaned in order to better
understand the cultural context that they evolved in, but in the case of Theseus, who is
represented to his fullest extent in the narrative provided by Plutarch, much of this
religious significance as expressed through myth is lost due to the authors' attempt to
reduce the tale to one of purely historical truth.

19
Den Boer, 11; Shapiro, 44.
20
Den Boer, 11-12; Gou!chin, 173; Shapiro, 47; Importantly the Marathonian bull itself is said by
Plutarch to have been sacrificed to Delphian Apollo, another site significant to Theseus' story (page 5);
The Synoikia presumably being the festival alluded to by Ovid (Metamorphoses, VII. 403-455).
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Bibliography

Primary Sources:

Apollodorus, Library.

Bacchylides, Dithyramb 17.

Herodotus, The Histories.

Ovid, Heroids 10.

Ovid, Metamorphoses.

Pausanias, Descriptions of Greece.

Plutarch. The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans.

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War.

Secondary Sources:

Agard, Walter R. "Theseus. A National Hero." The Classical Journal 24, no. 2
(1928): 84-91.

Davey, John N. "Theseus the King of Fifth-Century Athens." Greece and Rome,
Second Series 29, no. 1 (1982): 25-34.

Den Boer, W. "Theseus: The Growth of a Myth in History." Greece and Rome,
Second Series 16, no. 1 (1969): 1-13.

Diamant, Steven. "Theseus and the Unification of Attica." Hesperia Supplements 17,
(1982): 38-47.

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"2
Gou!chin, Valerij. "Athenian Synoikism of the Fifth Century B.C., or Two Stories of
Theseus." Greece and Rome, Second Series 46, no. 2 (1999): 168-187.

Plutarch. The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. Chicago: Encyclopaedia
Britannica, Inc, 1990. Print. [Great Books of the Western World - Dryden
Translation].

Shapiro, H. A. "Theseus in Kimonian Athens: The Iconography of Empire."
Mediterranean Historical Review 7, no. 1 (1992): 29-49.

Smith, R. Scott. and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, ed/trans. Apollodorus' Library and
Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology. Indianapolis: Hackett
Publishing Company, Inc, 2007. Print.

Trzaskoma, Stephen M., R. Scott Smith, and Stephen Brunet, ed/trans. Anthology of
Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing
Company, Inc, 2004. Print.