sinis

Sinis, often called Sinis the Pine-Bender, is a figure in Greek mythology best known for his brutal method of killing travelers. He is described as an outlaw who operated in the western regions of the Greek mainland, with various accounts placing his activity in Attica or along the Peloponnesian coast. His hallmark is the use of two bent pine trunks to tear apart anyone who was bound between them.

The most famous episode involving Sinis occurs during Theseus’s journey to Athens. In the traditional tale, Theseus confronts Sinis and defeats him, employing the criminals’ own technique against him or overpowering him in combat, thereby ending Sinis’s threat to travelers. The exact method of Theseus’s slaying varies among sources, but the outcome is consistent: Sinis is killed by the hero.

In later retellings, Sinis is treated as a representative example of the archetypal highwayman or brigand that Theseus encounters on his path to becoming a legendary hero. The figure also contributes to the association of the name Sinis with toponymy in the Peloponnese, where a peninsula has been linked to the myth.

Sinis is a relatively minor figure in the broader canon of Greek mythology, but his story is part of the Theseus cycle and reflects themes of cunning, strength, and the recurrent motif of a hero defeating a notorious robber along a perilous journey.