Theseus (Ch 23)

Etymology:
Geographical Association: Athenian hero, ascends cultural status with the rise of Athens, the territory of Attica near the Sardonic gulf.
Genaelogy: Augeus + Aethra.
Claim to Fame: Pint-size Heracles, completes half the labours.
Literature: ?

Myth

I. Birth: The childless King of Athens, Augeus, consults the Delphic Oracle on how to attain a heir. Her cryptic message "not to open the wineskin" is lost on him, so he visits his friend King Pittheus in Troezen for advice. The wily King instead betroths his daughter Aethra to Augeus, after getting him drunk (told you not to open the wineskin...). Augeus accidentally impregnates her, but orders her to tell no one and raise it in secret. He mandates that only the son of Augeus could lift the boulder that he places his sandals and sword under.
After Augeus departs for Athens, Aethra has a dream that Poseidon is demanding sacrifice on a nearby island. She wakes and visits it the same night, and has a secret tryst with the god = dual paternity of Theseus.

II. Manhood: When Theseus is grown, he easily moves the boulder and obtains his mortal fathers sandals and sword. Instead of sailing his way to Athens, he vows to take the more heroic overland route, in which he completes 6 Labours:
1. Periphetes/Corynetes ("Club Man") @ Epidaurus: Known for bashing his victims, Theseus bashes this robber with his own club.
2. Sinis/Pityocamptes ("Pine Bender") @ Isthmus of Corinth: Known for bending two pines, tying his victim to them, then having them snap apart, Sinus suffers the same fate at the hands of Theseus.
3. Monsterous Sow @ Northern point of Isthmus, village Cromyon: He slays the carnivorous of a mean old woman
4. Sciron @ Megara: Known for leading his victims to a cliff and getting them to wash his feet, only to boot them off towards his man-eating turtle, once again he suffers the same fate at the hands of Theseus.
5. Cercyon @ Elusius: Known for his wrestling ability, Theseus out wrestles the wrestler and escapes his own death. He kills the local hero instead, eclipsing his status.
6. Procrustes ("stretcher") b/t Eluseus and Athens: Known for measuring out his victims and proportioning to proper size (either with a hammer and stretcher, or a large axe), Theseus defeats him, although it is unknown if Procrustes was too short or too tall.

III. Arrival at Athens: Having completed his 6 labours, Theseus is received in Athens as is any other stranger/hero. His step-mother, the sorceress Medea who has married Augeus, views Theseus as a threat to her son Medus and attempts to poison him with drink. Augeus, discovering the strangers identity at the last second, prevents him from consuming the poison. To escape punishment, Medea flees eastward on a dragon-drawn chariot.
In the meantime, Theseus meets the Bull of Marathon, the Cretan Bull that Heracles rescued from Minos and delivered to the mainland. He manages to subdue it and sacrifice it to Apollo Delphinius.

IV. The Minotaur: Minos (son of Zeus and Europa) , King of Crete, was unable to sacrifice a sacred bull from Poseidon. Angry, the vengeful God strikes his wife Pasiphae with irrevocable desire for the creature. In order to avoid embarassment, Pasiphae asks Daedalus, an Athenian engineer to build a hollow wooden cow for her to occupy. She is impregnated by the bull, and delivers forth the Minotaur.
The man-eating monstrosity is hidden in a labyrinth (also built by Daedalus) and fed on human flesh.
In the meantime, Prince Androgeus is killed by some Athenians after his successful participation in some athenian athletic events. In response, Crete attacks Athens, but they come to a settlement whereby each year 7 young princes and 7 young princesses are shipped off to Crete and fed to the Minotaur.
In reponse to this injustice, Theseus offers to go, vowing to slay the monster and relenquish the obligation to Crete. He tells his father on the return journey he will raise white sails if he succeeds (versus the black sails of mourning).
Ariadnes, daughter of Minos, falls in love at first sight with Theseus. She betrays her family by giving him a clue ("ball of wool") for the labyrinth, which Theseus uses to navigate his escape after he slaughters the Minotaur. Along with saving the 14 youth, he rescues Ariadne from her father as they sail home (Unfortunately she's abandoned on the island of Naxos/Dia where she is rescued and married to Dionysus)
Theseus forgets to hoist the white sails, so Augeus is stricken with grief at the loss of his son, and throws himself into the sea. Theseus arrives to Athens as the new king, and immediately conducts a series of reforms which unify Athenian villages into one metropolis, and reinstitute the Isthmian Athletic gmes.

V. Other Myths:
-Theseus joined Heracles on his 9th labour to the Amazon. Whereas Heracles kills his lover Hippolytus, Theseus abducts Antiope after an epic battle with the enraged women.
-Pirithous, King of Lapiths, is married one day and Theseus is the best man. Unfortunately, as the vino is uncorked a tribe of centaurs attack. Although the two kings triumph, their guests have been slain (including the bride). Pirithous asserts the only bride equivalent to the one he lost is Persephone, and convinces Theseus to descend to Hades with him. They get stuck, of course, but Heracles comes to the rescue, only to save Theseus.

Oedipus (Ch 17)

Etymology: Oedipus, "swollen foot"
Origin: Born to Laius + Jocasta of Thebes, raised by Polybus + Merope of Corinth.
Claim to Fame: Defeats Sphinx. Kills his father, marries his mother.
Literature: Sophocles' Theban Trilogy (Oedipus Rex/Tyrannus, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus), Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound (Seven Against Thebes)

Precedents

Laius, the great-grandson of Cadmus, breaks Xenia (guest-host relationship) by abducting and raping Pelop's son Chrysippus, and thus his lineage is cursed. Laius returns to Thebes, ascends the throne, and marries Jocasta.He learns of an oracle that proclaims he is destined to die at the hands of his own son, asserting the curse placed upon him by Pelops, so when his son Oedipus is born he is abandoned on Mt. Cithaeron with spikes driven through both ankles (not only is his death likely, his spirit is anchored to one place).
Tiresias, the Theban seer, makes the mistake of striking two snakes that are copulating, and is thus changed into a woman for 7 years. Interested in his experience, Jupiter questions Tiresias if it is man or woman that obtains more pleasure from sex. He agrees with Jupiter that women derives more pleasure, and is struck blind by an enraged Juno. To compensate he is granted the gift of prophecy, despite his physical blindness.

Oedipus Tyrannus

Oedipus is rescued by a Corinthian shepard and delivered to Polybus and Merope (rulers of Corinth), where he receives his name. As he matures, he is mocked for being adopted, so he seeks information of his true parents from the Delphic Oracle, who responds instead that he is fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Under the conception that Polybus and Merope are his parents, he vows never to return home and wanders to Thebes instead.
He encounters a regal procession at a crossroads, whereby he is driven off the road and is struck by a man in a chariot. Unbeknownst to Oedipus, this man is his father Laius (King of Thebes), so when he slaughters all but one (the shepard that saved him as a child) of the offending party he fulfills the first half of the Oracles prophecy.
He continues on into the city, where he meets the Sphinx ("strangler", part lion part eagle) that devours those that cannot answer her riddle (Q: What creature is quadruped, biped, and triped? A: Man. Four-legged as an infant, two-legged as an adult, with a cane as an elder). Because the Sphinx commits suicide, Oedipus is the saviour of the city, and therefore becomes King of Thebes with Jocasta as his wife - who bears him 4 children, Antigone (f.), Ismene (f.), Polyneices (m.), and Eteocles (m.).
A plague strikes Thebes because Laius' murder has never been solved. Ironically, Oedipus becomes the object of his own curse when he vows to uproot and avenge the killer, ignoring Tiresias' warning hint. A messenger from Corinth arrives, bearing news of the death of King Polybus and the ascension of Oedipus to the throne. The truth is revealed that Oedipus was not his biological son, while Oedipus forces the nature of his true parentage out of the messenger and a Theban attendant, Jocasta retreats into the palace to hang herself. In grief, Oedipus blinds himself and commits to self-imposed exile in Colonus, as led by his daughter Antigone.

Oedipus at Colonus

The inhabitants of Colonus reject Oedipus because his reputation precedes him. Theseus (King of Athens) resolves the situation and allows his exile due a the prophecy that states the city possessing the bones of Oedipus cannot be taken, but Oedipus mysteriously disappears into the Grove of Eumenides (Eryines).

Seven Against Thebes

The sons of Oedipus are cursed by their father to die by each others hands, as forseen by the seer Tiresias. While Eteocles ascends the throne, Polyneices is exiled from Thebes but manages to steal the robe and necklace of Harmonia (wife of Cadmus). He uses the necklace to win over 6 allies that declare war on Thebes, to no avail. The seven gates are defended by seven heroes, and the brothers kill each other to fulfill the prophecy. Only Amphiarus (seer) and Adrastas are saved, either swallowed by the earth or saved by the divine steed Arion, and Thebes is momentarily left without a ruler.

Antigone

After the deaths of the brothers, Creon (evil uncle of Antigone) becomes King of Thebes and dictates that Polyneices the Traitor must be denied burial while Eteocles will be given full funeral honors. At her uncle's hubris (damning her brother as a wandering spirit), Antigone takes matters into her own hands and sprinkles dust on her brother's corpse as a symbolic burial. She is thus sentenced imprisonment without food and water, and commits suicide by hanging. Her berothed as well as mother also kill themselves.

Artemis (Ch 10)

Etymology and Epithets:
     (g.) Artemis
     (l.) Diana
     Potnia Theron, "mistress of the animals"
     Kourotrophos, "protector/destroyer of the young" (See Niobe)
     Phoebe, "bright", "shining" (alike to Phoebus, her brother)
     Identified with Selene ("cold/white/chaste") Hecate (Chthonian deity of crossroads, ghosts,
     and black magic) and the Magna Mater fertility goddess.
Domain: Ambiguous non-hellenic origin with significant Asia Minor connections to fertility deity.  
     Temple of Artemis at Ephesus once one of seven wonders of the world.
Genealogy: Zeus + Leto. Sister to Apollo.
Claim to Fame: Goddess of nature, animals, hunting, eternal virginity, childbirth, chase. Parthanos.
     Original femme fatal: hunts and destroys, then returns home to dance and flirt with the nymphs.
Iconography: the moon, small woodland animals, newborns, archers bow, constellations
Literature: Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Ovid's Metamorphosis, Euripedes' Hippolytus

Myth

I. Birth: Born on Ortygia/Delos "Quail Island" on Mt. Cynthia, then assists with the birth of her brother.
II. Tears of Niobe: Niobe, Queen of Thebes, boasts she is more deserving of honor than Leto because she has given birth to 14 Niobids (7 sons, 7 daughters). Leto hears this slander, and Zeus invokes the wrath of Apollo and Artemis who slay all 14 niobids mercilessly. Zeus manages to save Niobe, and transforms her into a rocky crag in Phrygia known for its streaming of tears down the rock face.
III. Actaeon: A wandering hunter, Actaeon, stumbles upon a glade on Mt. Cithaeron where Diana and her attendants are bathing unaware. Artemis transforms the peeping-tom into a stag and sics his own hounds on him, which tear him apart limb from limb.
III. Callisto: One of Diana's favourite attendents Callisto (from Calliste, "most beautiful") is seduced and impregnated by Jupiter. As a result she is exiled along with her newborn child, Arcas, but transformed into constellations: Callisto into a Ursa Major (bear), and Arcas/Arctophylax/Arcturus/Bootes into Ursa Minor.
IV. Orion (Sirius, "dog"): A hunter and worshipper of Artemis from the island of Chios, Orion persues Merope (daughter of Oenopion, King of Chios). Her father gets Orion drunk and blinds him when he is passed out, forcing him to wander East where Helius restores his site. He then tries to rape Artemis, who sics a scorpion (Scorpius) on him and stings him to death. The two are preserved as constellations in the heavens.
V. Hippolytus (chaste devotee of Artemis): Aphrodite causes his step mother, Phaedra, to fall in love with him. She reveals her secret only to a nurse, who forces her to come clean with her son-in-law. Hippolytus haughtily rejects Phaedra, who is so hurt she commits suicide and leaves a note falsely accusing Hippolytus of rape (Potiphar's Wife motif). His father, Theseus calls down a curse, whereby his son will be killed by a "bull from the sea". In his dying hour, Artemis appears to Hippolytus and promises a cult in his honor, whereby virgins will cut their hair and lament his death, then enact vengeance on Aphrodite's favourites.