Theseus

Theseus was a Greek demigod, a son of Poseidon and the former hero-king of Athens, renowned across Greece for slaying the Minotaur. In his later years, broken by old losses, he entered the service of the Sisters of Fate as the Horse Keeper, guarding the Steeds of Time on the Island of Creation, where he met his end at the hands of his kinsman Kratos.

Hero of Athens#

Theseus was born a demigod, the son of Poseidon, the Ruler of the Oceans, and as a child he was adopted by Aegeus, King of Magara, whom he loved as a father. His legend began when, on a quest for the goddess Athena, he was thrown into the labyrinth of King Minos to be sacrificed to the Minotaur alongside other Athenians. Minos' daughter Ariadne, in love with him, gave him the twine by which he and his fellow captives found their way out, and Theseus slew the Cretan beast. For this bravery Athens honored him as a hero, and in time he became its king.

A life of tragedy#

The triumph soured. Theseus had meant to remain at Ariadne's side, but the Wine God Dionysus claimed her for himself and forced the demigod to leave her behind on the island of Naxos, and she cursed him as he sailed for home. Returning to Athens, his ship still flying a black flag, he caused his adoptive father Aegeus to believe his son had died, and the old king cast himself from the cliffs into the sea.

The loss weighed on Theseus for the rest of his days. As the years passed he set aside the life of hero and king and dwelt ever more on the griefs of his past, above all the deaths of Ariadne's love and of his father. At last, aging and desperate, he made the same choice as so many others and gave himself to the service of the Sisters of Fate, hoping they would grant him an audience and undo his fate. The former hero-king of Athens became the Keeper of the Horse Key and Guardian of the Steeds of Time.

The duel on the Steeds of Time#

When Kratos reached the Steeds of Time on the Island of Creation, he found Theseus their guardian. The two studied one another in silence, and then Theseus snorted at the Spartan's presence and at once grasped his purpose. He scorned Kratos, claiming he was no match for Zeus nor for Theseus himself, and challenged him to a duel to the death to settle who was the greatest warrior in all of Greece.

Theseus fought with a double-bladed sword and proved a tough opponent, kindling the weapon's magic to summon great spikes of ice from the ground in shifting formations. As the fight turned against him he retreated to a doorway above Kratos, out of reach, firing bolts of blue magic from his blade and calling up pairs of ice-wreathed Erebus Minotaurs to attack the Spartan in his stead, a hypocrisy in one who so despised weakness in others.

Kratos knocked him from his perch and left him hanging by one arm, then dragged him down, took his sword by force, and impaled him to the door with it. Wresting away the Horse Key, Kratos used it to open the door Theseus had guarded. When the wounded king tried to stop him, the Spartan smashed his head against the metal door again and again, then kicked him through the opening into the newly revealed chamber, killing him and claiming the Horse Keeper's Key.

Reputation and fate#

Theseus held a very high opinion of himself and showed an undying loyalty to Zeus and to the Sisters of Fate. He had no respect for those he deemed weaker than himself and belittled any who sought to change their fate, and so he scorned Kratos as a fool, only to learn the Spartan's true strength when it was too late. Once he had thought well of Kratos, believing him a man who would never need to alter his destiny, but the loss of the Spartan's godhood turned that regard to contempt.

The reversal of time at the close of Kratos' quest may have undone his death, yet it is unlikely Theseus survived the cataclysms that followed, beginning with the great flood that came with the death of his father Poseidon. Long afterward, in the Norse lands, Mimir recalled attending the wedding of a Greek king as part of Oberon's entourage, and the tale he told matched closely the story of Theseus.