Tom Foran Clark

Every nine years the fourteen youths would come. Minos would shut the seven youths and seven maidens up inside the labyrinth, where they would either starve or be devoured by the Queen's monstrous issue. Theseus would eventually join a group of fourteen teenagers shipped from Athens and, with the help of Araidne, Minos' daughter, with insider information from the builder of the labyrunth, Daedalus, kill the Minotaur.

How had this come to pass? It had all started with Pasipae, the wife of King Minos. Pasiphae knew the king liked to consort with different women. Jealous, she was always trying to think of ways to get even. Finally, she cursed the king in such a way that whenever he took a new woman to his bed, wild beasts would fly out from his orifices, devour the women, and then disappear. The next thing she knew, Pasiphae learned a curse was on her.

"Minoa's faith in freedom and democracy has been a rock in a raging sea," King Minos told his people. "Now it is a seed on the wind, taking root on all the islands. We have more than our shared faith in the creed of our country. We have our humanity, and ideals we carry but do not own, a trust we bear and pass along. And even after thousands of years, still we have a long way to travel. While many of our citizens prosper, others doubt there is truly justice in our country. The ambitions of many Minoans are limited by failing schools and prejudice and the circumstances of their birth. Sometimes our differences run so deep, it seems we share an island but not a country. This is my pledge: I will work to build an island nation of justice and opportunity. I know this is in our reach because we are watched and guided by powers larger than our own, and the gods look well on Minoa."

Some disagreed -- some felt the gods did not look with favor on Minos. People were saying Minos had not proven his divine right to rule Minoa. Minos approached Poseidon for a favor, asking him to give the people a sign that he, Minos, in fact did have the blessings of the gods and was the rightful king.

Poseidon, whose sacred tree was pine, and whose favorite animals were the dolphin, horse, and bull, had an idea. He said he could make a fabulous white bull appear out of the water like a dolphin, entering Minoa from the sea, atop swirling waves. Minos loved it. And Poseidon came through. Miraculously, a beautiful, shining white bull had emerged from the waves, confirming to all that Minos was king.

Now King Minos was obliged to keep a promise to Poseidon. He'd agreed he'd kill the bull and offer it up as a tribute to Poseidon. But Minos changed his mind. He liked the bull so much, he couldn't bring himself to sacrifice it. Instead, he sacrificed a different bull, keeping Poseidon's bull for himself.

Poseidon, to punish Minos, put a curse on his wife, the queen, Pasiphae. He caused her to crave having sex with the bull. Perplexed, Pasiphae ran straight to her bedchamber to touch herself. In her mind's eye, she could only see this bull. The lust she felt was focused in one overwhelming urge: she must have this gorgeous bull -- she must bring within her its penis. She called for the reknowned craftsman-inventor Daedalus and, in not very queen-like fashion, indelicately implored his help. Daedalus -- who was generally considered not necessarily a good man, but not a bad man, either -- complied. He returned to his workshop and devised and built for the queen a hollow wooden cow she could climb into, exposing herself in such a way that only her buttocks and sexual organs would show -- an open invitation to the bull.

When this artificial cow was finished, it and the queen were brought to the pasture where the bull roamed. Pasiphae was strapped inside the apparatus. Patiently, Pasiphae waited. Finally, the bull came around. Some said it was Poseidon himself -- that Poseidon took the shape of the bull. (As the god of horses, Poseidon was quite accustomed to taking the shape of a steed.) He sallied up and sniffed at her, then mounted. The rough animal thrust its huge, erect penis into the vagina of the ecstatic Queen, stretching it almost to tearing. The beast pumped frenziedly. Pasiphae feinted.

On recovering her senses -- after the bull had done -- after Daedalus had freed her fom her trappings -- Pasiphae felt no pain. She could feel Poseidon's spell on her dwindling slowly, even as a strong sense of her being pregnant intensified. The queen felt a little regret, but the deed was done. It wasn't very long before signs of the indiscretion began showing. Like her belly, her breasts swelled to enormous cow-like size, to accomodate the extraordinary needs of her forthcoming issue. The queen took to roaming the palace dreamily, wearing only a large velvet mu-mu robe, purple, with two holes cut in it so that her oversensitive, elongated nipples could project through freely -- touched only by her own hands, yielding comforting creams.

In due time, Minotauros -- half-bull, half-human -- was born. For two years, Pasiphae suckled the infant Minotaur at her flowing, swollen breasts. At the end of his first year, the Minotaur could already run on his human legs and human feet -- despite his top-heavy bull's head and budding bull's horns.

The Minotaur grew quickly. At the end of his second year, Minotauros began running after girls and boys -- to eat them. He was only four when the inevitable urgency of his appetite first overtook him entirely. He raped and killed one of his sister Phaedra's serving women. The deadline for the construction of an elaborate labyrinth, which Daedalus had designed for the Minotaur's future living quarters, was moved up.

At the age of six, the Minotaur appeared for the first and last time in public. No formal disclosure about his nature had yet been made, though it was rumored he was a child of Helios, the Sun God (who was, in fact, his grandfather). The Minotaur was carried on a golden platform with a gilded pole at its center, to which the Minotaur was chained. In frustration, he bellowed -- until he finally was loosed in a small pasture at the center of the maze. Here was the spot -- the same half acre of pastureland -- where the Minotaur had been conceived. Eight archways led out from the encircling wall. Seven of these passages only led back to themselves. The eighth passage -- though it also had its dead ends -- led to the outside world. The maze was partly roofed -- partly not. Beside a wall stood a ladder which the Minotaur could not use (he did not have hands), which priests occasionally descended, bringing melons and grapes.

When it happened that the wholly human son of Minos and Pasiphae -- Androgeos -- went to Athens to attend the Olympic games -- and was victorious in every event in which he participated -- several envious local contestants conspired to murder him. To avenge the death of Androgeos, Minos now attacked Athens. Gaining control of the city, he granted Athens peace on one condition: every nine years Athens must ship seven of its finest young men and seven of its finest maidens to Minoa, to be offered as a sacrifice to the Minotaur. The victims would be pushed through opened doors doors (painted with the images of galloping bulls) into passageways leading into the elaborate maze of the labyrinth. There, in the passages, the Minotaur, who now had quite an appetite for human flesh, would wait patiently for them. Lost, on the verge of starving, the young people were themselves inevitably devoured. Their bones lay on the ground like so much litter throughout the labyrinth.

Daedalus had originally come to the kingdom of Minos after departing Athens years before -- as he had killed his own nephew. Daedalus had been living and working in Athens. Daedalus didn't like it that one of his apprentices, Talos, the son of his sister Polycaste, seemed to surpass him in skill (Daedalus also suspected the boy had been having incestuous relations with Polycaste). Daedalus had pushed Talos off the roof of Athena's temple on the Acropolis. Taking refuge in Knossos, he enjoyed the patronage of King Minos -- until the king learned Daedalus had helped Poseidon, in the form of a white bull, put his penis into the Queen, his wife Pasiphae.

Before the king finally threw Daedalus into prison, the artisan crafted a special dance stage for the king's daughter, Ariadne. "Aridane," which meant “very holy,” would come to be known as the goddess of the underworld and fertility -- the Earth Mother. Years later, the Athenians, on conquering Minoa, would suppress the worship of Ariadne, demoting her from goddess to mortal woman and incorporating her into Greek mythology.

Again Daedalus, before going to prison, did some special work for the king. He designed the maze beneath the city of Minos that the Minotaur would be kept in.That done, Daedalus would again betray Minos by revealing to the king's daughter Ariadne the secret of his labyrinth. That would be the last straw for the king who would, when he finally learned of it, throw Daedalus into prison -- with his son Icarus. To escape, Daedalus would mae wings out of wax and feathers for his son and himself. The two would fly safely out of the prison but Icarus, enchanted by flying, would try to reach the sun. Of course he'd get too close and fall from the sky. Daedalus, according to legend, would make it to Sicily.

Ariadne, applying what she'd learned from Daedalus, now helped a young Athenian, Theseus, find his way through the labyrinth -- to kill the Minotaur and safely make his way back out again.

Poseidon may or may not have been the father of Theseus. The mortal Aegeus, the King of Athens, also claimed he was the father of Theseus. It was said Aethra, the mother of Theseus, had slept with both Poseidon and Aegeus on the same night, making it impossible to say just who Theseus' father actuially was. Theseus didn't seem to mind having two fathers -- one a god, the other mortal. He was a hero -- that was all that mattered. Though Theseus claimed the throne of Athens through Aegeus, he was also known to refer to the sea god as his father as well.

On his way to Minoa, Theseus was called on, by King Minos, to prove his descent from Poseidon. The ruler threw a ring into the sea, challenging Theseus. If he really were the son of Poseidon, Minos said, he would be able to retrieve the band with no difficulty. Theseus dove beneath the waves and searched. Poseidon saw to it that not only would Theseus return to the surface with the ring in hand, but also with a jeweled crown from the palace of Amphitrite, Poseidon's wife.

Theseus -- who, with Iraklis (Hercules) had co-founded "panmahia," the unarmed combative martial art of Greece (contests simulating various aspect of actual battlefield combat) -- had left Athens among the latest batch of fourteen teenagers scheduled to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. (Every nine years they came, fourteen fresh new young people ordered up for sacrifice by King Minos.)

Now he had arrived, among the latest batch of teens to be fed to the Minotaur. The prisoners, guests of honor at a sumptuous banquet, were given fine clothes and fed the most delicious food. After, they were shut in large, luxurious chambers. The following day, they were taken to wooden doors carved with pictures of galloping bulls. From behind the doors came the sounds of bellowing and stamping. When the doors opened, a prisoner was quickly pushed through. Priestesses, guards, and the other prisoners heard bloodcurdling screams. Then a priestess would pick out the next prisoner to be sent through the doors. This continued until each and all fourteen prisoners -- seven young men and seven young women -- met their fate. The Athenians would then rest easy another nine years -- until the King of Minoa demanded the next fourteen teenagers.

That year, at that particular banquet, Thesus took a seat near the king's daughter, Ariadne. He, unlike the other prisoners, sat dry-eyed. In fact, he laughed and chatted away so much, the other prisoners began to feel quite cheerful too. Thesus regaled Ariadne with splendid stories all evening long. After much wine and good conversation, Ariadne, charmed by the brave and handsome young man, volunteered to help him vanquish the Minortaur -- on one condition: he must then take her with him to Athens -- and marry her. Thesus agreed.

Ariadne revealed that behind the doors painted with the images of galloping bulls was an elaborate maze. Innumerable paths twisted and turned, confusing the eye and the mind. A person entering the maze could never find their way out.In the very heart of the maze, there lived the Minotaur. He knew all the twists and turns and blind alleys. If someone stumbled into the maze, the Minotaur would find him or her within moments.

After the banquet, Ariadne crept into the luxurious sleeping chamber of Theseus, and called softly to him. All his weapons had been taken away, but Ariadne now handed him a sword. Then she led the way to the great carved wooden door of the maze. She instructed Theseus to tie the end of a ball of twine to the door at the entrance of the maze, and to unwind the string as he made his way to the center. To find his way back, he needed only to follow the string. That's how Theseus came to kill the Minotaur. Theseus then kept his word. He took his lover, Ariadne, with him on his ship. The couple fled Minoa, sailing toward Athens. They went to Delos, then Naxos. In Naxos, Ariadne fell asleep on the shore. Theseus, who had no further use for Ariadne's cleverness, abandoned her. He sailed on ahead without her.