Minotaur Minotaur (MIN-uh-tawr) The Minotaur was a monster, half-man, half-bull, that devoured sacrificial victims thrown into the Labyrinth. Born of Queen Pasiphae's god-inflicted infatuation with a bull, the Minotaur was eventually killed by Theseus. The monster is generally depicted as having the head of a bull and the body of a man. But in the Middle Ages, artists portrayed a man's head and torso on a bull's body. Here's how the Minotaur figured into the complete legend of Theseus: It was by lifting a boulder that Theseus, grandson of the king of Troezen, first proved himself a hero. Theseus was sixteen at the time. He had been raised by his grandfather and his mother, Princess Aethra. One day the princess called Theseus to her side. It was time, she said, that he learned of his father, who was ruler of a mighty kingdom. This was news to Theseus, who had been under the impression that his father was one of the gods.

"Before I divulge his identity," said the princess, "you must meet the challenge your father has set you." Years ago, the king had hefted a mighty stone. Underneath he had placed something for his son to find - if he could lift the weight. Aethra guided Theseus to a forest clearing, in the midst of which was a boulder. Theseus proceeded to lift the stone easily, or so the myth-tellers generally assume. But like most myths, this one is vague about the details. According to one theory, Theseus would have had trouble with a task involving brute strength. This theory was advanced by Mary Renault in her novel The King Must Die. It is based on the tradition that Theseus invented "scientific" wrestling. This is the discipline by which even a lightweight can beat a stronger adversary by fancy footwork, trick holds and using the opponent's momentum to advantage. Theseus would have had little cause to invent such tactics if he'd been capable of beating his adversaries by sheer physical strength. Therefore one may deduce that the hero was a lightweight. So when it came to lifting boulders, Theseus was at a disadvantage. Resourcefulness, another heroic trait, must have come to his aid.

He would have looked for some mechanical means to multiply his physical strength. Beneath the stone Theseus found certain tokens left by his father. His name, Aethra now revealed, was King Aegeus of Athens. Prompted by a sense of heroic destiny, Theseus set out forthwith to meet this parent he had never known. He determined to journey to Athens by land, although his mother argued for the safer route by sea. And in fact the landward route proved to be infested by an unusual number of villains, thugs and thieves. Theseus quickly adopted the credo of doing unto these bad guys what they were in the habit of doing to others. Setting out from Troezen, his birthplace, the first community of any size through which he passed was Epidaurus. Here he was waylaid by the ruffian Periphetes. Periphetes was nicknamed Corynetes or "Club-Man", after his weapon of choice, a stout length of wood wrapped in bronze to magnify its impact upon the skulls of his victims. Theseus merely snatched this implement from Periphetes and did him in with it.

Some say that this incident was manufactured to account for depictions of Theseus carrying a club like his cousin Heracles, one of a number of instances on Theseus's part of heroic imitation. The next malefactor who received a dose of his own medicine was a fellow named Sinis, who used to ask passers-by to help him bend two pine trees to the ground. Why the wayfarers should have wanted to help in this activity is not disclosed. Presumably Sinis was persuasive. Once he had bent the trees, he tied his helper's wrists - one to each tree. Then he took a break. When the strain became too much, the victim had to let go, which caused the trees to snap upright and scatter portions of anatomy in all directions. Theseus turned the tables on Sinis by tying his wrists to a couple of bent pines, then letting nature and fatigue take their course. Then, not far from Athens, Theseus encountered Sciron. This famous brigand operated along the tall cliffs which to this day are named after him. He had a special tub in which he made each passing stranger wash his feet.

While they were engaged in this sanitary activity, Sciron kicked them over a cliff into the ocean below, where they were devoured by a man-eating turtle. Theseus turned the tables on Sciron, just as he had turned them on Pine-Bender. Perhaps the most interesting of Theseus's challenges on the road to adventure came in the form of an evildoer called Procrustes, whose name means "he who stretches." This Procrustes kept a house by the side of the road where he offered hospitality to passing strangers. They were invited in for a pleasant meal and a night's rest in his very special bed. If the guest asked what was so special about it, Procrustes replied, "Why, it has the amazing property that its length exactly matches whomsoever lies upon it." What Procrustes didn't volunteer was the method by which this "one-size-fits-all" was achieved, namely as soon as the guest lay down Procrustes went to work upon him, stretching him on the rack if he was too short for the bed and chopping off his legs if he was too long.

Theseus lived up to his do-unto-others credo, fatally adjusting Procrustes to fit his own bed. When at last Theseus arrived in Athens to meet his father King Aegeus for the first time, the encounter was far from heartwarming. Theseus did not reveal his identity at first but was hailed as a hero by the Athenians, for he had rid the highway of its terrors. In honor of his exploits, he was invited to the palace for a banquet. Serving as hostess was his father's new wife, Medea. This was the same Medea who had helped Jason harvest a crop of armed warriors and steal the Golden Fleece out from under the nose of the dragon that guarded it. Jason had eventually abandoned Medea, and she had grown understandably bitter. Now she sized up Theseus and decided that he was a threat to her own son's prospects of ruling Athens after King Aegeus. In fact, Medea's magic disclosed the identity of Theseus. Years before, she had aided Aegeus, who was desperate for an heir. It was Medea's power that ensured the birth of Theseus to Princess Aethra of Troezen.

Though he left instructions with Aethra should a child be born, Aegeus had either forgotten the incident or despaired of a birth. Now Medea played on the king's insecurity. Surely the stranger at the banquet was too popular for the good of the throne. With the people behind him, he might well seize it for himself. Medea persuaded King Aegeus to serve Theseus poisoned wine. And the hero, unawares, would have drunk it had he not paused first to carve his dinner. This, at any rate, is the prosaic version of the myth. Romantics claim that Theseus drew his sword not to mince his boar's meat but because he had chosen the dramatic moment to reveal his identity. In any case, Aegeus recognized the pattern on the sword's hilt. This was his own weapon, which he had left under a rock for his son to discover. Aegeus dashed the poisoned cup to the ground. Medea, meanwhile, stormed out and made her escape in a chariot pulled by dragons. Theseus was now the recognized heir to the kingdom of Athens.

Thus he was on hand when King Minos of Crete arrived to collect his periodic tribute of young men and maidens to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Because his son had died while in the safekeeping of the Athenians, Minos exerted the power of the Cretan navy to enforce this onerous demand. The Minotaur was a monster, half-man, half-bull, that lived in the center of a maze called the Labyrinth. It had been born to Minos's wife Pasiphae as a punishment from the gods. Minos had been challenged to prove that he was of divine parentage, so he called on the sea god Poseidon to send him a sign. The god obliged, and a beautiful white bull emerged from the sea. Minos liked it so much that he neglected to sacrifice it to the gods, as he should have done. As a punishment, Poseidon caused the king's wife to fall in love with the bull. She had the master craftsman Daedalus build her a hollow cow in which to approach the beast. As a result, the Minotaur was born. The monster is generally depicted as having the head of a bull and the body of a man.

But in the Middle Ages, artists portrayed a man's head and torso on a bull's body. Some say that Theseus expressed his solidarity with his fellow citizens of Athens by volunteering to be one of the victims. Others maintain that Minos noticed the handsome young prince and chose him to be sacrificed. In any case, Theseus became one of the fated fourteen who embarked with the Cretan fleet. The sea upon which they sailed was the domain of Poseidon, who together with his brothers Zeus and Hades were the three most powerful gods of the Greek pantheon. They divided up creation, Zeus taking Mount Olympus and the sky, Hades the Underworld and Poseidon the sea. But there were other deities of the watery depths, notably the "old man of the sea", the god Nereus, with his fifty daughters, the Nereids. When Theseus was en route to Crete, he encountered one of these divinities. As the tribute ship drew near to harbor, King Minos made rude advances to one of the Athenian maidens and Theseus sprang to her defense, claiming this was his duty as a son of Poseidon.

(Theseus, of course, also claimed to be the son of King Aegeus, but a true hero could be inconsistent in such matters.) Minos suggested that if Theseus's divine parentage were anything but a figment of his imagination, the gods of the sea would sponsor him. So Minos threw his signet ring overboard and challenged Theseus to dive in and find it. This Theseus did, being abetted indeed by the deities of the depths. Not only did he retrieve the ring from the underwater palace into which it had fallen, but he was given a jewelled crown by one of the Nereids, either Thetis or Amphitrite. It was not long after he arrived in Crete that the hero encountered Princess Ariadne, daughter of King Minos. She fell in love with him at first sight. It was Ariadne who gave Theseus a clew which she had obtained from Daedalus. In some versions of the myth it was an ordinary clew, a simple ball of thread. It was to prove invaluable in his quest to survive the terrors of the Labyrinth.

The maze had been so cleverly and intricately contrived by the master builder Daedalus that once thrown inside, a victim could never find the way out again. Sooner or later, he or she would round a corner and come face to face with the all-devouring Minotaur. This was the fate which awaited Theseus. It is clear from the myth that the Labyrinth was a maze from which none could escape because it was so diabolically meandering. Hence the Minotaur was not just its monster but its prisoner. But how exactly this worked as a practical matter with regard to the victims is less clear. Some versions of the myth have it that they were "enclosed" in the Labyrinth, as if it were a box. But surely if the procedure were simply to push the victims in and then slam the door behind them, they would have cowered by the entrance rather than proceed into the terrors of the maze. Even if the guards threatened them with swords, it seems likely that some would have preferred the known death to being devoured alive by a monster. Nor could the guards have escorted the victims deep into the maze without getting lost themselves, or risking a run-in with the Minotaur.

Maybe Daedalus built a roof over his invention, so that the victims could be dropped through a trap door into the very center. But perhaps on the whole it's better not to inquire too closely into the mechanics of the mythological. When Theseus first entered the maze he tied off one end of the ball of thread which Ariadne had given him, and he played out the thread as he advanced deeper and deeper into the labyrinthine passages. Many artists have depicted Theseus killing the Minotaur with his sword or club, but it is hard to see how he could have concealed such bulky weapons in his clothing. More probable are the versions of the tale which have him coming upon the Minotaur as it slept and then, in properly heroic fashion, beating it to death with his bare fists. Then he followed the thread back to the entrance. Otherwise he would have died of starvation before making his escape. Theseus now eloped with Ariadne, pausing only long enough to put holes in the bottom of her father's ships so that he could not pursue. But Theseus soon abandoned the princess, either because he was bewitched by a god or because he had fallen in love with her sister Phaedra.

Some say that he left Ariadne on the island of Naxos, but others maintain that such was his haste that he left her on the small island of Dia, within sight of the harbor from which they had sailed. The deserted and pining Ariadne has been a favorite theme of artists down through the ages. As the ship bearing Theseus and his liberated fellow Athenians approached the promontory on which King Aegeus watched daily for his return, Theseus forgot the signal which he had prearranged with his father. The vessel's sails were to be black only if the expedition concluded as on all previous occasions, with the death of the hostages. In the exultation of triumph, or in anguish over the loss of Ariadne, Theseus neglected to hoist a sail of a different hue, and King Aegeus threw himself from the heights in despair. Theseus was now both king and bona fide hero, but this did not put an end to his adventuring. On one occasion he visited the Amazons, mythological warrior women who lived on the shores of the Black Sea. The Amazons were renowned horseback riders and especially skilled with the bow.

They lived apart from men and only met with them on occasion to produce children for their tribe. Some say that Theseus had encountered the Amazons before, on another post-Minotaur adventure in the company of Heracles. Heracles had been challenged to bring back the belt of the Amazon queen. The queen, for all her reputation of man-hating, had willingly given it to him. But the goddess Hera, who despised Heracles, stirred up trouble. A great battle ensued in which many Amazons were killed. Now Theseus visited the Amazons on his own. Their leader, fearless and hospitable, came aboard his ship with a gift. Theseus immediately put to sea and kidnapped her. Unfortunately, the dubious nature of this achievement was matched if not exceeded in another of the hero's quests. It was the custom in early Greek historical times for the younger sons of noble houses to embark, in the fine sailing months of autumn, upon the honorable occupation of piracy. When Theseus received word that one such pirate and his crew were making off with the royal Athenian herds at Marathon, he raced to the seaside plain. He grabbed the miscreant by the scruff and spun him around to give him what for.

But the moment king and pirate laid eyes upon one another, their enmity was forgotten. "You've caught me fair and square," said Peirithous, for this was the pirate's name, and he was of the royal house of the Thessalian Lapiths. "Name your punishment and it shall be done," said he, "for I like the looks of you." The admiration being mutual, Theseus named as penance an oath of perpetual friendship, and the two clasped hands upon it. And so, in the fullness of time, when Theseus decided to carry off young Helen of Sparta, Peirithous agreed to lend a hand. This was the same Helen whose face would "launch a thousand ships" when, as Helen of Troy, the lover and captive of the Trojan Paris, she caused the allies of her husband Menelaus to wage the Trojan War to bring her home. At the time of Theseus's contemplated abduction, however, she was a mere lass of thirteen. And Theseus, having succeeded in spiriting her off with Peirithous's assistance, left her with his mother for safekeeping while he went about his business and she grew of marriageable age.

But before this had come to pass she was rescued by her brothers, the hero twins, Castor and Pollux, whose conjoined starry constellation still brightens the night sky between fellow heroes Orion and Perseus. One day not long after this escapade, Peirithous drew Theseus aside and spoke to him earnestly. "Remember when I agreed to help you with Helen?" he inquired, "and you pledged to help me in turn in any little outing of a similar nature?" Theseus nodded and muttered yes. "Good," responded Peirithous. "Spoken like a true pal. Well, I've picked my little exploit. I've decided to make off with Persephone, wife of Hades, King of the Dead." Theseus was speechless at the very idea of this sacrilege, but a pledge is a pledge. And so the two set off for the Underworld via one of the convenient caverns leading thereto. And at length they fetched up before the throne of Hades. Lacking any false modesty, Peirithous boldly stated his business, adding that he was sure the god would concede that Persephone would be happier with himself. Hades feigned consent.

"Very well," he said. "If you love her that much and you're sure the feeling's mutual, you may have Persephone. But first, join me in a cordial. Please, take a seat." He gestured at a bench nearby, and the two heroes, little thinking it was bewitched, seated themselves upon it. And here they stuck like glue. Meanwhile, Hades loosed a flock of torments upon them in the form of serpents and Furies and the fangs of the hellhound Cerberus, not to mention the infamous water of Tartarus that recedes as parched lips draw near. And here the two heroes would be stuck today, were it not that Heracles happened to be passing by in furtherance of one of his Labors. Seeing his cousin Theseus's plight he freed him with one heroic yank, leaving only a small portion of his hindparts adhering to the bench. But Heracles couldn't or wouldn't free Peirithous. And so Theseus's pal pays for eternity the price of his heroic audacity.

Myths about Theseus- Theseus and the Minotaur Theseus and the Minotaur Theseus and the Minotaur By the time Aegeus was ruling Athens, just before the launch of the Trojan War, the Navy of Crete was very strong and the Minoans, who were living in Crete, were attacking and terrorizing Greek cities. In order to leave the city of Athens in peace, the Athenians made a pact with the King of the Minoans, Minos. Every nine years they had to send a tribute of seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls to Crete, where they were devoured by the Minotaur, the dreadful monster of Minos that was half-human and half-bull. Only if somebody killed the Minotaur would this torture come to an end. Every time the Athenians had to send children to Crete, the whole city was in grief and despair. Theseus, the hero of Athens, could not bear this situation and, much to the dismay of his father, he decided to help the Athenians and kill the Minotaur. So one day, he took the place of a youth that should be sent and got into the boat for Crete.

The boat was having a black sail, as an expression of the Athenians' mourning. Theseus promised his father that, in case he achieved victory, he would hoist white sails- if he failed, this would mean failure and the sails would remain black. When Theseus and the other children arrived in Crete, King Minos and his daughter Ariadne were already expecting the party. Immediately, King Minos ordered to send them in to the Minotaur to be devoured the next day. But Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and wouldn't allow any harm to him. So, the other day, when the youth was sent to the Minotaur, Ariadne gave Theseus a sword and a ball of thread to find his way out of Minotaur's Labyrinth. [See: Theseus and Ariadne's thread ]. This way, Theseus and the other children managed to escape from the monster and rushed into the vessel to escape. Ariadne followed them. On their way back home, the children were so full of joy that they forgot to change the black sail. King Aegeus was expecting them, standing on a high rock and staring at the sea.

When he saw the vessel coming and realized the sails were black, he fell fainting into the sea and died. In memory and honor of King Aegeus, the sea has been named the "Aegean Sea". Search Minotaur | Mythology Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia The Minotaur in Clash of the Gods . The Minotaur is featured on the eponymous fourth episode of the documental mythology television series Clash of the Gods . [1] A Minotaur is depicted as an alien prisoner which feeds on people's faith in ' The God Complex ', an episode of science fiction series Doctor Who Comics The Minotaur appears in the second issue of the comic book series Wrath of the Titans: Revenge of Medusa . Immortal's version of the Minotaur appears on the 100-pages graphic novel titled Immortals: Gods and Heroes . In the book, the past and origin of the Minotaur is revealed. Before been known as the Minotaur, he was known as the Beast, a butcher who was never appreciated by his fellow villagers. When Hyperion arrives to attack the Beast's village, he protects his village by slaughtering every single one of Hyperion's men.

When confronting Hyperion, king Hyperion convinces the Beast that all those villagers do not appreciate his deeds as they fear him and hate him. The beast is convinced and recruited by Hyperion and starts slaughtering the villagers. After the slaughter, Hyperion names the Beast with the pseudonym Minotaur. [2] Films Immortals "The Minotaur" Movie Clip Official 2011 HD - Henry Cavill The Minotaur in Immortals The Minotaur appears on the 2011 film Immortals. In the film he is depicted as been a human being wearing a spiked mask which resembles the head of a bull. Hyperion sends him to kill Theseus at the labyrinth, however Theseus gains the upper hand in the battle and decapitates the Minotaur. [3] The Minotaur as depicted in the Wrath of the Titans film. A Minotaur appears on the 2012 film Wrath of the Titans , in the film he is the last gatekeeper at the end of the labyrinth which is located at the entrance/exit of Tartarus (Tartaros) .

The Minotaur confronts Perseus, and Perseus brakes one of the Minotaur's horns. Altough Perseus has a hard time dealing with the Minotaur, Perseus manages to defeat the Minotaur by stabbing it with it's own broken horn. [4] A Minotaur has a minor role in the opening of the 2013 film Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue-Falcon. Video games Edit Sources Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 8 - 11 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.):"Minos aspired to the throne [of Krete], but was rebuffed. He claimed, however, that he had received the sovereignty from the gods, and to prove it he said that whatever he prayed for would come about. So while sacrificing to Poseidon, he prayed for a bull to appear from the depths of the sea, and promised to sacrifice it upon its appearance. And Poseidon did send up to him a splendid bull. Thus Minos received the rule, but he sent the bull to his herds and sacrificed another . . .

Poseidon was angry that the bull was not sacrificed, and turned it wild. He also devised that Pasiphae should develop a lust for it. In her passion for the bull she took on as her accomplice an architect named Daidalos . . . He built a woden cow on wheels, . . . skinned a real cow, and sewed the contraption into the skin, and then, after placing Pasiphae inside, set it in a meadow where the bull normally grazed. The bull came up and had intercourse with it, as if with a real cow. Pasiphae gave birth to Asterios, who was called Minotauros. He had the face of a bull, but was otherwise human. Minos, following certain oracular instructions, kept him confined and under guard in the labyrinth. This labyrinth, which Daidalos built, was a “cage with convoluted flextions that disorders debouchment." Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 213 :"The god [Delphoi oracle] told them [the Athenians] to give Minos whatever retribution he should chose . . .

He ordered them to send seven young men and seven girls, unarmed, to be served as food to the Minotauros. The Minotauros was kept in a labyrinth, from which there was no escape after one entered, for it closed off its imperceivable exit with convoluted flexions. It had been constructed by Daidalos." Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E1. 7 - 1. 9:"Theseus was on the list of the third tribute to the Minotauros (some day he volunteered) . . . [Ariadne] pleaded with Daidalos to tell her the way out of the labyrinth. Following his instructions, she gave Theseus a ball of thread as he entered. He fastened this to the door and let it trail behind him as he went in.

He came across the Minotauros in the furthest section of the labyrinth, killed him with jabs of his fist, and then made his way out again by pulling himself along the thread." See Also Theseus, the slayer of the Minotaur and respected king of Athens - Greek Gods, Mythology of Ancient Greece Theseus Theseus Theseus was a famous Greek hero, also known as a king of Athens and a slayer of Minotaur. He was also a great friend of Heracles who was his idol because of his extreme strength. Heracles influenced Theseus to go on his own dangerous quests. However, unlike Heracles, Theseus had other individual attributes like divine wisdom and intelligence. He was able to read others and outsmart them if necessary. His leadership was appreciated and respected by people, because he always endeavored for the common good. His early adventures benefited the city and its region. He is credited as the founder of Athens's democracy, voluntarily turning many of his powers as a king over to an elected assembly, and, very quickly, gained a reputation for helping the poor and oppressed. Theseus had an adventurous life, traveling a lot and overcoming many obstacles.

He also had a family, once he settled in Athens and finished one of his last quests which was to join his idol Heracles in a quest to bring back Hippolyta`s girdle. However, the gods influenced some of the events inside his family which resulted in his son`s death. Because of the grief and sorrow, he fell into, his life ended tragically. Appearance in the works of art Theseus is usually depicted, as a healthy grown man, holding a sword and fighting the minotaur. On several occasions, he is also depicted in the company of his mother Aethra and in the company of Ariadne. Birth of Theseus and his enthusiasm Theseus was a son of Aethra, a daughter of king Pittheus of Troezen. Pittheus was a great friend of Aegeus, an ancient king of Athens, who had no heir despite being married twice. After seeing the oracle of Delphi and not being given a clear answer, the kings came to an agreement. Pittheus secretly gave away his daughter to Aegeus, while he was visiting Troezen.

After Aethra and Aegeus had slept together on the wedding night she couldn`t fall asleep and took a walk in a moonlight, way through the coast of Poros. There she was seduced by Poseidon and had been impregnated with both the god and the king in a single night. The next day, king Aegeus decided that he didn`t need a wife, only an heir. He was planning for his departure but before he buried his sword and sandals under the rock in front of Aethra. He told her to send Theseus to Athens, once he would grow enough to be able to move the rock and retrieve the lineage of his father. Once Theseus reached early manhood, he set for Athens. He was advised to take a safer sea route instead of dangerous roads, but the young enthusiast had already made his decision to confront everyone and everything that would come on his path. Theseus was fired up to emulate the great Greek hero Heracles who happened to be his idol and a source of inspiration. On way to Athens Before he departed, his mother Aethra showed him where his father had hidden a sword and sandals.

After recovering the lineage of his father, he was on his way and it was not long before Theseus encountered his first adventure. From the distance, he recognised a bandit called Periphetes from his grandfather`s stories. The bandit was said to be a son of Hephaestus , an Olympian god of craftsmanship. He was known for his cruelty, dashing the heads of bypassing travellers with his iron club. Theseus bravely confronted him and after a fierce battle, in a retribution to serve justice, smashed the head of the bandit with his own iron club. He kept the weapon as his trophy and soon reached Ishmir of Corinth. The locals warned him of facing Siris, another bandit, who was guarding a passage from Corinth to Athens. Siris was said to tie his victims between two trees and use the trees to serve him as a catapult, victims being the ammunition, and then hurl them way in the air so they would crash upon landing, which gave the bandit great pleasure. This story, however, did not put fear in Theseus` head and prevented him to kill the bandit with his own method.

Upon killing Siris, he also raped his daughter Perigune who happened to be in wrong place at the wrong time. Later on, he overcame another challenge north of the Isthmus. At a place called Crommyon, he killed the Crommyonian Sow, a pig of enormous size that was bred by an old woman named Phaea. Next bandit, that Theseus had met, was in the narrow cliff trail near the borders of Megara. Evil Scyron urged bypassing travellers to wash his feet with their back to the sea so that he could kick them into the deep waters below, where a sea monster was preying on victims. However, when Theseus came along it was the bandit who was eaten by the sea monster. Theseus then came across Eleusis where king Cercyon challenged him to a wrestling match like he had been doing it in the past, challenging travellers, beating them and then killing them in a disguise of sacrificial ceremony. But the hero instead won, killed the king and brought down this archaic religious ritual by refusing to be sacrificed.

The last encounter before Athens was in the plains of Eleusis where he encountered Procrustes, a giant, who had an imaginative way of showing his hospitality to travelers. He had two beds, one large and one small and would offer small one to tall people and the other way around. To the tall people he would cut off limbs to make a perfect fit for the small bed and he would stretch short people to make them fit for the large bed. Theseus treated the giant in the same way, removing his legs and decapitating his head off. Meeting Aegeus and his evil wife When Theseus finally arrived to Athens, he decided not reveal his true identity right away. Aegeus offered him accommodation but was curious and suspicious of the newcomer. But the king`s wife and queen Medea, who was also an evil sorceress, recognised him immediately and feared that Theseus would be chosen as an heir to the kingdom of Athens. Medea had previously fled to Athens from Corinth, after taking revenge on Jason , by killing their own three sons. She soon arranged a task which would see Theseus get killed. She sent him on a task to capture the Marathonian bull.

On the way to Marathon, Theseus was offered a shelter from a storm in the lodge of an old woman called Hecale. She swore she would sacrifice the bull to Zeus , if he was successful in capturing it. Theseus managed to capture the animal but, when he returned to the lodge, Hecale was already dead. In her honor, Theseus named one of the regions in Attica after her. When Theseus brought the bull before the king and sacrificed him in front of everyone, the evil sorceress wanted to poison him, offering him a cup of wine. But Aegeus, a king of Athens, finally recognised the sandals and the sword and in a heat of moment, when trying to embrace his son, he knocked off the poisonous cup. With much joy and celebration, Aegeus named Theseus his son and a successor to his throne. Medea was said to had fled to Aisa upon losing her chance of getting the heritage of Athens. Slaying the Minotaur Becoming a rightful heir to the kingship of Athens, however, did not stop Theseus from having adventures.

Soon the time had come for Theseus to learn and face that Athens will have to send seven most courageous men and seven beautiful maidens to Crete to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, a half man and a half bull monster. The reason behind this was the murder of Androgens, the younger son of the Cretan king, by the Athenians. King Aegeus would be facing incoming war with Cretans, if he declined to deliver the assassins of Androgens. However, the king, not knowing who the assassins were, had surrendered Athens to Cretans. The Cretan king Minos then demanded for seven youth warriors and seven maidens to be sacrificed and sent to Crete every seventh year. Theseus volunteered for going to Crete, despite his father`s objections. He assembled the rest of youths and promised his father that they will be sailing with white flags instead of black ones, if they are successful in slaying the beast. Before they set sail, Theseus visited the oracle of Delphi who instructed him to make Aphrodite his patroness, if he wants to come out victorious. Theseus obeyed and made a sacrificial ceremony to Aphrodite, just before the departure.

When they came to Crete, Aphrodite immediately repaid the hero by casting a spell on Ariadne, a daughter of king Minos, who fell in love with Theseus. She then gave him a sharp sword to slay the minotaur and, on the advise of Daedalus , she also gave him a ball of thread with which he would be able to find a way back from the treacherous labyrinth. Theseus had promised to Ariadne that, if he came back alive from the labyrinth, he would take her with him back to Athens. When Theseus and his companions entered the labyrinth, the hero bound a string of the ball to the door post and grabbed his sword that he kept hidden inside his tunic. Theseus followed the instructions of Ariadne, given by Daedalus, to go forward, always down and never left or right. After a while, he came to the heart of the labyrinth and upon the sleeping Minotaur. The beast felt presence and awoke to confront the hero. Tremendous fight then occurred, in which Theseus overpowered the Minotaur with his cleverness and strength and stabbed the beast in the throat with his sword.

After decapitating the beast, they use the thread to find a way out of the labyrinth and returned to the shore where Ariadne, and a ship, was waiting to set course, before Minos could find out that they had killed his beast and escaped. They stopped in Naxos to rest. While sleeping, Theseus had a dream in which Dionysus approached him and told him to let Ariadne go because Fates had other plans for her. The god of wine might have done that out of his personal desire because later on she got married with Dionysus and they had many children. Anyhow, when Theseus in the morning set sail with the youths of Athens, he left Ariadne behind. It is said that when she woke up and found out that she had been left behind, she cursed Theseus and the crew and therefore they forgot to change their flag upon arrival as agreed before departure. When they finally approached Athens, Aegeus was standing on the cliff where he used to come and wait for Theseus. The king saw the black flag and thought his son was dead. In agony, he committed suicide by jumping from the cliff into the waters below and drowned.

The Athenians named the Aegean sea after their king and the name is still there to this day. Becoming King of Athens As the only eligible heir, Theseus soon became a king of Athens. He won the endorsement and admiration of the citizens of Athens who saw in him as a wise and far-sighted ruler, as well as a fearless and brave warrior. Theseus unified the diverse Attic communities into one powerful centrally-administered state. Commerce and agriculture flourished and Athens became an important maritime port, as Theseus rightfully believed that the sea would give power to Athens . He also established the Isthmian Games to commemorate the tasks which he had performed during his journey from Troezen to Athens and inaugurated many new festivals, including the Panathenaic festivals, dedicated to goddess Athena , the protector of the city. Having a new family Theseus then, after a while, joined Heracles on the quest to bring back Hippolyta`s girdle. The amazons were about to give it over peacefully, when Hera sparked the fight where many amazons got killed and the queen Hippolyta got kidnapped by Theseus who claimed her for his bride.

She eventually bore him a son and gave him name Hippolytus. However, Theseus fell in love with another woman, called Phaedra, and soon married her. The issues began when Hippolytus was in his early twenties and decided to favour and show all his devotion to Artemis instead of Aphrodite. The goddess of love got angry and made Theseus` wife Phaedra to deeply fell in love with her step son Hippolytus. When he scornfully rejected the advances of his mother-in-law, Phaedra committed suicide from her despair. But, before she died, she wrote a letter stating that Hippolytus raped her and that this was the reason behind her action. Enraged, Theseus turned to his father Poseidon in a prayer, asking the god to punish Hippolytus. Poseidon answered and sent a monster that frightened the horses drawing the chariot of Hippolytus. The horses went mad, overturning the chariot and dragging along the youth who had been trapped in the reins. Meanwhile, Artemis told Theseus the truth about what happened and the king rushed after his boy and found him badly injured.

It was too late as the poor Hippolytus expired in the arms of his father. Tragic end of Theseus Theseus fell in a deep grief because of this incident and started losing control and reliability which led to the decline of popularity among the citizens of Athens. His former heroic acts and deeds were blurring away and soon rebellions began to surface, all around, against his rule. Theseus gave away his right to the throne and fled to the island of Skyros where king Lycomedes allegedly threw him off the cliffs into the sea, because he was afraid of Theseus` attempt to overthrow him. And this was the tragic end of one of the most famous Greek heroes that died upon landing into the sea. greek-gods.org (c) Copyright 2013 - 2016, all rights reserved Theseus, Hero of Athens | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art Works of Art (9) Essay In the ancient Greek world, myth functioned as a method of both recording history and providing precedent for political programs. While today the word “myth” is almost synonymous with “fiction,” in antiquity, myth was an alternate form of reality .

Thus, the rise of Theseus as the national hero of Athens, evident in the evolution of his iconography in Athenian art, was a result of a number of historical and political developments that occurred during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. Myth surrounding Theseus suggests that he lived during the Late Bronze Age, probably a generation before the Homeric heroes of the Trojan War. The earliest references to the hero come from the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Homeric epics of the early eighth century B.C. Theseus’s most significant achievement was the Synoikismos, the unification of the twelve demes, or local settlements of Attica, into the political and economic entity that became Athens. Theseus’s life can be divided into two distinct periods, as a youth and as king of Athens . Aegeus, king of Athens, and the sea god Poseidon ( 53.11.4 ) both slept with Theseus’s mother, Aithra, on the same night, supplying Theseus with both divine and royal lineage.

Theseus was born in Aithra’s home city of Troezen, located in the Peloponnese , but as an adolescent he traveled around the Saronic Gulf via Epidauros, the Isthmus of Corinth, Krommyon, the Megarian Cliffs, and Eleusis before finally reaching Athens. Along the way he encountered and dispatched six legendary brigands notorious for attacking travelers. Upon arriving in Athens, Theseus was recognized by his stepmother, Medea, who considered him a threat to her power. Medea attempted to dispatch Theseus by poisoning him, conspiring to ambush him with the Pallantidae Giants, and by sending him to face the Marathonian Bull ( 56.171.48 ). Likely the most famous of Theseus’s deeds was the slaying of the Minotaur ( 64.300 ; 47.11.5 ; 09.221.39 ). Athens was forced to pay an annual tribute of seven maidens and seven youths to King Minos of Crete to feed the Minotaur, half man, half bull, that inhabited the labyrinthine palace of Minos at Knossos.

Theseus, determined to end Minoan dominance, volunteered to be one of the sacrificial youths. On Crete, Theseus seduced Minos’s daughter, Ariadne, who conspired to help him kill the Minotaur and escape by giving him a ball of yarn to unroll as he moved throughout the labyrinth ( 90.12a,b ). Theseus managed to flee Crete with Ariadne, but then abandoned her on the island of Naxos during the voyage back to Athens. King Aegeus had told Theseus that upon returning to Athens, he was to fly a white sail if he had triumphed over the Minotaur, and to instruct the crew to raise a black sail if he had been killed. Theseus, forgetting his father’s direction, flew a black sail as he returned. Aegeus, in his grief, threw himself from the cliff at Cape Sounion into the Aegean, making Theseus the new king of Athens and giving the sea its name. There is but a sketchy picture of Theseus’s deeds in later life, gleaned from brief literary references of the early Archaic period , mostly from fragmentary works by lyric poets.

Theseus embarked on a number of expeditions with his close friend Peirithoos, the king of the Lapith tribe from Thessaly in northern Greece. He also undertook an expedition against the Amazons, in some versions with Herakles , and kidnapped their queen Antiope, whom he subsequently married ( 31.11.13 ; 56.171.42 ). Enraged by this, the Amazons laid siege to Athens, an event that became popular in later artistic representations. There are certain aspects of the myth of Theseus that were clearly modeled on the more prominent hero Herakles during the early sixth century B.C. Theseus’s encounter with the brigands parallels Herakles’s six deeds in the northern Peloponnese. Theseus’s capture of the Marathonian Bull mirrors Herakles’s struggle with the Cretan Bull. There also seems to be some conflation of the two since they both partook in an Amazonomachy and a Centauromachy. Both heroes additionally have links to Athena and similarly complex parentage with mortal mothers and divine fathers.

However, while Herakles’s life appears to be a string of continuous heroic deeds, Theseus’s life represents that of a real person, one involving change and maturation. Theseus became king and therefore part of the historical lineage of Athens, whereas Herakles remained free from any geographical ties, probably the reason that he was able to become the Pan-Hellenic hero. Ultimately, as indicated by the development of heroic iconography in Athens, Herakles was superseded by Theseus because he provided a much more complex and local hero for Athens. The earliest extant representation of Theseus in art appears on the François Vase located in Florence, dated to about 570 B.C. This famous black-figure krater shows Theseus during the Cretan episode, and is one of a small number of representations of Theseus dated before 540 B.C. Between 540 and 525 B.C., there was a large increase in the production of images of Theseus, though they were limited almost entirely to painted pottery and mainly showed Theseus as heroic slayer of the Minotaur ( 09.221.39 ; 64.300 ).

Around 525 B.C., the iconography of Theseus became more diverse and focused on the cycle of deeds involving the brigands and the abduction of Antiope. Between 490 and 480 B.C., interest centered on scenes of the Amazonomachy and less prominent myths such as Theseus’s visit to Poseidon’s palace ( 53.11.4 ). The episode is treated in a work by the lyric poet Bacchylides. Between 450 and 430 B.C., there was a decline in representations of the hero on vases; however, representations in other media increase. In the mid-fifth century B.C., youthful deeds of Theseus were placed in the metopes of the Parthenon and the Hephasteion, the temple overlooking the Agora of Athens. Additionally, the shield of Athena Parthenos, the monumental chryselephantine cult statue in the interior of the Parthenon, featured an Amazonomachy that included Theseus. The rise in prominence of Theseus in Athenian consciousness shows an obvious correlation with historical events and particular political agendas.

In the early to mid-sixth century B.C., the Athenian ruler Solon (ca. 638–558 B.C.) made a first attempt at introducing democracy. It is worth noting that Athenian democracy was not equivalent to the modern notion; rather, it widened political involvement to a larger swath of the male Athenian population. Nonetheless, the beginnings of this sort of government could easily draw on the Synoikismos as a precedent, giving Solon cause to elevate the importance of Theseus. Additionally, there were a large number of correspondences between myth and historical events of this period. As king, Theseus captured the city of Eleusis from Megara and placed the boundary stone at the Isthmus of Corinth, a midpoint between Athens and its enemy. Domestically, Theseus opened Athens to foreigners and established the Panathenaia, the most important religious festival of the city. Historically, Solon also opened the city to outsiders and heightened the importance of the Panathenaia around 566 B.C.

When the tyrant Peisistratos seized power in 546 B.C., as Aristotle noted, there already existed a shrine dedicated to Theseus, but the exponential increase in artistic representations during Peisistratos’s reign through 527 B.C. displayed the growing importance of the hero to political agenda. Peisistratos took Theseus to be not only the national hero, but his own personal hero, and used the Cretan adventures to justify his links to the island sanctuary of Delos and his own reorganization of the festival of Apollo there. It was during this period that Theseus’s relevance as national hero started to overwhelm Herakles’s importance as Pan-Hellenic hero, further strengthening Athenian civic pride. Under Kleisthenes, the polis was reorganized into an even more inclusive democracy, by dividing the city into tribes, trittyes, and demes, a structure that may have been meant to reflect the organization of the Synoikismos.

Kleisthenes also took a further step to outwardly claim Theseus as the Athenian hero by placing him in the metopes of the Athenian treasury at Delphi, where he could be seen by Greeks from every polis in the Aegean. The oligarch Kimon (ca. 510–450 B.C.) can be considered the ultimate patron of Theseus during the early to mid-fifth century B.C. After the first Persian invasion (ca. 490 B.C.), Theseus came to symbolize the victorious and powerful city itself. At this time, the Amazonomachy became a key piece of iconography as the Amazons came to represent the Persians as eastern invaders. In 476 B.C., Kimon returned Theseus’s bones to Athens and built a shrine around them which he had decorated with the Amazonomachy, the Centauromachy, and the Cretan adventures, all painted by either Mikon or Polygnotos, two of the most important painters of antiquity. This act represented the final solidification of Theseus as national hero.

Andrew Greene Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art August 2009 Citation Greene, Andrew. “Theseus, Hero of Athens.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (August 2009) Further Reading Barber, Elizabeth Wayland, and Paul T. Barber. When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. Boardman, John "Herakles." In Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologicae Classicae, vol. V, 1. Zürich: Artemis, 1981. Camp, John McK. The Archaeology of Athens. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. Gehrke, Hans-Joachim. "Myth, History, and Collective Identity: Uses of the Past in Ancient Greece and Beyond." In The Historian's Craft in the Age of Herodotus, edited by Nino Luraghi, pp. 286–313. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Harrison, Evelyn B. "Motifs of the City Siege of Athena Parthenos." American Journal of Archaeology 85, no. 3 (July 1981), pp. 281–317. Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3d ed., rev. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Neils, Jenifer. "Theseus." In Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologicae Classicae, vol. VII, 1, pp. 922–51. Zürich: Artemis, 1981. Servadei, Cristina. La figura di Theseus nella ceramica attica: Iconografia e iconologia del mito nell'Atene arcaica e classica. Bologna: Ante Quem, 2005. Shapiro, H. A. "Theseus: Aspects of the Hero in Archaic Greece." In New Perspectives in Early Greek Art, edited by Diana Buitron-Oliver, pp. 123–40. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1991.

Shapiro, H. A. Art and Cult under the Tyrants in Athens. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1989. Simon, Erika. Festivals of Attica. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983. Related Minotaur | Riordan Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia The Minotaur (real name Asterion) is a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. He is one of the most infamous monsters in Greek mythology and is currently reforming in Tartarus . Contents Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes The Minotaur was born of a human, Pasiphaë , and a white bull. Poseidon sent the white bull to King Minos for him to sacrifice in his honor, but King Minos did not sacrifice the bull because he saw that the bull had the most beautiful fur that he has ever seen and let the bull live. However, Poseidon was spying nearby and saw that Minos had left his white bull alive. Thereafter, mad with rage and anger that Minos had not sacrificed the bull, he cursed Minos by making Pasiphaë fall in love with the bull.

Then, when Poseidon had left for Olympus , Pasiphaë ordered Daedalus to make a fake cow for her to hide inside and lure it. The result of their union was the Minotaur. Pasiphaë nursed him in his infancy, but he grew rapidly and became incredibly ferocious. Minos, after getting advice from the Oracle at Delphi, had Daedalus and his son Icarus construct a gigantic maze, the Cretan Labyrinth , to hold the Minotaur. Its location was near Minos' palace in Knossos. The Minotaur dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth and every seven years, seven youths and seven maidens in Athens were taken from their families as sacrifices to him. Theseus, the son of Aegeas, volunteered to slay the Minotaur and was taken to the Labyrinth as a feast for the monster. The Minotaur was eventually killed by Theseus with the help of Ariadne and her thread. Ariadne helped Theseus out of the maze with the help of a thread that showed him his way in, and helped him on his way out. The Lightning Thief The Minotaur turning into monster dust (graphic novel).

Percy Jackson is running to Camp Half-Blood when the Minotaur attacks him. It is described as having fur from about the belly-button on up and naked except for a pair of bright white Fruit of the Loom underwear. Percy manages to jump onto the Minotaur's back, pulls off one of the its horns, and kill it by stabbing it in the side. However, the monster manages to abduct his mother Sally Jackson for Hades to hold as hostage. Percy decides to keep the horn as a spoil of war . It is also noted by Annabeth Chase that many campers have hoped of achieving such a task for many years. Sally is released after the Helm of Darkness is returned to Hades by Percy. The Last Olympian The Minotaur had reformed and was made a general for Kronos' Titan army . This time however, the Minotaur was clad in armor and carried a large axe whose blade was shaped like the letter Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, possibly because it is the last thing a demigod sees before it is killed. The axe holds necklaces from killed demigods.

While in the Williamsburg Bridge , the Minotaur lead the charge across the bridge against the Apollo campers lead by Michael Yew . When Percy flies in on Blackjack to help, the Minotaur tosses a car at him, forcing him to land on the bridge. Percy then confronts the Minotaur, causing him to become angry and roars at other monsters when they go to attack him. Before they fight, Percy sees that the Minotaur has camp necklaces tied to his twin swords to show how many demigods he had defeated. The Minotaur then charged Percy, but in a flash, Percy cut his axe in half and sliced off both of his horns. When the Minotaur became angry, he charged again as Percy took the broken axe and ran for the side of the bridge. Percy then held the broken axe and the Minotaur ran into it. Percy then tossed the Minotaur over the side of the bridge and he turned to dust as he fell. Abilities Strength: The Minotaur is very strong, able to lift a car over its head and throw it across a small field.

Regeneration: Being a monster, and therefore without a soul (despite being half-human), the Minotaur cannot be truly physically destroyed. After death, his essence descends into Tartarus were it will eventually reform. Weapon Axe: In The Last Olympian , the Minotaur wielded a huge axe with blades in the shape of the Greek letter, Omega. Percy guessed that it was because it would be the last thing the Minotaur's enemies saw (as Omega is the last letter in the Classic Greek alphabet). Film from the official soundtrack The Minotaur is seen when Percy, Sally, and Grover arrive at Camp Half Blood. Unlike the books, when Percy broke the monster's horn on his own, the Minotaur's horn in the film is removed when it is stuck on a tree. Also, the Minotaur is not wearing the Fruit of the Loom Briefs that he is said to be wearing in the book. Etymology The Minotaur's name translates to "The Bull of Minos." The "mino" in "Minotaur" comes from King Minos' name. The "taur" means bull/cow.

Trivia The proper name of the Minotaur, as revealed in Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes , was Asterion (or Asterios), meaning the starry one. Both the Minotaur and his father, the Cretan bull, were associated with the constellation Taurus. The name Minotaur, taur refers to Taurus the starsign of the bull. The name means The Bull of Minos, the Minotaur's step-father. The Minotaur is the only known monster to come back in a different book after being completely destroyed (not including species or monsters that instantly reformed with Gaea's help). In some versions of the myth, it is said that Poseidon in bull form is the Minotaur's father. In some version of the myth, Poseidon told Aphrodite to make Pasiphaë fall in love with the white bull, resulting in the birth of the Minotaur. This version is considered canon in Riordan's books, as of Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes . Theseus , also a son of Poseidon, fought the Minotaur. This could be why the Minotaur was the first monster Percy fought.

The Minotaur appeared in the first and last book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. He is also carrying an axe in The Last Olympian shaped like an Omega, the last letter of the Greek Alphabet . This could be a reference to the Minotaur being the beginning and the end. May Castellan has a teeny Minotaur plush toy in a little Minotaur diaper on her front sidewalk. Gallery

Question: Which Greek hero killed the 'half-man/half-bull' Minotaur?
Answer: Theseus