Contents -- 1. Myth and Ritual: Hero Worship in Greece and the Origins of the Theseus Myth -- Kings and Republics -- Greek Heroes -- The Origins of the Myth of Theseus -- The Myth of Theseus -- The Cult of Theseus -- 2. Benevolent Dictators and the Paradox of a Democratic King -- Theseus and the Peisistratids -- Hero Worship and Tyranny -- Theseus and Cleisthenes' Democracy -- Cimon and Theseus -- Athenian Myth and Ionian Science -- Theseus in Periclean Athens -- 3. The Trozenian Outsider -- Bacchylides 17: The Man from the Sea -- Bacchylides 18: Ephebe and Foreigner -- 4. The Hero-King -- Euripides' Hippolytus: Exorcising the Ghost of Monarchy -- Euripides' Madness of Heracles: An Old-fashioned Hero -- 5. The Democratic Ruler -- The Royal Democracy -- The Democratic Monarch of Euripides': Suppliant Women -- 6. Theseus at Colonus -- King and Country in Sophocles': Oedipus at Colonus -- 7. Theseus Enters History -- Thucydides -- Hellanicus -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Z.