The curious case of Theseus and his long-ship
I am sure that there’s a that’s what she said joke in there somewhere, one might not even have to squint too hard or long enough to find it, but alas I have to disappoint you as this is not the purpose of this late Sunday afternoon post.
While playing around with llama.cpp, I stumbled upon a particular prompt that was producing some rather curious and unexpected results. Since I know that you must be dying to know what the prompt might be, I’ll be upfront and relieve you from all the stress inducing anticipation by sharing it up-front.
explain the ship of theseus and illustrate it with ascii art
Now you must be really asking yourself, what on earth is going on? This is probably the most underwhelming prompt that you’ve seen, am I right? Have I completely and utterly lost the plot? Or is this result of the severe lack of air conditioners in the old continent?
Well, let’s take a look at some exhibits all laid out nicely on a virtual tray. Nice!
Exhibit A
> explain the ship of theseus and illustrate it with ascii art
Okay, let's dive into the classic myth of Theseus and the Argonauts!
**The Story**
The story tells of Theseus, a brave and skilled prince, who ventures into
the Underworld to rescue his deceased father. He's armed with a helmet
inlaid with a magical bull’s eye, which is a key to passing through the
Labyrinth of the Dead. He uses this helmet to navigate the perilous maze
and ultimately kills the Minotaur, bringing peace to Athens.
To return home, Theseus is given a golden fleece by Poseidon. He uses the
fleece to fashion a ship, and this ship is said to be enchanted, capable of
traveling to any land. He then sails to the land of the Sirens, where he
convinces the Sirens to sing a song that allows him to sail without being
heard. He then sails to the land of the Trojans, where he uses the ship to
defeat the Trojans in battle and ultimately returns home.
**The Ship of Theseus**
Here’s an ASCII art representation of the ship. It’s a simplified version,
but it captures the essence of the myth:
```
_.--""--._
.' `.
/ O O \
| \ ^^ / |
\ `----' /
`. _______ .'
//_____\\
(( ____ ))
`------'
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
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||||||
/______\
/________\
/__________\
/____________\
/______________\
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error: context size exceeded the maximum of 2048
Exhibit B
> explain the ship of theseus and illustrate it with ascii art
Okay, let's dive into the classic myth of Theseus and the Minotaur!
**The Story**
The story goes that Theseus, the son of King Aegeus of Athens, was sent to
Crete to be sacrificed to Poseidon, the god of the sea. He was instructed
to travel to the Labyrinth, a vast maze built by the Minotaur, and return
to Athens unharmed. He did, but he brought back a golden bracelet – a gift
from his father – which he wore on his arm. As he sailed back towards
Athens, the king, believing the bracelet to be a trophy, ordered it to be
cut off. The bracelet was then lost, and the king, heartbroken, searched
endlessly for it.
Finally, a hero named Theseus, who had been sailing alone, discovered the
labyrinth. He navigated the maze, defeating the Minotaur, and returned to
Athens, proving his worth and rescuing the city from the creature.
**ASCII Art Representation**
Here’s an ASCII art depiction of Theseus and the Minotaur:
```
_,-._
/ \_/ \
>-(_)-<
\_/ \_/
`-'
/ \
| |
| O | <-- Theseus’s arm
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\ /
`-'
/ \
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error: context size exceeded the maximum of 2048 tokens
Exhibit C
> explain the ship of theseus and illustrate it with ascii art
Okay, let's dive into the legendary Ship of Theseus! It's a fascinating
myth about a lost ship and the constant replacement of its components.
**The Story:**
The myth centers around Theseus, a hero of ancient Greece. He discovers a
ship, seemingly lost at sea, and finds it remarkably intact.
However, over time, as the ship ages, the wood gradually decays and
changes. Theseus realizes that the original planks of the ship are
no longer present.
He then begins to replace these planks with new ones, meticulously, until
every single piece of wood has a different label.
Eventually, a traveler arrives and asks Theseus, "Where did you get the
planks that you used for the ship?" Theseus replies, "I replaced them."
**The Illustration (ASCII Art):**
```
_,-._
/ \_/ \
>-(_)-< <-- New Planks (starting from the bottom)
\_/ \_/
`-'
||
||
----------------
/ \ / \ / \ / \
/ X X X X \
/ X X X X \
/ X X X X \
/ X X X X \
/ X X X X \
/ X X X X \
/ X X X X \
----------------
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error: context size exceeded the maximum of 2048 tokens
Exhibit D
> explain the ship of theseus and illustrate it with ascii art
Okay, let's dive into the classic myth of Theseus and the Argonauts!
**The Story**
Theseus of Athens was a skilled warrior and craftsman. He was tasked with
retrieving the Golden Fleece from Colchis, a land ruled by the fearsome King
Centaur, Aeëtes. The Fleece was a powerful symbol of the king's glory and
was the reason for his tyranny.
Theseus, aided by his loyal companion, Perikles, embarked on a perilous
journey. He sailed the sea in a magnificent ship, the *Sea Horse*, which was
incredibly fast and well-equipped. He cleverly used a magical shield, a
"Scythe of Zeus," that could cut any rope. This shield was crucial to his
success.
Along the way, Theseus had to overcome numerous trials and challenges. He
battled sea monsters, navigated treacherous currents, and even outsmarted a
giant dragon. He repeatedly used the Scythe of Zeus to cut through ropes
and chains, which were essential to his progress.
Finally, after a long and arduous journey, Theseus reached Colchis. He
confronted King Centaur, who was attempting to steal the Fleece. Theseus
defeated the king, retrieved the Fleece, and returned it to his father,
King Aeëtes, who was overjoyed. The myth ends with Theseus being hailed
a hero and reunited with his wife, Megara.
**ASCII Art Representation**
Here's an attempt to illustrate the key elements of the story in ASCII art.
It's a simplified version, focusing on the main ideas:
```
_.--""--._
.' `.
/ O O \
| \ ^^ / |
\ `----' /
`. _______ .'
//_____\\
(( ____ ))
`------'
| |
| |
| |
--+--+--+--+
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/----------| | | |
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```
**Important Notes:**
* **Simplification:** This is a *very* simplified representation.
The story is much richer and more complex in the original text.
* **Interpretation:** The ASCII art emphasizes the core plot points.
Let me know if you'd like me to elaborate on any aspect of the story or
want me to try a different artistic interpretation!
This last one, did manage to self-correct itself, and fit in the measly 2048 token context window, but just by the hair of the dog.
It’s worth mentioning that I’ve used one of the small (lightweight) models out there with only 1 billion parameters. Which one? Well, I am not going to name it, for rather obvious reasons, but suffice to say is that it’s by one of the big dogs out there. Not some no-name research model by 3 nerds stuck in a basement playing D&D, and training models in between turns.
Other than this being a little bit funny, imagine 100_000 or more, so called agents all endlessly churning away at this prompt over and over again. Let me just start by saying that I wouldn’t want to be standing anywhere near the accountant or CFO having to approve and cut that particular check at the end of the month; all due to so called additional cloud infrastructure costs, you know!
On a slightly more serious note, this illustrates why it’s so important to have proper runtime limits in place, not only in terms of maximum number of tokens, but actual execution time as well. This of course is much easier said than done, because if you set the limits too low, then you will invariably end up affecting totally legitimate operations that just happen to take longer; if you set them too high on the other hand, well, you might end up spitting out a seemingly endless stream of | | | | |.
Theseus’s exploits are a gift that just keep on giving, I guess.
Lest I forget, the original photo of the skyphos is by the amazingly talented Carole Raddato. I honestly can’t even begin to comprehend that Flickr is still very much alive and kicking in the year 2025.
2025-08-17 / ai / mythology