THERSITES. A Greek at Troy, deformed, impudent, and a demagogue. THESEUS. Son of Aegeus, king of Athens. Destroyed Sciron, Pityocamptes, Cercyon, and other evil-doers. Slew the Minotaur (_see_ MINOS II) in the Cretan Labyrinth, and escaped thence by means of the clue given to him by Minos's daughter Ariadne, of whom he was enamoured, but whom he afterwards deserted in Naxos, where she was found and married by Dionysus. Made an expedition against the Amazons, and carried off their queen Antiope, whose sister Hippolyta afterwards invaded Attica, but was repelled by Theseus. By Antiope he had a son Hippolytus, with whom his second wife Phaedra fell in love. Assisted by his friend Pirithoüs, Theseus carried off Helen from Sparta, and kept her at Aphidnae. THESMOPHORIA. Festival of Demeter at Athens. THETIS. Mother of Achilles. THYESTES. Son of Pelops and brother of Atreus. The latter, having been wronged by him, killed and served up to him his own sons. THYRSUS. A wand of the narthex plant, carried by the bacchantes, with its head wreathed in vine or ivy, which concealed a steel point. TIBIUS. Stock name for a slave. TIMON. The Misanthrope, lived during the Peloponnesian war. TIRESIAS. A Theban seer; was changed into a girl as the result of striking two serpents. Seven years later, he recovered his sex in the same way. Asked by Zeus and Hera to decide their dispute which sex was constituted with stronger passions, said, the woman. Hera, offended, blinded him; Zeus consoled him with the gift of prophecy. _See_ ODYSSEUS also. TITANS. The dynasty previous to that of the Olympian Gods, till Zeus deposed Cronus, and imprisoned him and the other children of Uranus and Ge in Tartarus. TITHONUS. The husband of Eos (Aurora), who gave him immortality, but not immortal youth, whence the use of his name for a withered old man. TITORMUS. An Aetolian shepherd of gigantic strength. TITYUS. A giant punished by vultures in Hades for violence offered to Artemis. TRIBE. _See_ DEME. TRIPTOLEMUS. Favourite of Demeter, who gave him a winged chariot and seeds of wheat, which he scattered as he drove over the earth. TRITON. A Sea-God, son of Posidon and Amphitrite. TRITONIA. A name for Athene, of doubtful explanation. TROPHONIUS. A mortal worshipped as a hero after death. His oracle was consulted in a cave in Boeotia. TYRO. For her story see _Dialogues of the Sea-Gods_, xiii. Lucian plays on the name elsewhere (_tyrus_, cheese). URANUS. _See_ CRONUS and GE. VOLOGESUS III. _See_ PARTHIANS. XENOCRATES. Distinguished philosopher of the Academy, friend of Plato and Aristotle. XERXES. King of Persia, 485-465 B.C. Invader of Greece, 480 B.C. His bridge over the Hellespont and canal past Mount Athos were proverbially foolish exercises of power. ZAMOLXIS. A Thracian who, having been a slave of Pythagoras in Samos, learned his doctrines, and communicated them to the Thracians after his escape. He was deified in Thrace after death. ZENO. _See_ STOICS.