The Myth : The Story Of The Minotaur

A maze of never ending passageways, a man, a monster, and a legend that has stood the test of time. The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, first told in the 8th century BC, has been passed down through generations of people fascinated by a story of greed, revenge, sacrifice, and courage (James 1999). But the true origins of this legend remain a mystery. Was Minos a real king that sacrificed children to a creature that was half man and half bull? Or is the story based on a lost civilization whose cultural practices and beliefs were misunderstood by foreigners? In this paper, the popular myth of Theseus and the Minotaur will be compared to physical evidence discovered by archaeologists. This archaeological evidence from the sites of Knossos located on Crete, Tell el-Dab’a, and Hawara located within Egypt will help shed light on the origin and evolution of this myth.

In old times, humankind has looked to utilize stories to clarify the world in which it lives. Similarly, as old man utilized stories of divine beings and creatures to clarify the world; superior person utilizes stories of exceptional legends and colossal scoundrels to do likewise (Stuller). Comic books are modern mythology, in that they are superior man 's strategy for clarifying their general surroundings through the fantastical. The characters frequently handle such major, philosophical, (Ahrens, Jörn, and Meeting) social and story ideas as the nature of sound and malevolence, man 's inward battle, the wannabe, the women 's activist, and the rescuer.

It is inferred that the parents should take care of their children and have their best interest at heart. This however, is not the case in Greek and Roman mythology. The killing of ones own children, or filicide, was not viewed as negative upon in their era. The contemporary times contrast with the ancient Greek and Roman’s because it was justified to use any means necessary to obtain a higher status. The Greeks and Romans valued keeping a high social reputation and having respect for those of great power. The motherly union between their children conflict with the reality that the father strives to retain or gain control. These circumstances cause a tense bond between the members of the family. The strained parent to child relationship in

Pride is a vital facet in the multi-sided diamond1 that is human psychology. In Sophocles’(n.d.) Antigone, the famous philosopher demonstrates how the mind can be clouded so effortlessly and bear such tragic repercussions when influenced by pride. In this dismal sequel to Oedipus Rex, also written by Sophocles(n.d.), both sides of the moral battle have plenty of justification for their actions.

The Minotaur, half man half bull, lived in Crete. Trapped in a labyrinth, constructed by the great Daedalus, the king of Crete, King Minos, demanded a tribute of seven boys and seven girls from Athens to satisfy the Minotaur’s savage hunger. But one year, Minos was deceived, for a new hero arose, Theseus, son of Aegeus, Prince of Athens. He won over the heart of Minos’s daughter, Ariadne, and used her ball of string to venture into the labyrinth to slay the Minotaur. After a hard-fought grapple within the lair of the minotaur, the beast fell to the sword of Aegeus, which Theseus had smuggled into the maze. Using the string, he found his way back out. The Labyrinth went underground, void of life, never to be seen again.

A twenty-first century reading of the Iliad and the Odyssey will highlight a seeming lack of justice: hundreds of men die because of an adulteress, the most honorable characters are killed, the cowards survive, and everyone eventually goes to hell. Due to the difference in the time period, culture, prominent religions and values, the modern idea of justice is much different than that of Greece around 750 B.C. The idea of justice in Virgil’s the Aeneid is easier for us to recognize. As in our own culture, “justice” in the epic is based on a system of punishment for wrongs and rewards for honorable acts. Time and time again, Virgil provides his readers

The ancient Greeks are known for many things, and one of them is their stories. Whether they are told through epic poetry or drama, these tales have lasted throughout the times. However, as the times change, so did the Greek ideals about heroism and society. In this essay I will be using Homer’s Iliad and Aeschylus’ Persians to illustrate the differences in society and how they affect the heroism in the literature of later periods. The Persian people are depicted in ways that makes them appear weaker than the Greeks, but time changed how this was achieved. Due to a change in the values of Greek society, the Persians were portrayed as weak with the same traits that made Achilles appear to be so strong.

The role of morality in the Odyssey sharply differs from our own notions of morality. Textual support for a morality in line with today’s common notions of morality is frail at best or otherwise fragmented and insufficient. Even the notion of justice, which stands as one of the fundamental pillars of western society today, is often inconsistent and contradictory, particularly among the gods. In the Odyssey, acts of kindness are not a product of some benevolent altruistic tendency, but rather, a consequence of selfish desires. Acts of kindness such as hospitality, Telemachus’ voyage, and the gods’ portrayed benevolence are actually exploitive and selfish in nature.

One day the Minotaur was out walking around the labyrinth. When he came across a room in a very far off passage that hasn’t been used. When the Minotaur went and checked it out he had found nothing but evidence that something was living in the room. So the minotaur decided he would come and check on the room every day to find out what was living in there. Each day he would come at a different time to try to catch it.

The story that we covered was called the Minotaur, which comes from Greek mythology. The Minotaur is a person who has a bull’s head but a person’s body. In this story, a person named Minos was supposed to give his best bull to the Greek god Poseiden. One year Minos had fell in love with his best bull and didn’t want to give it up to Poseiden, so Minos gave Poseiden another bull. Poseiden knew that Minos had not given him his best bull so Poseiden decided to retaliate.

All loved him for his goodness and admired him for his nobility, but they had no idea that he intended to try to kill the minotaur” (Hamilton 212). Theseus willingly risked himself so the people of Athen’s could live a normal life.

Throughout the play, characters like Tiresias and King Laius respond to suffering in a way that protects others. On page 177, Tiresias is reluctant to share Oedipus’

After reading Homer’s text, we realize that while it contains fine poetic history it is in fact about the human condition and how it affects people, Achilles primarily. The reality for people in the world of The Iliad is that they live under many gods, and that they can not please all of them; indeed, the gods are at odds with each other and to support one means to upset another. While the ideal condition for the Greeks is to possess sophrosyne, in reality there are too many uncontrollable external pressures to do so. Just as the gods who influence men are not harmonious, therefore, we find this quality also in the explanation of the human condition for Greek cultures.

The sources I will utilize in this investigation will range from primary sources such as Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Euclid’s six books entitled Euclid’s elements to secondary sources from scholars and experts who have studied Greek Mythology/philosophy. I will also supplement my research with preliminary research from the internet, which will answer questions that my print sources cease to answer. While some of my research manifests from the ideals of Greek philosophy, other aspects of my

The answer to the question of whether personal desires affect people’s actions more than the influence of others may seem like a one sided answer. However, upon closer inspection, it is acceptable to say that although some would argue that people’s own desires dictate their actions, the influences of others play a more prominent role in how an individual acts. The Greek tragedies “Medea” and “Oedipus Rex” are both stories that explore this controversial topic. “Oedipus Rex” follows the story of a king named Oedipus. His land is plagued, and the only way to get rid of this plague is to exile the one who killed the previous ruler of Thebes. Oedipus begins his search, along the way communicating with people that help him learn