Theseus: Birth and Early Adventures
Theseus: Birth and Early Adventures
In a Nutshell
Superheroes are where it's at these days, right? It seems like every week there's some new superpowered hero filling up the seats of America's movie theaters. If it's not the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, or Captain America, it's Harry Potter, or some action star blowing up the bad guys for the enjoyment of us all. There's no getting around it: we love our heroes.
All of this hero-worship is proof positive that we really aren't so different from the ancient Greeks. For real, all you have to do is take a glance at the stories of heroes like Theseus to see that the Greeks got just as excited as we do about stories of superpowered heroes kicking a lot of bad guy booty. Heck, Theseus is even the star of his own 2011 film spectacular, Immortals. (Check out the trailer here.)
Theseus is also like modern superheroes because he's got an awesome origin story. Thor was a god that fell to Earth, Spiderman was bitten by a radioactive spider, Superman was catapulted from his home planet of Krypton just before it exploded, and Theseus... Well, you'll just have to Shmoop your way through "Theseus: Birth and Early Adventures" to figure out how one of the original superheroes got his start.
Shmoop Connections
Explore the ways this myth connects with the world and with other topics on Shmoop
In The Metamorphoses by Ovid, the Roman poet gives you his spin on the life of Theseus.Ever read The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer? Theseus has to deal with two lovesick knights in this tale, which is also the basis for Shakespeare's Two Noble Kinsmen.
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare portrays Theseus as a wise duke. Sure, Shakey.