[image: theseus_.jpg] *Young Theseus: * Nothing Without (Discretion is advised.) That Theseus has no constellation is one of mythology's most perplexing and lamented oversights. Even a brief perusal of his exploits would suffice to convince most that Theseus' accomplishments would certainly have justified this most exalted honour: an honour bestowed upon some of the creatures and characters with which he would become closely associated. His adventures were as perilous and his conquests as magnificent as that of Hercules, a person whom he admired as a youth and eventually befriended as an adult. It is said, in fact, that Theseus led a life designed to be a strong emulation of the mighty Hercules. That he was compelled by the singular aim of joining the exclusive pantheon of illustrious heroes whose lives enriched the glorious and mythic history of Athens. Theseus achieved this aim by sheer pluck. His determination to attain such an exalted height was so imperious that he engaged in acts both praiseworthy - such as the combat with the Minotaur- and detestable - such as the abduction of the 12 year old Helen of Troy- to achieve it. Nevertheless, within time, many of his deeds were so noble, his actions so brave, his travels so widespread, and his reputation so celebrated that Athens paid him the rare tribute of proverbial expression: "Nothing without Theseus." Even by heroic standards, Theseus is extraordinary. More so, because unlike so many others revered figures, Theseus was purely mortal; this despite his own early claim that his father was Posideon himself. His father, however, while an Athenian king, was nevertheless as mortal as his mother. Theseus managed to ascend beyond his station despite the Olympian sanction against the presumption of such audacious mortal upstarts. Perhaps even they were a bit leery of the exceptionally strong youth who stormed undaunted through life with a sword in one fist and a club in the other. As a character study, though, Theseus is far more complex than the typical hero, as one could see that his intense longing for renown would devolve into a moral defect before intensifying into a fevered madness. We begin the story with Theseus' father, the Athenian king Aegeus, who remained childless into early middle age. Made desperate by this lack of issue, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi in hopes that the gods would intervene to give him a child. The Oracle cryptically told him, "Do not untie your wine skin until you return home." Like others who had sought the Oracle's counsel, Aegeus was confused, but nevertheless heeded the advice. When Aegis visited King Pittheus of Troezen, he spoke of this oracle. Though Aegis remained ignorant of its meaning, Pittheus did not., for he, too, had heard a prophecy. The prophecy told him that his daughter, Aethrea, would give birth to a powerful mortal, a mortal whose "veins would flow with fire and whose fingers would drip with his enemies' blood." Pittheus plied Aegis with many cups of wine until he was half insensible. Pittheus then carried the besotted Aegis to Aethra's bed, where that night Theseus was conceived. Before he departed for Athens, Aegis knew that Aethra was pregnant with his child. He led the young woman to a boulder, under which he buried a sword and a pair of sandals. Aegis instructed Aethra to bring the child -if it was a boy- to the boulder when he attained maturity. If the son could lift the boulder, he was to take the sword and sandals with him to Athens, where Aegis would acknowledge his paternity and make him his heir. The child was born and of his early youth, little is ever said, apart from the reports that he was unnaturally strong and swift. The crafty Pittheus, citing as evidence these remarkable physical attributes, convinced the young Theseus that his father was Poseidon, god of the ocean, who came to his mother in the guise of the Athenian king. Pittheus then educated Theseus about Athens and its retinue of heroes, including Perseus -long since dead- and his celebrated, and still active descendant Hercules, whose exploits were even then a legend amongst Athenians. Theseus decided at once that his conquests and adventures would equal or even eclipse those of the mighty Hercules. Though delighted by his grandson's ambitions, Pittheus was doubtful that his renown would even approach that of Heracles. As instructed, Aethra, accompanied by Pittheus, brought the young adult Theseus to the boulder and told him who he was and what he was to do. Theseus, with little effort, moved the boulder, exposing the contents underneath it. He eagerly seized the sword and put on the sandals. Pittheus and Aethra offered to send him to Athens aboard a ship, for such passage would prove safer than traveling through the wilderness, where savage bandits had been preying upon unsuspecting travelers. Theseus disdained the offer, and insisted on traveling through the thickets on foot. Despite his mother and grandfather's protests, Theseus did not relent, for he intended on both encountering and defeating each bandit who happened upon his path. The sail, he declared, would have offered only a craven flight from danger. "Heracles would not have sailed, grandfather!" he said, before bowing dutifully to his mother and embarking on this first series of adventures. It wasn't long before he came upon Periphetes, also known as Corynetes, "the club bearer." This villain lurked in the brush and clubbed strangers to death before stealing any valuables they carried on their body. Theseus spied Corynetes under the canopy and when he approached within striking distance, seized him by the throat, ripped the club out of his hands and repeatedly bashed him in the skull with his own club. (As we shall see, Theseus often administered to the bandits the same treatments to which their victims had been subjected.) Theseus kept the club, a weapon which would ultimately become his symbol, and then, using the bandit's blood as ink and his finger as a quill, wrote the name "Theseus" on Corynetes' dead body. He next happened upon Procrustes, a particularly sadistic wretch who was known for his "fitting bed." Any traveler unlucky enough to be captured by Procrustes was placed on it. . If the traveler was shorter than the bed, he would be stretched out until his head and feet touched either end. If the traveler was taller than the bed, he would be cut at either end so as to also fit on the bed precisely. Generally, these height modifications would be enough to kill the traveler. If they survived the gruesome treatment, Procrustes would then kill them and steal any money they had. Procrustres hid in the brush and waited to pounce upon Theseus. Pounce he did, but Theseus had expected it. The next day, when another traveler came upon the same area, he saw the metal bed upon which lay a shortened body. Poised on the body's stomach was Procrustes' head with a red "Theseus" written on its cheek. Sinis was the next brute to meet Theseus. Sinis was also known as the pine bender, for he would bend two pine trees down so that they formed a cross shape with their strained tops held to the ground by ropes. Sinis tied his victims to this construct, so that one side of the victim was attached to one tree and the other side to the next tree. He then cut the ropes so that the trees would snap violently back into a vertical position, making short work of the unfortunate victim. A week after Theseus met Sinis, a different traveler saw Sinis' left and right half separated by enough ground to accommodate the word "Theseus." The same traveler saw Sinis' daughter, Perigone, sleeping in an asparagus patch. She had been seduced and then abandoned by Theseus after her father had been vanquished. Soon after Sinis' death, Theseus found Scrion. Scrion robbed travelers and then commanded them to wash his feet. He told each traveler that he would earn his freedom when the feet were clean. When the victim knelt down to do the chore, Scrion kicked him over the cliff face hidden behind them by a canopy of leaves. The doomed traveler was then devoured by a giant turtle that lived at the cliff bottom. The blood word "Theseus" remained on the stool for many days, the same stool upon which Scrion had sat when Theseus knelt down to wash his feet before snapping his knees and tossing him over the cliff face. He last encountered Phaea, an ancient sow creature who was born of the unnatural union of Gaia and Tartarus, the region where the wicked were punished after death. This gruesome sow monster was the most formidable foe Theseus had yet faced. Using his powerful muscles, he wrestled and pummeled the sow to death, much to the relief of local village people who had been terrorized by the vicious creature for years. The grateful townspeople, at Theseus' instruction, inscribed the hero's name on their doors. Thus had Theseus earned a reputation for bravery and fighting skill by the time he entered the kingdom of Eleusis, whose king, Cercyon, detested strangers of any kind. Being both of fierce disposition and prodigious strength, this king challenged any visitor to a wrestling contest, with the loser to be put to death, The king had defeated scores of visitors, all of whom were executed within moments of their defeat. Cercyon challenged the interloping Theseus, whose name he had not yet heard, to a wrestling contest. He told Theseus if he lost, he would be put to death. If he won, he would gain his freedom. Both Theseus and Cercyon wrestled wildly and violently for more than an hour before Theseus finally managed to pin Cercyon down on his stomach with one leg and arm in a tight lock. "You have prevailed," he conceded breathlessly. "You have your freedom." "No," his victor replied before smothering him. "My name is Theseus and Eleusis now has a new king." THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM 207-780-4249 www.usm.maine.edu/planet <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usm.maine.edu%2Fplanet&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHulkHuLP13bOG2PkNrPazsGWFs2A> 70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103 43.6667° N 70.2667° W Altitude: 10 feet below sea level Founded January 1970 Julian Date: 2459227.18 2020-2021: LXXI THE DAILY ASTRONOMER Wednesday, January 13, 2021 Exploratorium VI: Is Time Travel Possible? Part I Tomorrow, we will be posting an article about the Block Universe. Prior to transmitting that article, we wanted to spend a little time addressing a question that has captivated science-fiction authors and plagued scientists since humanity first realized that time is a dimension. Is time travel possible? The answer is YES! But, now, we'll disappoint you. We are traveling through time constantly. Every second of every day, we move another second in the future.* But, yes, that is not the question you really asked. Can we accelerate our motion into the future or decelerate into the distant past? The answer is, maybe, but actually being able to travel through time at a rate and in a direction other than our usual means is highly unlikely. First, we know that we could experience a profoundly different time flow if we could accelerate to high velocities. Special Relativity tells us, for instance, if we were aboard a vessel traveling at 86.6% light speed, the time dilation factor would be 2.0. For instance, imagine you're moving at 86.6% light speed (0.866c) for a time span of one year, according to your on-board clock, or, your on-board strontium-atom-based quantum chronometer. After your voyage ended, you'd find that people who remained on Earth experienced two years. It is not as though they merely perceived more time. More time actually elapsed for them than you as a consequence of your rapid motion. The faster you travel, the greater the time dilation factor. If you managed to attain light speed (an apparent impossibility as the vessel mass would extend to infinity), time would stop. In theory, you could travel at this speed for centuries and not age at all. You could start in 2021 at light speed and after 800 years, arrive back on Earth at 2821 in an instant. You will have, in effect, ventured into the future centuries beyond your home time period. Of course, if you found the 29th century to be excessively busy or exasperatingly calm, you couldn't reverse course. [image: gr_timedial.png] The graph above relates speed to time dilation factor. The faster one travels, the greater the time dilation becomes. However, the speed of light defines the ultimate limit. At this speed, time stops completely. Also, the spacecraft mass extends to infinity, which precludes light speed (warp) travel. In theory, exceeding light speed could enable one to move back through time. However, light speed has so far proven to be an iron-thick barrier. While some possibilities have arisen out of General Relativity, none of them are feasible. For instance, Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre devised the concept of what is now known as the Alcubierre Drive. This drive could theoretically allow a vessel to exceed light speed by simultaneously contracting space in front of it while expanding space behind it. These space-time contortions would allow the craft to move faster than light could travel within the same time frame. [image: Alcubierre.png] *Alcubierre Drive: * a craft that could exceed light speed by simultaneously contracting and expanding space in front of and behind it, respectively. Such a craft would require an energy density field lower than that of a vacuum: a condition requiring the introduction of exotic matter, a hypothetical material that might not exist. The main problem with this drive is that it requires the existence of an energy density field lower than that of a vacuum. Such a field necessitates the introduction of exotic matter, in this case, matter possessing negative mass. Such material is hypothetical and might not exist at all. If it doesn't, the Alcubierre Drive cannot be constructed. We'll explore other scenarios, including those involving the famous Einstein-Rosen Bridge (worm holes) on Monday. *If the Block Universe theory is correct, this motion might just be illusory. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the Daily Astronomer: https://lists.maine.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=DAILY-ASTRONOMER&A= <https://lists.maine.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=DAILY-ASTRONOMER&A=1>