Procrustes

At Attic Corydallus, beside the road to Megara, Theseus reached the house of Polypemon, who was also called Procrustes. Procrustes offered travellers a night’s lodging. He kept two iron beds, one small and one large. He placed short men on the large bed and stretched them until they reached its length. He laid tall men on the small bed and cut away the parts of their legs that projected beyond it.

Theseus captured Procrustes and turned the punishment against him. He placed him on the bed and forced his body to fit it, as Procrustes had done to the travellers. Procrustes died by the treatment he had inflicted on others. Another account says that Theseus killed him with a sword, cutting through his neck in a single blow.

The road where Procrustes lived was part of Theseus’s journey to Athens. Before reaching Corydallus, Theseus had cleared the road of evildoers. Procrustes was the father of Sinis, whom Theseus had already killed. Near Corydallus, the wrestling-ground of Cercyon was also shown, close to the grave of Cercyon’s daughter Alope.

After Procrustes was killed, the evil bed was burned to ashes. Some accounts say that Procrustes used only one bed, adjusting each traveller to its measure by lengthening or shortening the body. Hyginus gives another detail: he stretched the legs of short men by hanging anvils from them. The name Polypemon appears in one source, while Procrustes is the more familiar name.