~

No synonyms to find

in the thesaurus;

 

no eponyms to mind,

relating to Theseus.

 

So why wasn’t he,

this man of mythology,

 

an eponym in Greek

for some part of memory?

 

He forgot – quite a lot!

isn’t that what it’s for?

 

After all, was it not

his main trait of story?

 

~

 

For instance, that goddess

he sexed on the shore

 

of Naxos, an island –

But wait! this is one

 

of only much more.

To mix man with goddess

 

the gods will deplore.

Unholy or holy,

 

or Princess she were,
“Ariadne” in Greek

 

means holiness there,

and himself, being Greek,

 

had he not been aware?

 

They say he forgot her

and never looked after;

 

he simply abandoned

old Minos’ daughter.

 

Forgetting is one thing,

but many, is poor;

 

perhaps, myth excludes

a hero from ethos –

 

She was, if not more

than the daughter of Minos.

 

Goddess or Princess,

no harm come to Theseus;

 

at the end, she was saved:

She married Dionysus.

 

Keep gods to the gods;

mix man, and disorder.

 

A goddess with man

meant certain disaster.

~

And here’s yet another,

of two friends in pact,

 

where each marry daughters

of gods, lacked respect

 

for the natural order –

Had he no circumspect?

 

Man is mere mortal,

yet this they forget!

 

Theseus and Pirithous,

no names they beget!

~

Now, Theseus took Helen,

at which time was seven:

 

That’s fine, for time;

he could save her for later.

 

But Pirithous, of course,

the other abettor,

 

he had his sights set

on something much lower.

 

Persephone, sought he,

Demeter’s young daughter.

 

That she was married to Hades,

well, that didn’t matter;

 

she was the goddess

Pirithous was after.

 

Was all this not taboo?

Did Theseus forget?

 

Man is but mortal,

the gods need respect.

 

And when these two friends

traversed to world’s end,

 

there Hades met them

and bade them come in.

 

A good host was Hades,

receiving at home;

 

all along, though, he knew

just why they had come.

 

He bade them both sit down

on chairs hewn of stone,

 

where there both became stuck

for years upon end.

~

And Theseus in time

escapes and goes home,

 

leaving his best friend

still stuck upon stone.

 

He must have forgotten

when he struck off alone,

 

he must have forgotten

why both there had come.

 

But friends are still friends,

‘til one’s left alone.

 

An eponym for that?

Most probably none.

 

If not then, for memory;

nor that, irreligious,

 

what then best befits

an eponym for Theseus?

 

Oh, myths are just stories,

sewn from whole cloth

 

on heroes, their forays,

forgot, then made up.

 

Then again, maybe once

at sometime there were

 

words for our hero,

not fit to print here.

~

 

 

©2014, Marvin Welborn

26 July 2014.