December 11, 2017

In Greek mythology, Theseus was a young adventurer who became king of Athens. In the most well-known story about Theseus, he slew the fearful Minotaur—a beast with the body of a man and the head of a bull.

Theseus. Credit: © Shutterstock

Theseus was the son of Aegus, the king of Athens. According to legend, Athens had to send seven young men and seven young women to Crete each year in tribute to that island’s King Minos. Minos sent the Athenian youths to their deaths in the Labyrinth, a confusing maze that housed the Minotaur. One year, Theseus was among the young Athenians forced to go to Crete. As Theseus left home, Aegus told him to change the sails of his ship from black to white on his return voyage to indicate that he had survived.

In Crete, King Minos’s daughter Ariadne fell in love with Theseus. She gave him a ball of thread to unwind as he traveled through the Labyrinth so that he could follow it back out again. Theseus explored the Labyrinth and soon located the Minotaur, which he killed. He then led the other Athenians out of the maze, following the thread to freedom.

In his haste to return to Athens, Theseus forgot to change the sails of his ship from black to white. When Aegus saw black sails on Theseus’s ship, the king thought Thesius had died. In sorrow, Aegus killed himself in sorrow. Some accounts say he threw himself from a cliff into the sea, a body of water—the Aegean Sea—named for the unfortunate king. Theseus then became king of Athens.

July 31, 2017

The star of this week’s Mythic Monday is the Minotaur, a fearsome monster from Greek mythology that was half man and half bull. The Minotaur was the oversized offspring of a bull and a woman named Pasiphae. Pasiphae was the wife of King Minos of Crete, who ruled the Aegean Sea and conquered much of Greece, including Athens. Daedalus, a skilled Athenian craftsman and inventor, created the Labyrinth–a place with many confusing paths and passageways–for King Minos, and it was used to imprison the Minotaur.

The Minotaur stands tall against Theseus in the monster’s final battle. Credit: © Vuk Kostic, Shutterstock

According to legend, Athens was forced to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete every year as a sacrifice to the Minotaur (the monster would eat them). One year, Theseus, a mighty warrior and the son of an Athenian king, decided to go as one of the youths and try to kill the Minotaur. In a quick but brutal fight, Theseus managed to kill the monster and save the other Athenians from slaughter. With the help of Ariadne, he also found his way out of the twisting passages of the Labyrinth. Ariadne, Minos’ daughter, had given Theseus a ball of thread to unwind as he entered the maze. He followed the thread and escaped and saved his companions. Ariadne left Crete with Theseus, but he deserted her on the way back to Athens.

In modern times, archaeologists have discovered the remains of a palace that may have been the site of the Cretan Labyrinth. The palace is located in the city of Knossos, the ancient center of the Minoan civilization, which flourished on Crete and some Aegean Sea islands from about 3000 to 1100 B.C. The palace has many passageways and resembles the mythical Labyrinth. Many double axes were found at the palace. Most scholars believe that the word labyrinth came from labrys, which means double axe. Of course, no ancient remains of the mythical Minotaur have ever been found.

Knossos was first settled about 7000 B.C. The city’s first great palace was built around 2000 B.C., but an earthquake destroyed it 300 years later. A fire damaged a second palace around 1450 B.C. Knossos was the leading Greek city-state on Crete until the Romans conquered the island in 67 B.C.

April 3, 2017

Daedalus, a skilled artisan of ancient Athens, was a colorful figure of Greek mythology. If Daedalus were a modern-day comic book superhero, his origin story might include a mad scientist piecing together the inquiring mind of Thomas Edison, the vision of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the versatile genius of Leonardo da Vinci, and the rugged physicality of a rugby star. The mythical Daedalus is perhaps best known for his construction of the mazelike labyrinth and for building the wings his son Icarus wore while flying too close to the sun.

The Athenian craftsman Daedalus hovers over his fallen son Icarus, whose wings melted when he flew too close to the sun, causing him to plunge to his death. Credit: © Thinkstock

Daedalus was well known in ancient Greece for his facility with wood and metals. The son of Athenian royalty, his name translates as “cunning worker.” Stories credit him for inventing the saw, the axe, a drill, and even glue. He built dams and thermal baths. Some tales note his talent in carving statues so lifelike they seemed to move.

For all his virtues, Daedalus had a vindictive streak. He was said to have murdered his talented apprenticed nephew Perdix (also called Talos) in a fit of jealous rage. After this crime, Daedalus fled with his young son Icarus to the island of Crete. Minos, the king of Crete, hired the fugitive Daedalus to create ingenious inventions. Daedalus designed and constructed the labyrinth to imprison the half-man, half-bull monster called the Minotaur. The Minotaur had the misfortune of being the illegitimate son of Minos’s wife, Pasiphae.

As the story goes, Daedalus helped Theseus—a fellow Athenian—escape the labyrinth, kill the Minotaur, and elope with Minos’s daughter Ariadne. The enraged Minos imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus in the maze. Trapped in his own creation, the cunning craftsman fashioned wings of feathers, wax, and thread. Each with his own pair of wings, then, Daedalus and Icarus flew up and away from the labyrinth and away from Crete itself. Unfortunately, the wax in Icarus’s wings melted when he flew too close to the sun, and he plunged to his death. King Minos later tracked Daedalus to Sicily, where some legends say the craftsman boiled the king alive in a bathtub he had built especially for that purpose.