Prokrustes

Prokrustes, also known as Procrustes or the Stretcher, is a figure from Greek mythology associated with hospitality turned into brutality. The name Prokroústēs means “the stretcher.” In most accounts he is described as a robber who operated on the road to Athens, offering travelers shelter in his home. He kept a fixed bed and compelled every guest to fit it, killing those who did not by forcing them to conform to his bed by stretching or severing limbs to match its length.

The best-known version of the tale involves Theseus, the Athenian hero. When Theseus encountered Prokrustes, the latter attempted to make him fit the bed by the same method he used on others. Theseus overpowered him and killed him, using the intruder’s own device against him. Variants of the story differ on whether Prokrustes’ victims were stretched, cut, or otherwise forced to conform, but the core idea remains: a violent enforcement of an artificial standard.

The term Procrustean has entered broader language to describe arbitrary attempts to impose uniform standards or rigid conformity, often by violent or destructive means. The phrase “Procrustean bed” is used metaphorically to criticize methods that disregard natural variation in order to achieve a forced fit.

In mathematics and statistics, the Procrustes problem and Procrustes analysis refer to procedures for optimally aligning shapes or configurations by rotations, translations, and (in some formulations) scaling. These concepts borrow the myth’s theme of imposing a fixed template, but apply it to data fitting and pattern recognition rather than mythic harm.