Troezen

Troezen was a son of Pelops and brother of Pittheus, and the hero for whom the city of Troezen in the Argolid was named. Together with Pittheus he came to the court of King Aetius, and after Troezen died, Pittheus joined the two cities of the country into one and named it after his brother. The city later became the home of Theseus’ mother Aethra and the place where Theseus was born (Pausanias 2.30.8–9).

Troezen and Pittheus

Pausanias counts Troezen and Pittheus among the sons of Pelops (Pausanias 2.30.8), and Apollodorus names Pittheus with Atreus and Thyestes among the sons of Pelops (Apollodorus, Epitome 2.10). Pindar says that Pelops won the daughter of Oenomaus, Hippodamia, as his bride and had by her six sons who were leaders of the people, but does not name them (Pindar, Olympian 1.88–89). According to the Troezenians, as Pausanias reports, the land had first been ruled by Orus and then by Althepus, a son of Poseidon and Leis, the daughter of Orus; after Althepus came Saron, who drowned while chasing a doe into the sea, and from whom the Saronic Gulf was named. The Troezenians knew nothing of the later kings until Hyperes and Anthas, who were sons of Poseidon and Alcyone, the daughter of Atlas. These two founded the cities of Hyperea and Anthea; Aetius, the son of Anthas, inherited the kingdoms of his father and his uncle, and named one of the cities Poseidonias (Pausanias 2.30.5–8).

When Troezen and Pittheus came to Aetius, there were three kings instead of one, Aetius and the two brothers, but the sons of Pelops had the balance of power (Pausanias 2.30.8).

The City of Troezen

When Troezen died, Pittheus gathered the inhabitants together, incorporating both Hyperea and Anthea into the later city, which he named Troezen after his brother (Pausanias 2.30.9). Troezen’s sons Anaphlystus and Sphettus migrated to Attica, and two Attic parishes are named after them (Pausanias 2.30.9). Descendants of Aetius were later sent from Troezen to found Halicarnassus and Myndus in Caria (Pausanias 2.30.9).

The city lies on the coast of the Argolid. Homer lists Troezen among the cities of the Argolid whose men sailed to Troy under the command of Diomedes, Sthenelus and Euryalus (Iliad 2.559–568). The Troezenians told that Athena and Poseidon had once disputed over the land, in the reign of Althepus, and that Zeus ordered them to hold it in common; they worshipped both, Athena as Polias and Sthenias, and Poseidon as King, and their old coins showed a trident and the face of Athena (Pausanias 2.30.6).

Theseus and Hippolytus

Pittheus is the father of Aethra, and the city became the setting for the story of his grandson. Aegeus, king of Athens, stayed with Pittheus on his way home from Delphi; Pittheus understood the oracle, made him drunk, and caused him to lie with Aethra, and in the same night Poseidon also lay with her. Aegeus left a sword and sandals under a rock and told Aethra to send the boy to him when he could roll the rock away (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.7). Pausanias shows the place at Troezen called Genethlion, where Theseus was said to have been born (Pausanias 2.32.9).

Troezen is also the setting of Euripides’ Hippolytus, where Hippolytus, the son of Theseus and the Amazon, is described as a pupil of holy Pittheus and the only citizen of Troezenian land who denies Aphrodite (Euripides, Hippolytus 10–14). Pausanias says that Theseus sent Hippolytus to Pittheus to be raised as the future king of Troezen, and that Phaedra first saw him there when Theseus came to Troezen to be purified (Pausanias 1.22.2). The Troezenians had a famous precinct of Hippolytus with a temple and an old image, said to have been made by Diomedes, a priest who held office for life, and the custom that every maiden before marriage cut off a lock of hair and dedicated it to him (Pausanias 2.32.1).

Troezen Sources

Pausanias 1.22.2, 2.30.5–10, 2.32.1, 2.32.9; Apollodorus, Library 3.15.7; Epitome 2.10; Homer, Iliad 2.559–568; Pindar, Olympian 1.88–89; Euripides, Hippolytus 10–14.

See Also: Pelops, Hippodamia, Pittheus, Aethra, Theseus, Hippolytus, Aegeus, Poseidon