Theorising_Theseus_-_structuralism_vs_functionalism-libre.pdf

8/11/2019 Theorising_Theseus_-_structuralism_vs_functionalism-libre.pdf

1/9

!"# %&'#%'%() *+ ,-'."" ,/&&'&"" 0/&)#&"1() /)% 2."""3.3**2"""

"

Theorising Theseus: structuralism vsfunctionalism

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 unificationsynoikism, 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 attributeswere 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'sLife 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.1During 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 Journal24, no. 2 (1928): 85; H. A.Shapiro, "Theseus in Kimonian Athens: The Iconography of Empire,"Mediterranean Historical

Review7, no. 1 (1992): 33.


2/9

!"# %&'#%'%() *+ ,-'."" ,/&&'&"" 0/&)#&"1() /)% 2."""3.3**2"""

""

dancer, musician; as a young Athenian ephebe, who would grow into a man

exhibiting many of the quintessential Athenian civic virtues.2In relation to this still

quite early tradition of Theseus' characterisation it is important to discuss

Bacchylides'Dithyramb 17where 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 wanaxand 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

2Agard, 88; W. Den Boer, "Theseus: The Growth of a Myth in History." Greece and Rome, Second

Series16, no. 1 (1969): 2.3John N. Davie, "Theseus the King of Fifth-Century Athens." Greece and Rome, Second Series29,

no. 1 (1982): 26; Den Boer, 10; Shapiro, 37, 40.4Agard, 88-89; Valerij Gou!chin, "Athenian Synoikism of the Fifth Century B.C., or Two Stories of

Theseus." Greece and Rome, Second Series46, no. 2 (1999): 169-170, 180.


3/9

!"# %&'#%'%() *+ ,-'."" ,/&&'&"" 0/&)#&"1() /)% 2."""3.3**2"""

"""

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.5Den Boer argues

that the classical mind could accept the character of this kingship more readily than

future generations due to its instability.6The 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, 4-5.6Den Boer, 5-6.

7Davie, 29-31; see also Herodotus, 9.73.


4/9

!"# %&'#%'%() *+ ,-'."" ,/&&'&"" 0/&)#&"1() /)% 2."""3.3**2"""

".

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, theAmazonomachiaas 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 synoikismof 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 physicalsynoikismwas 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,8to the evacuations necessitated by the Persian invasions,9to

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.

9Gou!chin, 170.


5/9

!"# %&'#%'%() *+ ,-'."" ,/&&'&"" 0/&)#&"1() /)% 2."""3.3**2"""

.

(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 withsynoikism

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.13Due 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

10Gou!chin, 178.

11Den Boer, 6-7; Gou!chin, 177.

12

Diamant, 38.13Shapiro, 40.

14Diamant, 44.


6/9

!"# %&'#%'%() *+ ,-'."" ,/&&'&"" 0/&)#&"1() /)% 2."""3.3**2"""

."

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 katabasismyth, 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 aitionsfor 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

15Agard, 86, 89-90; Davie, 25, 31; Den Boer, 4, 6-7.

16Davie, 27; This later development may have come about under Kimon, who also venerated

Herakles - see Shapiro, 32.17Agard, 88; Davie, 26; Gou!chin, 169.

18Den Boer, 10-11; Shapiro, 46.


7/9

!"# %&'#%'%() *+ ,-'."" ,/&&'&"" 0/&)#&"1() /)% 2."""3.3**2"""

.""

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.

19Den Boer, 11; Shapiro, 44.

20

Den Boer, 11-12; Gou!chin, 173; Shapiro, 47; Importantly the Marathonian bull itself is said byPlutarch to have been sacrificed to Delphian Apollo, another site significant to Theseus' story (page 5);

The Synoikiapresumably being the festival alluded to by Ovid (Metamorphoses, VII. 403-455).


8/9

!"# %&'#%'%() *+ ,-'."" ,/&&'&"" 0/&)#&"1() /)% 2."""3.3**2"""

."""

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 Journal24, no. 2

(1928): 84-91.

Davey, John N. "Theseus the King of Fifth-Century Athens." Greece and Rome,

Second Series29, no. 1 (1982): 25-34.

Den Boer, W. "Theseus: The Growth of a Myth in History." Greece and Rome,

Second Series16, no. 1 (1969): 1-13.

Diamant, Steven. "Theseus and the Unification of Attica."Hesperia Supplements17,

(1982): 38-47.


9/9

!"# %&'#%'%() *+ ,-'."" ,/&&'&"" 0/&)#&"1() /)% 2."""3.3**2"""

"2

Gou!chin, Valerij. "Athenian Synoikism of the Fifth Century B.C., or Two Stories of

Theseus." Greece and Rome, Second Series46, 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 Review7, 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.

Theorising_Theseus_-_structuralism_vs_functionalism-libre.pdf

Documents

Transcript of Theorising_Theseus_-_structuralism_vs_functionalism-libre.pdf