As Theseus neared the end of his journey, he was still so enamored in celebrations on board the ship that he forgot to fly a white flag.
Tragically, as King Aegeus saw the black flag flying on the ship incoming from Crete, he thought Theseus was dead and threw himself off a cliff into the seas below. He thought he would join his son in death.
Theseus then knew how terrible he had become. He honored his father and named the waters where he drowned the Aegean Sea.
Under the watchful gaze of Athena, through his trials and tribulations, the good and bad, the dark Labyrinth hallways and on light Mediterranean shores, Theseus became King of Athens.
As Theseus neared the end of his journey, he was still so enamored in celebrations on board the ship that he forgot to fly a white flag.