a. [f. L. Thēsē-us adj. + -AN.] Of or belonging to Theseus, a legendary hero-king of Athens. So Theseid [ad. L. Thēsēis, -idem, Gr. Θησηΐς, -ίδα], the title of a poem on the exploits of Theseus; transf. a poem of the same character as the ‘Theseid of hoarse Codrus’ referred to by Juvenal. Theseium, Theseum, Theseion [a. L. Thēsēium, Gr. Θησεῖον], the temple of Theseus at Athens, or the Doric building to which the name is now applied (generally held to be the temple of Hephæstus).
1765. H. Fusseli, trans. Winkelmann’s Refl. Paint. & Sculp. Greeks, 160. This was the true mark of the *Thesean pedigree; as a natural mark representing a spear, signified a Spartan extraction.
1902. Speaker, 26 June, 370/1. These … should go far to explain the old Thesean legends.
1725. Pope’s Odyss., I. View Epic Poem, etc., iv. 10. Poets … who composed their *Theseids, Heracleids, and the like.
a. 1822. Shelley, Def. Poetry, Ess. & Lett. (Camelot), 39. I confess myself … unwilling to be stunned by the Theseids of the hoarse Codri of the day.
1873. Hayman, Odyss., XI. 260, note II. 205. An Amazon of the Theseid legend.
1819. E. Dodwell, Tour Greece, I. xii. 362. The *Theseion impresses the beholder more by its symmetry than its magnitude.
1837. Antiq. Athens, 66. Unlike the lavish decoration of the temple of Minerva, the *Theseium was ornamented with a sparing hand.
1854. trans. Hettner’s Athens & Peloponnese, 152. The monument of Aristion in the *Theseum at Athens.
