3. Theseus and the Minotaur

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Theseus travels to the court of King Minos to fight the half-man, half-bull, Minotaur.

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Theseus and the Minotaur - Audio with text

Synopsis

Part 1
Hermes tells how Crete was once all-powerful because of the instruments of war created by Deadalus for King Minos. But King Minos and his people had a problem - the Minotaur, a creature part-man, part-bull, which rampaged throughout the palace killing those it caught.

Deadalus creates a labyrinth - a maze - under the palace and the Minotaur is lured inside and can never find its way out again. The only problem is how to feed the creature. Minos determines to demand tribute from the peoples he has conquered in the form of humans - young men and women to be fed to the Minotaur.

Part 2
The scene switches to Athens. Fourteen young Athenians are being selected for the journey to Crete. Theseus - son of King Aegeus - is determined to be one of them. Theseus persuades his father to allow him to go to Crete, with the aim of killing the Minotaur. And if he kills the creature he will signal his success by flying a white sail on the return journey.

When they arrive in Crete the Athenians are locked in a cell. Later that evening Ariadne - the daughter of King Minos - arrives in secret with a plan to help Theseus: she gives him a sword to kill the Minotaur and a ball of thread the find his way out of the labyrinth. In return Theseus must take her away with him.

Part 3
Theseus enters the labyrinth, finds the Minotaur and kills it. He rewinds the thread to find his way out again and the Athenians escape to their ship taking Ariadne with them. On the return journey Ariadne is spirited away to Mount Olympus by the god Dionysus. Theseus is heart-broken by her sudden departure…and forgets to change the black sail to a white one. So it is that King Aegeus, standing on a cliff to await the return of his son, sees that black sail and believes Theseus to have died.