Pirithous Character Analysis

Pirithous is Theseus’s close friend. The men have developed a profoundly meaningful relationship due to the many battles and other hardships they’ve endured together. According to Hippolyta, the friends are so close that they can hardly tell where one ends and the other begins. Like Theseus, Pirithous is noble and exceptionally attuned to his chivalric duties. Unlike Arcite and Palamon, Pirithous and Theseus never quarrel, though Pirithous often sides with Hippolyta and Emilia on extending mercy to the cousins. In this way, Pirithous and Theseus are equals not only because they mutually support each other through hardship but because they complement each other, with Pirithous’s compassion balancing out Theseus’s harshness.