PROCRUSTES

also called Polypemon, Damastes, or Procoptas, in Greek legend, a robber dwelling somewhere in Atticain some versions, in the neighbourhood of Eleusis. His father was said to be Poseidon. Procrustes had an iron bed (or, according to some accounts, two beds) on which he compelled his victims to lie. Here, if a victim was shorter than the bed, he stretched him by hammering or racking the body to fit. Alternatively, if the victim was longer than the bed, he cut off the legs to make the body fit the bed's length. In either event the victim died. Ultimately Procrustes was slain by his own method at the hands of the young Attic hero Theseus, who as a young man went about slaying robbers and monsters that pervaded the countryside. The bed of Procrustes, or Procrustean bed, has become proverbial for arbitrarilyand perhaps ruthlesslyforcing someone or something to fit into an unnatural scheme or pattern.