Theseus and the Minotaur
In the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, it is a myth where there was a Minotaur who is described as a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a human and Theseus is the son of the Aegean King of Athens and Queen Etra who was the mother.
According to the myth that every year the city of Athens had to deliver fourteen young people, which was divided between seven women and seven men to be devoured by the Minotaur until Theseus the son of the Aegean King was able to kill him, in the present article we will make an exact analysis of the situation that occurred.
Birth of the Minotaur
According to Greek mythology, the minotaur was a monster with a human body and the head of a bull. His original name was the Bull of Minos, and he was the son of Pasiphae and the Bull of Crete. In the best known version of the birth of the Minotaur, it was that Minos the son of Zeus asked the God Poseidon for help so that his people acclaimed him as his King.
The God Poseidon, hearing his plea, helped him and made a great white bull come out of the depths of the sea, Mino promised to sacrifice the beautiful bull in the name of the God Poseidon. But this deception to the God hiding the bull and sacrificing another bull, Poseidon, realizing the mockery they made him, decided to take revenge.
He inspired the wife of King Mino named Pasifae to fall in love with the Bull and consummate a union between her and the bull, the woman no longer knew what to do, that's why she required the help of Daedalus and his son, these characters built a wooden cow with cowhide and Pasifae got inside the wooden cow.
The bull sought to do something to the wooden cow until the union between the bull and Pasiphae was finally consummated. Nine months later, the Minotaur was born. King Minos was shocked to see the monster and learned everything that had happened to his wife. Pasiphae did nothing to her, while those who built the wooden cow were enslaved.
As the Minotaur grew, he became stronger and less controllable, eventually developing a taste for human flesh, with no one able to control the monster. King Minos ordered Daedalus to build a great labyrinth; it was so large that it had numerous passages and many directions, all intersecting. If you wish to delve deeper into the story of the Minotaur, consult the myth of the Minotaur.
Theseus goes to the city of Crete
King Minos knows the news that his son has died in Athens, according to the reason the son of King Minos named Androgyne was killed after winning the Olympics, the King decides to declare war on the King of Athens Aegean.
But according to the war it was never carried out, because diplomatic negotiations were made, the agreement was that every year the king of Athens had to send fourteen young people, seven women and seven men to be devoured by the Minotaur who was in the labyrinth.
King Aegeus's other son, Theseus, who was also a great Athenian athlete and soldier, grew tired of the situation and plotted to kill the Minotaur. Theseus told his father, King Aegeus, that he would set sail with the other three young men to kill the Minotaur in the labyrinth.
When the ship will return to the city of Athens, he was going to place white sails on it with the objective that he would return alive and with the objective fulfilled of having killed the Minotaur and if he returned with the same black sails with which the ship sailed, it means that he already was dead.
King Minos receives them
Upon the ship's arrival at the port of Crete, the thirteen youths, along with Theseus, are directed to the court of King Minos, as he wishes to see and examine them himself. While the fourteen youths are there, King Minos's daughter, Ariadne, sees Theseus and falls in love with him.
As the girl is in love with Theseus, she invents a plan to save the life of her lover, which secretly contacts Theseus and gives him a ball of gold and a small sword that according to him is magical.
The idea that both Theseus and Ariadne had drawn up was that Theseus with the ball of gold will guide himself in the darkness of the labyrinth then kill the Minotaur and come out the way he entered, the plan was great in the story of Theseus and the Minotaur.
Execution of the plan and death of the Minotaur
The time came to execute the plan, as one of the fourteen youths had to be taken to the labyrinth to feed the Minotaur. Theseus was the one who went first to execute the plan and prevent the deaths of the other youths. When they brought him to the gates of the labyrinth, he tied one end of the golden ball to a stone.
Walking through the great labyrinth, Theseus hears a very loud breathing; it is the Minotaur looking for his human meal. Theseus, being a good sportsman, tires the Minotaur out with his skills and abilities, and then a fight begins between them; but since the Minotaur was very tired, Theseus took him by the horns and turned him sideways, hitting him hard until he stuck the small sword into his heart, leaving him lifeless.
Theseus escaped from the labyrinth
After killing the Minotaur, Theseus decides to leave the labyrinth, after looking for the other end of the ball of gold that left her on the ground while fighting the battle against the great monster. He decides to get out of the maze.
After finding his way out of the labyrinth, he goes in search of the thirteen youths and Ariadne so he can return to Athens. After young Theseus finds the youths and Ariadne, she decides she can't go with her lover, Theseus, or she'll escape with her sister, Phaedra.
Because of this situation, Ariadne goes in search of her sister and when she arrives with young Theseus and the young people, he falls in love with Phaedra, Ariadne's sister, as told in the fable of Theseus and the Minotaur.
Back to the city of Athens
After fulfilling their goal of killing the Minotaur, young Theseus, along with the young men and the beautiful sisters, set sail for Athens. While on the high seas, a great storm falls, blowing them off course until they reach the island of Naxos.
While on that island, in the fable of Theseus and the Minotaur, they stayed for a while until the sea calmed down so they could begin the journey back to Athens. When they managed to set sail for the city, young Theseus realized that King Minos's daughter was not on the ship.
In this part of the fable of Theseus and the Minotaur, the daughter of King Minos was left alone on the island of Naxo because she fell asleep or passed out from the sun and is found by the God Dionysus who falls in love with her and takes her to the Olympus where he married her and gave her a gold ring that Hephaestus made that became a constellation.
They arrive in the city of Athens
Young Theseus is saddened by the loss of King Minos's daughter, Ariadne, as is his sister Phaedra; both are encouraged by what has happened, but they long to reach the city of Athens together.
Because young Theseus is so sad about what has happened, he forgets to change the sails on the ship, which still has black sails of mourning. Theseus had to set the white ones as a sign of victory and that he was still alive so that his father, King Aegeus, would know.
King Aegeus, seeing the ship approaching Athens with black sails, was deeply saddened by the loss of his other son, Theseus. Unable to bear such grief, he threw himself into the sea and drowned. From that moment on, that sea was called the Aegean Sea.
At the end of the fable of Theseus and the Minotaur, young Theseus arrives in Athens and learns that his father decided to die, believing he was dead. Young Theseus is proclaimed King of Athens and takes Ariadne's sister, Phaedra, as his wife.
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