The Minotaur In Classical Mythology Essay, Research Paper

from Bulfinch & # 8217 ; s Mythology

The Athenians were at that clip in deep affliction, on history of

the testimonial which they were forced to pay to Minos, male monarch of Crete. This testimonial consisted

of seven young persons and seven maidens, who were sent every twelvemonth to be devoured by the

Minotaur, a monster with a bull & # 8217 ; s organic structure and a human caput. It was extremely strong and

fierce, and was kept in a maze constructed by D? dalus, so artfully contrived that

whoever was enclosed in it could by no agencies fid his manner out single-handed. Here the Minotaur

roamed, and was fed with human victims.

Theseus resolved to present his countrymen from this catastrophe, or to decease in effort.

Consequently, when the clip of directing off the testimonial came, and the young persons and maidens

were, harmonizing to usage, drawn by batch to be sent, he offered himself as one of the

victims, in malice of the prayers of his male parent. The ship departed under black canvass, as

usual, which Theseus promised his male parent to alter for white, in instance of his returning

winning. When they arrived in Crete, the young persons and maidens were exhibited before

Minos, and Ariadne, the girl of the male monarch, being present, became profoundly enamoured of

Theseus, by whom her love was readily returned. She furnished him with a blade, with which

to meet the Minotaur, and with a clew of yarn by which he might happen his manner out of

the maze. He was successful, slew the Minotaur, escaped from the maze, and

taking Ariadne as the comrade of his manner, with his reclaimed comrades sailed for Athens.

On their manner they stopped at the island of Naxos, where Theseus abandoned Ariadne, go forthing

her asleep. His alibi for this thankless intervention of his benefactress was that Minerva

appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to make so.

On nearing the seashore of Attica, Theseus forgot the signal appointed by his male parent,

and neglected to raise the white canvass, and the old male monarch, believing his boy had perished,

put an terminal to his ain life. Theseus therefore became male monarch of Athens.Andre- Peyronie

Minos asked Poseidon to give a sip to turn out to the Cretans that he was favoured by the

Gods. The God agreed, on status that the bull that he would do to lift from the sea,

would later be offered to him as a forfeit. However, the animate being was so beautiful

that Minos could non convey himself to destruct it in this manner. Poseidon was ferocious and

decided to take his retaliation by doing Queen Pasiphae autumn passionately in love with the

white bull. Hankering to be united with the animate being, the queen enlisted the aid of the

clever Athenian, Daedalus, who was at the tribunal of Minos. The craftsman used his accomplishment to

make a heifer out of wood and leather. The queen concealed herself inside the heifer and

the white bull, deceived by visual aspects, coupled with her. The fruit of this unnatural

brotherhood was the Minotaur, besides known as Asterion or Asterius, which had the caput of a bull

and the organic structure of a adult male. Ferocious and ashamed, Minos had Daedalus concept a kind of immense

palace-prison, the maze, in which to maintain the monster. Every twelvemonth ( or every nine

old ages ) , seven young persons and seven maide

Ns were fed to the Minotaur, a testimonial imposed on the

Athenians by Minos. One twenty-four hours, Theseus suggested that he join the group of young persons and, with

the aid of the yarn given to him by Ariadne, he found the Minotaur, killed it and

emerged, exultant, from the maze.

The monstrous nature of the Minotaur derives from the manner in which it was conceived. In

this regard, the narrative of its beginnings is every bit of import as its ain narrative. Its life was in

fact singularly devoid of incident. Imprisoned in the maze, it was as if the testimonial

paid by the Athenians provided a periodic beginning of distraction and nutrient. The narrative of the

Minotaur is inextricably linked with that of the labyrinth & # 8212 ; the labyrinth that was

constructed for the animal, that was doomed to vanish with it and in which it waited.

Without cognizing it, the Minotaur was waiting to be slain by Theseus. This was the lone

event of its life.

[ . . . . ]

From a literary point of position, the Minotaur has experienced two major stages, one as

the embodiment of horror and the other as exemplifying the complexnesss of freak.

In the Greek and Latin Classical myth, the Minotaur was non the topic of an independent

literary subject. It was either the monster slain by Theseus or conceived by Pasiphae. Its

freak left so small room for uncertainty that, during the Middle Ages, it sometimes

appeared as a Satan or a monster among many others, independently of its fabulous

background. During the Renaissance and neoclassical period, it was reinstated within the

context of the Greek myth, but its function did non widen beyond that of supplying a foil for

Theseus. It was from the terminal of the 19th century onwards that the nauseating animal

provided systematic nutrient for idea instead than merely firing the imaginativeness. The really

peculiar fortunes of its construct, its monstrous nature, its relationship with

the maze and its murder by Theseus became of import points of mention every bit good as

functional tools in the daring manner of literary analysis. The black monster one time

more became the merchandise of an unnatural love, but which this clip had to be recognized and

accepted. Through its association with desire, the horrid monster was found to be much

less ugly than had originally been thought and was shortly instrumental in developing the

modern construct of beauty. When, in the very bosom of the maze and at the really minute

of the confrontation, Theseus all of a sudden saw his ain upside-down image rise before him,

represented by the Other, he had to admit it and happen a manner of seeing it in a

favorable visible radiation. It is impossible to destruct an image and impossible to kill the

Minotaur. At the really most we can give it, in other words transform it, or else it

& # 8216 ; completes & # 8217 ; us. In decision, utilizing a modern rational attack, the modern age has

restored the monster to its former map of the pre-Hellenic epoch. It is, one time once more, a

sacred monster.

Excerpted from a longer essay in Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes and Archetypes.

Ed. Pierre Brunel. Trans. Wendy Allatson, Judith Hayward, and Trista Selous. London:

Routledge, 1996. Copyright? 1996 by Routledge.