Characters
- Argiope — nymph; mother of Cercyon
- Branchus — father of Cercyon (with Argiope) in Apollodorus
- Cercyon — Eleusinian wrestler who kills strangers; slain by Theseus
- Hephaestus — alternate fathers in other notices
- Theseus — accepts the wrestling challenge; kills Cercyon by skillful lift and throw
Places
- Eleusis — region of Cercyon’s wrestling-ground
- Wrestling-place of Cercyon — landmark on the road to Eleusis (Pausanias)
Themes
Narrative
Near Eleusis Theseus encountered Cercyon, son of Branchus (and the nymph Argiope), or in other notices son of Poseidon or of Hephaestus. Cercyon compelled strangers to wrestle him and killed those he overthrew. Theseus accepted the challenge; using skill rather than bulk—Plutarch stresses that Theseus introduced scientific wrestling against Cercyon’s brute force—he lifted Cercyon and dashed him to the ground, killing him.
Pausanias still pointed to the wrestling-place of Cercyon on the road to Eleusis. The labor completes the pattern of the road cycle’s “contest” crimes: Sinis’s pine game, Sciron’s foot-washing, Cercyon’s forced bout—each a ritualized murder Theseus reverses. After Cercyon comes Procrustes, the last bandit before Athens.