Theseus

Theseus was the son of King Aegeus of Athens (or, in some versions, Poseidon). Raised by his mother in Troezen, he traveled to Athens as a young man, defeating bandits and monsters along the road — including Procrustes, who stretched or cut travelers to fit his iron bed.

His greatest feat was volunteering as one of the fourteen youths sent as tribute to King Minos of Crete, where they would be fed to the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. Ariadne, Minos's daughter, fell in love with Theseus and gave him a ball of thread to retrace his path. He entered the maze, slew the Minotaur, and followed the thread back to freedom.

Theseus became king of Athens and was credited with unifying the scattered communities of Attica into a single state. But his later life was marked by tragedy — he abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos, forgot to change his ship's sails from black to white (causing his father to leap to his death in despair), and was eventually overthrown.