Theseus on the Road to Athens

Aegeus, king of Athens, fathered Theseus on Aethra, daughter of King Pittheus of Troezen, and before leaving "left a sword and a pair of shoes, hiding them under a great stone that had a hollow in it exactly fitting them". When the boy could lift the stone, he should come to Athens. Theseus lifted it easily — but refused to go by sea, "though it was much the safer way": he meant to clear the robbers from the road as his hero Heracles had done elsewhere. The ruins of ancient Troezen lie in the north-east Peloponnese, across the gulf from Athens.

Location precision: The stone of the myth can't be identified; the pin marks the archaeological site of ancient Troezen.

His first fight came "in the neighborhood of Epidaurus", against Periphetes, called Corynetes, the club-bearer, who stopped travellers on the road. Theseus killed him and took the club for himself, carrying it ever after as Heracles carried his lion skin, as a trophy and a weapon. Epidaurus later became famous for its sanctuary of the healing god Asclepius, whose great theatre, built in the 4th century BC, is still used for performances.

Location precision: Plutarch says only "in the neighborhood of Epidaurus"; the pin marks the sanctuary of Asclepius.

Visitor guidance: The sanctuary and its theatre are an archaeological site with a museum; summer performances are held in the theatre.

On the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow neck of land joining the Peloponnese to mainland Greece, lived Sinis, "often surnamed the Bender of Pines", who bent two pine trees to the ground, tied his victims between them and let go. Theseus killed him "after the same manner in which he himself had destroyed many others". Later, Plutarch says, Theseus set up a pillar on the Isthmus marking the border, inscribed "Peloponnesus there, Ionia here". A canal was cut through the Isthmus in 1893.

Location precision: Sinis's lair isn't located; the pin marks the Isthmus of Corinth.

Next he turned aside to hunt a monster, the Crommyonian sow, called Phaea, "a savage and formidable wild beast, by no means an enemy to be despised", that was ravaging the land around the village of Crommyon, between Corinth and Megara. Theseus killed her, "going out of his way on purpose to meet and engage her". Plutarch, ever the rationalist, also reports a version in which Phaea was a woman robber nicknamed the Sow. Ancient Crommyon lay near today's Agioi Theodoroi.

Location precision: Crommyon's site is identified from ancient sources; the pin marks it near Agioi Theodoroi.

On the borders of Megara the road ran along high cliffs above the sea, where the robber Sciron would "stretch forth his feet to strangers, commanding them to wash them, and then while they did it, with a kick to send them down the rock into the sea" — to a giant turtle waiting below, in other tellings. Theseus threw him off his own cliff. The Scironian Rocks are the sea cliffs of the Saronic coast of the Isthmus, in Megarian territory; the pin marks the shore below them at Kineta.

Location precision: The cliffs are identified by tradition; the pin marks the coast at Kineta, west of Megara.

"In Eleusis he killed Cercyon, the Arcadian, in a wrestling match." Cercyon forced passers-by to wrestle with him and killed those he beat; Theseus beat him at his own game. Plutarch notes that some told the story differently, with Theseus dealing with Sciron only later, when he took Eleusis from the Megarians. Eleusis was best known in antiquity as the home of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the secret rites of Demeter and Persephone, and the ruins of its sanctuary lie in modern Elefsina.

Location precision: Plutarch names only the town; the pin marks the archaeological site of Eleusis.

"Going on a little farther, in Erineus, he slew Damastes, otherwise called Procrustes, forcing his body to the size of his own bed, as he himself was used to do with all strangers." Procrustes stretched short guests and cut off the legs of tall ones until they fitted; his name still stands for forcing things to fit an arbitrary standard. The road from Eleusis to Athens was the Sacred Way, the procession route of the Mysteries, which passes the Byzantine monastery of Daphni.

Location precision: Erineus isn't located; the pin marks the Sacred Way at Daphni, between Eleusis and Athens.

Purified of the blood he had shed by the Phytalidae at the river Cephisus, Theseus reached Athens unrecognised. His father's wife, the sorceress Medea, guessed who he was and persuaded Aegeus to poison the stranger at a feast. Theseus drew his sword to carve the meat; Aegeus knew it, knocked the cup away and embraced his son. Plutarch says the poison spilled where the Delphinium stood in his day, on the site of Aegeus's house; its remains lie near the later Temple of Olympian Zeus.

Location precision: The Delphinium's remains lie near the Olympieion; the pin marks the Temple of Olympian Zeus.