Theseus reigned many years with wisdom and skill. He united the different courts, hamlets and municipalities to make the stronger city state of Athens. He created a constitution that he undertook himself, and made Athens became the model of many other cities. He had a happy marriage with his wife, the Amazon Hippolyte and mother of his son Hippolytos.

However, Hippolyte died during an attack to the Amazons, and so Theseus started to search for another woman who would bring him the same happiness at home. The woman he finally found was the sister of Ariadne, Phradra, and their marriage brought the alliance between Athens and Crete. Phadra gave him two sons, but she never really loved him. In fact, she had fallen in love with Hippolyos, the fruit of Theseus first marriage, but the desire of his stepmother sickened the boy so much that he always tried to avoid her.

With the time, Phadra could not stand her defeat any more and she hanged herself. Theseus found her at his return from a trip, with a letter in her hand where she said that she could not resist any more Hippolytos’ harassment. After this, Theseus banished his son from his land. Soon came an old wet-nurse and told him the truth, but it was already too late: Hippolytos had had an accident and was dead.

At this point it was the king who was banished from the city by the villagers. He died in the island of Skyros, where the king Lycomedes pushed him down the cliffs. However, the oracle of Delphi said that if they gave a honorable funeral to Theseus, Athens would have a glorious future, so the Athenian Kimon left to search the moral remains of Theseus and returned to Athens with his body to bury him.