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Plutarchs Theseus
Philautia
in
by Maria do Cu Fialho
By its very nature Theseuss Life is part of a literary genre where
ambiguity between historical facts and romantic fiction1 is
present. The facticity derives from history and the fiction from
what Aristoteles believed to be the poetic discourse a degree of
universality that history possesses to a much lesser extent.
Thus, the biography serves a didactic and moralizing goal by
making use of the facts in the lives of the individuals that may
potentially be shaped in such a way as to turn the fate of these
individuals into a positive or negative exemplum for the reader,
and to illustrate the writers strong beliefs about history, politics,
moral standards, etc.
In the particular case of Theseus and Romuluss Parallel
Lives, from the very beginning we encounter two founders.
Furthermore, these are the only two biographies by Plutarch
about founders whose existence is merged with the mythical
origins of the cities to which they are connected: Athens and
Rome. Plutarch is aware of this and so it is for this reason that
the proem to these two Lives has an unusual nature, which
results from the peculiarity of these two heroes, who belong to
distant and vague eras and whose historical accuracy is difficult
to verify, thereby making them prone to legend and fable.
Plutarch tries to ensure as much as possible that muthodes is
subordinated to logos, thereby following his systematic principle
in the Vitae2: May I therefore succeed in purifying Fable (to
muthodes), making her submit to reason (logoi) and take on the
semblance of History.
In the biography of Theseus, Plutarch achieves this by
exposing the legacy of information and different traditional
versions that he has to the methodological use of various
1
H. Bauz, Humanismo y acciones en Las Vidas de Plutarco, in J. Ferreira
(ed.), Plutarco Educador da Europa, Actas do Congresso, Porto, Fundao Eng. Antnio
de Almeida, 2002, p. 183.
2
Vit. Thes. 1. 3. For the English translation of Plutarchs quotations I borrow B.
Perrins (Loeb Classical Library, 1967).
72
Maria do Cu Fialho
73
Ibid. 2. 2.
Ibid. 24. 3.
8
Ibid. 1. 5.
7
74
Maria do Cu Fialho
75
city had by that time already adopted the hero as its own, even
though there is no indication of a fight or of the presence of
someone who beat the Minotaur? One should point out that the
oldest image of the fight between the hero and the monster of
Crete can be seen on a Cycladic amphora which dates from the
first half of the VII century B.C. and which can be found in the
museum of Basel.
Nevertheless, a unique genealogy and mythical geographical
origin stems from peoples increasing acceptance of the hero
throughout the Hellenic lands. Thus, he who, par excellence,
will become the guardian hero of Athens, the creator of
sunoikismos and the figure that will come to symbolize the values
of Athens14 is the son of the union between Aegeus, a
descendent of the local people of Attica, and a woman from the
house of Pelops Dorian, of course, par excellence.15 Plutarch
explains that this alliance was consummated by mistake (apat)
or by chance from a misinterpreted oracle.16
This decentralized origin of the son of the Athenian
monarch, in relation to Athens, means that he will have to go
through Troezen to reach Athens, until he obtains his fathers
approval and is adopted by the city. It is a road of adventures
and dangers copied from those of Heracles, as Plutarch
acknowledges.
The intellectual of Chaeronea talks about the infancy and
the adolescence of a Theseus who was brought up in secret
under a false paternal reference that of Poseidon and who is
later faced with the true paternal reference, that of a human
father at the start of his manhood by means of tokens
hidden under the rock that he was able to remove. Thus, the
hero learns of his true identity, but the two above references are
important to what Walker calls double or ambiguous identity,
even despite Plutarchs rationalized version.17 This is evident
14
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Maria do Cu Fialho
77
20
Thes. 4.
Thes. 6. 7.
22
Per. 1. 3-4.
21
78
Maria do Cu Fialho
The works born from aret which are platonically changed into
an equivalent to good, and whose beauty obliges, and fascinates
the human soul into admiring it, thus becoming a driving force
behind human behaviour, act by stirring those who become
familiar with them to feel a natural desire to imitate (mimsis), to
emulate and to equal them (zlos kai prothumia).23
Plutarch picks up again this line of thinking and extends it
in the same Vita (in 2. 1-2).
For the polygraph of Chaeronea, that charm that the works
of aret exerted on the developing soul presupposes in the latter
a predisposition which is also innate aret and that, after
receiving the stimulus of a paradigmatic action which imposes
itself in the form of a spectacle, aspires to rise above the
superiority of this action and match forces with it in a healthy
emulation that is translated into actions.
Thus, the dangers that Theseus faced on his journey to
Athens and the wrongdoers who were punished and destroyed
show the active effect of the example on a young man whose
predisposition to philantrpia and to megalophrosun is carried
out through actions that aim to exert courage and to clear the
way for those who come after him. That series of adventures
appears in Plutarchs account and it is part of an accomplished,
coherent and non-dispersed journey toward the paternal figure.
Ampolo notes the care that Plutarch takes with his account of
the early youth of his heroes so that he can point out the
potential of the characteristics that will dominate their lives.24
In an impulse of generosity and by practising the strength of
the example, Theseus offers to be part of the group of hostages
that Minos is to be given. This behaviour draws admiration
from the Athenians because of his grandeur of soul (phronma)
and because of his devotion to the people (dmotikon).25
Thus, Plutarch puts aside Hellanicuss version and
contradicts it when Hellanicus asserts that the city did not hold
a draw to choose the young men and maiden women that it
23
With regards to the role of emulation as one of the essential parts in the moral
education of the characters in Plutarchs Vitae, and the place that the reference to zlos
occupies in the particular development of the scheme of the biographies see A. P.
Jimnez, Plutarco. Vidas paralelas I, introd. traduction y anotaciones, Madrid, Gredos,
1985, p. 100-105.
24
La paideia degli eroi fondatori, p. 282-285.
25
Thes. 17. 2.
79
Ibid. 17. 3.
See A. Prez Jimnez, Vidas paralelas, I, p. 35 sqq. about the asksis as one of
the main conditions to obtain virtue.
28
Rom. 35. 2.
29
See A. Prez Jimnez, Atitudes de lhombre frente a la Tyche en las Vidas
Paralelas de Plutarco, Boletin del Istituto de Estudios helenicos, vol. 7, 1973, p. 101110.
30
Rom. 32. 1.
27
80
Maria do Cu Fialho
Thes. 31 sqq.
Rom. 35. 2-3. For a better understanding of the importance of the text in the
context of the sunkrisis in the biography of Theseus and Romulus, see H. Erbse, Die
Bedeutung der Synkrisis in den Parallelbiographien Plutarchs, Hermes, vol. 84, 1956,
p. 398-424.
33
25. 1-2.
34
24. 2.
32
81
from the city and let the people advance without a guide and
become dependent on demagogues and on their own hidden
vices. He let then the various social classes fight one another.35
What does Theseus find when he returns to the city, his soul
disturbed, after having given free reign to emotional impulses?36
But when he desired to rule again as before, and to direct the state,
he became involved in factions and disturbances; he found that
those who hated him when he went away, had now added to their
hatred contempt, and he saw that a large part of the people were
corrupted, and wished to be cajoled into service instead of doing
silently what they were told to do.
32. 1 sqq.
35. 2.
37
See, for example, the 4th stasimon of King Oedipus.
36
82
Maria do Cu Fialho
83