Sciron

A famous robber who haunted the frontier between Attica and Megaris, and not only robbed the travelers who passed through the country, but compelled them, on the Scironian rock to wash his feet, during which operation he kicked them with his foot into the sea. At the foot of the rock there was a tortoise, which devoured the bodies of the robber's victims. He was slain by Theseus, in the same manner in which he had killed others.

See also Procrustes and Sinis, two other robbers who were dispatched by Theseus.

❧

Iconography

In the pediment of the royal Stoa at Athens, there was a group of figures of burnt clay, representing Theseus in the act of throwing Sciron into the sea.1

References

Notes

  1. Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 3.1.

Sources

  • Diodorus Siculus. Historical Library iv, 59.
  • Ovid. Metamorphoses vii, 445.
  • Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 44.12.
  • Plutarch. Theseus, 10.
  • Scholiast on Euripides' Hippolytus, 976.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
  • Strabo. Geography ix, p. 391.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.