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The
Minotaur
Mythos This unhappy monster, with the body of man and the head and horns of a bull, was the result of a broken promise and unnatural desire. His story began when Minos of Crete sought
the throne of that kingdom. To impress the Cretans, Minos told them that
the gods would answer any prayer he addressed to them, and challenged the
Cretans to put him to the test. The Cretans told him
To the awe and astonishment of the Cretan, the wates parted and a magnificent white bull swam ashore. They promptly elected minos as their king, but he could not bring himself to sacrifice the splendid white bull from the sea. He added it to his own herd, and sacrificed an ordinary bull to Poseidon. The Ocean God was so infuriated by this broken
promise that he caused Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, to fall in love with
the bull. She lavished caresses and embraces upon the animal, but it showed
no interest in her desire until she persuaded the
In due course she gave birth to a monster with a calf's head and a man's body, which quickly developed into a full-grown male with the head of a great fighting bull. The crescent of its sharp horns was wider than a man could pan with outstretched arms. The Cretans named it Minotaur, the bullson
of Minos, and the king might have accepted this curse of Poseidon if the
Minotaur had not developed a taste for human flesh. Minos dared not destroy
it lest he offend Poseidon yet again, and so he ordered
At about the time when the Minotaur was born,
the king's son Androgeus journeyed to Athens to compete in the Olympic
Games. Androgeus was a great athlete, and he won so many of the events
that the Athenians barred him from further contests
In the ninth and eighteenth year after the
siege was lifted, the Athenians selected seven handsome youths and seven
beautiful maidens and escorted them to the waterfront in a great wailing
procession of mourners. The sacrifices boarded a ship with
In the twenty-seventh year, Theseus the son
of King Aegeus of Athens offered to take the place of one of the victims
and try to kill the Minotaur. He promised his father that, if he succeeded,
he would change the ship's black sails to white ones on the
Theseus did not know how he would kill the Minotaur and also find his way out of the Lybarinth, but one part of this problem was solved when Ariadne, daughter of Minos, fell in love with Theseus at first sight. When the guards drove him into the Labyrinth she contrived to slip a ball of thread into his hand. Theseus paid out the thread as he moved boldly
into the Lybarinth, listening for the approach of the Minotaur. He walked
through the confusing maze of passages until he heard the pad of human
feet and then the bull-like bellow as it charged upon the
But instead of a juicy youth or maiden the
Minotaur encountered an agile warrior who dodged its charge, caught one
of its horns and forced it to the ground. Those outside the Lybarinth heard
the snarls and roars of fearsome combat as Theseus
Theseus found his way back into the open
with the help of Ariadne's thread. The young Athenians rejoiced at the
victory of their young prince, and the story ended happily for them but
not for Ariadne and Aegeus. Theseus proved himself a singularly ungratful
lover. He enjoyed Ariadne's favours until the ship reached the island of
Naxos on the homeward journey, but when
And, in the triumph of his victory, he forgot
his promise to his father. Aegeus had watched every day from the clifftop
for the ship's return, and when it hove in sight with the black sails still
spread he flung himself down into the sea now known as the Aegean.
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