Pittheus

Pittheus was a son of Pelops and king of Troezen in the Argolid, remembered as a wise man and as the maternal grandfather of Theseus. When Aegeus of Athens came to him with an obscure oracle, Pittheus saw its meaning and arranged that Aegeus should father a child by his daughter Aethra. That child was Theseus, whom Pittheus then helped to raise.

Family

Plutarch traces Theseus on his mother’s side back to Pelops, and says that Pelops placed many of his sons as rulers in the cities of the Peloponnese. One of them was Pittheus (Plutarch, Theseus 3.1). Apollodorus lists Pittheus, Atreus and Thyestes among the sons of Pelops (Apollodorus, Epitome 2.10), and Plutarch names Hippodameia as the mother of Pittheus and of his sister Lysidice, the mother of Alcmene (Plutarch, Theseus 7.1). His brother Troezen gave the city its name (Pausanias 2.30.9).

His daughter Aethra is called “daughter of Pittheus” already in the Iliad, where she is one of Helen’s two handmaids at Troy (Homer, Iliad 3.144). Plutarch names another daughter, Henioche, who married Canethus and bore Sciron, the robber later killed by Theseus (Plutarch, Theseus 25.4).

King of Troezen

Pausanias says that when Troezen died, Pittheus gathered the people of the old cities of Hyperea and Anthea into one city and named it Troezen after his brother (Pausanias 2.30.8–9). Plutarch likewise says that he founded the little city and was famous for his learning and wisdom (Plutarch, Theseus 3.1). At Troezen, Pausanias saw his tomb with three white marble seats on which, it was said, Pittheus and two companions used to sit in judgment, and was told that Pittheus taught the art of rhetoric there. He also records a book on rhetoric attributed to Pittheus and a sanctuary of Apollo Thearios, which the Troezenians said Pittheus had founded (Pausanias 2.31.3, 2.31.6).

Aegeus and Aethra

Aegeus, king of Athens, was childless and consulted the oracle at Delphi, which told him not to loosen the neck of his wine-skin until he reached Athens again. On his way home he stopped at Troezen, where Pittheus understood the saying and made him drunk, so that he lay with Aethra (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.6–7; Plutarch, Theseus 3.3–4). In Euripides’ Medea, Aegeus is on his way to consult Pittheus about the oracle and calls him king of Troezen, a son of Pelops, most pious and wise in such matters (Euripides, Medea 683–686). On the same night, according to Apollodorus, Poseidon also had intercourse with Aethra. Aegeus left a sword and sandals under a great rock and told Aethra that if she bore a son, he should be sent to Athens when he could lift the rock and take the tokens (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.7; Plutarch, Theseus 3.5).

Grandfather of Theseus

Plutarch says Theseus was brought up by Pittheus, with a tutor named Connidas, and that Pittheus let it be reported that the boy was a son of Poseidon, who was the patron god of Troezen (Plutarch, Theseus 4.1, 6.1). When Theseus was grown, Pittheus described the robbers on the land road to Athens one by one and tried to persuade him to travel by sea, but Theseus, inspired by the deeds of Heracles, chose the land route (Plutarch, Theseus 6.6–7.1).

The Troezenians told a story about Theseus at seven years old. When Heracles visited Pittheus and laid his lion skin aside to eat, the other children ran away from it, but Theseus took an axe from the servants and attacked it, thinking it a living lion (Pausanias 1.27.7).

Hippolytus

Pittheus also raised Theseus’ son Hippolytus. Pausanias says that Theseus, about to marry Phaedra, sent Hippolytus to Pittheus to be brought up and to be the future king of Troezen, so that he would not be subject to Phaedra’s children (Pausanias 1.22.2). Euripides calls Hippolytus “the pupil of holy Pittheus” and Phaedra fears that Hippolytus will tell old Pittheus of her disgrace (Euripides, Hippolytus 11, 691). The story is told on the page of Hippolytus.

Pittheus Sources

Homer, Iliad 3.144; Euripides, Medea 683–686; Euripides, Hippolytus 11, 691; Apollodorus, Library 3.15.6–7; Apollodorus, Epitome 2.10; Plutarch, Theseus 3.1–5, 4.1, 6.1, 6.6, 7.1, 25.4; Pausanias 1.22.2, 1.27.7, 2.30.8–9, 2.31.3, 2.31.6.

See Also: Pelops, Aethra, Aegeus, Theseus, Poseidon, Heracles, Phaedra, Hippolytus