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| Attic Greece Neck Amphora Theseus slaying the Minotaur ca. 550 BC painted terracotta Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Attic Greece Hydria Theseus slaying the Minotaur ca. 550-530 BC painted terracotta Harvard Art Museums |
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| Attic Greece Amphora Theseus slaying the Minotaur ca. 545-535 BC painted terracotta Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Attic Greece Amphora Theseus slaying the Minotaur ca. 540 BC painted terracotta British Museum |
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| Attic Greece Amphora Theseus slaying the Minotaur ca. 540 BC painted terracotta Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Attic Greece Amphora Theseus slaying the Minotaur ca. 540-530 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"In Greek mythology, Athens was once subject to King Minos of Crete and was obliged to send a yearly tribute of seven youths and seven maidens. They either lost their way in the king's labyrinthine palace or were consumed by the Minotaur, part man and part bull. Theseus, with the help of Ariadne, Minos' daughter, killed the monstrous creature."
– curator's notes from the Metropolitan Museum
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| Attic Greece Kylix (detail) Theseus slaying the Minotaur ca. 530 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Attic Greece Neck Amphora Theseus slaying the Minotaur ca. 500 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Attic Greece Column Krater Theseus and Poseidon ca. 480-470 BC painted terracotta Harvard Art Museums |
"The Athenian hero Theseus visits his divine father Poseidon. Theseus's mother was Aethra, and ancient sources sometimes consider him to be the son of her husband, Aegeus, but sometimes also make him the son of Poseidon. Poseidon stands at the center of the scene facing toward the right, identifiable by the trident he holds in his left hand, which is so tall that it overlaps the frieze above the scene. . . . With his right hand he grasps Theseus's right hand in greeting. . . ."
– curator's notes from Harvard Art Museums
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| Attic Greece Oinochoe Theseus and Poseidon ca. 470-460 BC painted terracotta Yale University Art Gallery |
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| Attic Greece Neck Amphora Theseus and Sinis grasping a Pine Tree ca. 470-460 BC painted terracotta Harvard Art Museums |
"Sinis was a bandit who lived at the Isthmus of Corinth, the only land-route from the Greek mainland to the Peloponnesian peninsula, and would trick travelers into helping him bend trees down to the ground and releasing them so they were catapulted by the tree as it sprang back up. . . . This scene shows the Athenian hero Theseus outwitting Sinis and using his own trick against him. The unbearded Theseus stands at left, wearing a short tunic (chiton) and holding Sinis' left wrist in his right hand, looking down at the crouching Sinis. In his left hand he holds a coniferous tree bent down towards the ground, with its leaves and branches painted in added red. . . ."
– curator's notes from Harvard Art Museums
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| Attic Greece Bell Krater (detail) Theseus and Procrustes ca. 470 BC painted terracotta Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
"Procrustes was a brigand who lived between Eleusis and Athens. Having overcome his victims he would force them to lie down on a bed, or on one of two beds – if they were too short, he would hammer them out or rack them with weights to fit the longer bed, if too tall he would cut them to fit the shorter. Theseus disposed of him in like manner."
– Oxford Classical Dictionary
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| Attic Greece Kylix Deeds of Theseus ca. 440-430 BC painted terracotta British Museum |
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| Attic Greece Calyx Krater Theseus seizing the Bull of Marathon ca. 440-430 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |