After Aegeus, King of Athens, had married Aethra in secret he returned home, leaving his sandals and sword behind under a massive rock along with instructions that, should Aethra bear him a son, the boy must one day put aside the rock, gather up the sword and sandals, and present them at Athens in token of his parentage.

Aethra did indeed bear Aegeus a son, and when he was sixteen he gathered up the sandals and sword and set out for Athens, shunning the sea and choosing instead the perilous route by land (for it was infested with monsters and thieves) so that he could prove himself a hero in the mould of Heracles himself.

The first obstacle to Theseus’s journey was a bandit named Periphetes, but the young hero wrestled his iron club from him and slew him. Next came another would-be robber, Sinnis, who amused himself by catapulting unwary travellers to their death from the springing branch of a pine tree. But Theseus was ready for him, and despatched him with Periphetes’s club.

Theseus’s third task was to rid the Crommyon forest of a vicious sow, and his fourth to foil another prankster, Scyron, who kicked travellers into the sea when they were not looking. The sow was duly slain, and Scyron was pitched after his miserable victims into the sea. Even the champion wrestler Cercyon was unable to halt the hero’s progress.

The sixth challenge awaiting Theseus was Procrustes, the ogre who amused himself by racking small men until they fitted a large bed and hacking tall men until they fitted a small one. With grim justice Theseus fitted the giant to the small bed, and then completed his journey to Athens thinking every obstacle had been overcome.

On his arrival in Athens, Theseus found that his father had been snared by a new wife, the sorceress Medea. She, fearing for her power, sought to poison the boy, but before her plans could mature Theseus had presented his tokens of parentage; and after publicly recognising his son, Aegeus banished Medea from the land forever.

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