Sinis- Greek FigureMortal"The Pine-Bender"

The Pine-Bender of the Isthmus

Sinis haunted the narrow land crossing at the Isthmus of Corinth, where the road between the Peloponnese and Attica funneled all travelers past his reach. He would bend two pine trees to the ground, tie a victim's limbs to both, and release the trees so they sprang apart, tearing the body in two. The epithet Pityocamptes, "Pine-Bender," became so fixed to him that Pausanias and Apollodorus both use it as his primary name. Apollodorus calls him a son of Poseidon. Plutarch gives his father as Polypemon or Pemon. Either way, Sinis was strong enough to bend the pines by force alone.

Theseus and the Death of Sinis

Sinis was the first bandit Theseus met on his overland journey from Troezen to Athens. Theseus killed him by the same method the bandit used on his victims, bending the pines and tearing him apart.

Plutarch adds a sequel. Sinis had a daughter, Perigune, who fled into a thicket of wild asparagus and shrubs, begging the plants to hide her and vowing never to cut or burn them. Theseus found her, gave her assurances, and she bore him a son, Melanippus. Plutarch reports that Perigune's descendants in the clan of the Ioxidae maintained a hereditary reverence for asparagus and rush plants, refusing to burn them.