Characters
- Polypemon — innkeeper-robber who fits guests to a bed by stretching or cutting; slain by the same method
- Theseus — last road labor; kills Procrustes on his own bed
- Travelers — victims of the bed (collective)
Places
- Corydallus / Erineus — haunt of Procrustes
- Eleusis approaches — last stretch before Athens
- Olympia — imminent destination after the road is cleared
Themes
Narrative
Last of the road bandits was Damastes, called Procrustes (“the Stretcher”) or Polypemon, who dwelt in the neighborhood of Eleusis toward Athens—about Corydallus or Erineus in the local notices. He offered travelers a bed: the short he hammered and stretched to length; the tall he cut down to fit. Theseus forced him onto his own bed and killed him by the same measure—stretching or amputating until he died.
With Procrustes dead, the road from Trozen to Athens stood cleared. Theseus proceeded into Attica carrying the sword and sandals of Aegeus and the club of Periphetes, his fame already running ahead of him. The Procrustes episode became proverbial: the bed that forces every body to one size, and the justice that turns the forcer’s rule upon himself.