Theseus And Minotaur Research Paper

Amidst an interlude in the fierce struggle for power between the two dominant Greek poleis, Athens and Sparta, the Peloponnesian war, there was unrest. Despite the Peace of Nicias, belligerence between the two states did not cease, but rather took on a new face. While careful to remain within the parameters set several years before in the peace treaty, Athens moved cautiously, but aggressively in establishing alliances, albeit coerced, and strengthening its empire. It was at this juncture that it made its move toward securing the small, weak island-state of Melos, which in its neutral independence suggested danger to the Athenian empire. In a move not of fairness, but of survival, Athens offered the Melians an ultimatum: to be subjugated

Now Theseus is older and is in his father’s palace in Athens, the fame seeking youth decided to set his sights on a new journey. A journey which would lead to him being loved and remembered by all the people of Athens. During this time Athens had a severe problem, the neighboring island Crete would attack them every so often. The king of Athens decided to try and compromise with Crete. He stated if Crete left Athens alone for nine years they would send fourteen Athenian youths seven male and seven females as a sacrifice to Minos to be fed to the Minotaur king Minos pet. The king of Athens goal was to build a strong navy, so they could defend themselves from Crete. Surprisingly the king of Crete Mino kept his word and never attacked Athens. Now nine years had come, and it was Athens turn to keep their word. The king of Athens was conflicted as he knew the value of keeping one's word. Theseus seeing this as the perfect opportunity to earn new fame and liken his image in Athens volunteered as the seventh male Athenian youth. Theseus’s goal is to slay the Minotaur and save his fellow Athenians. Theseus promises his father, he will return alive and when he does, he will change the color of the sail on the ship from white to black. In the event the sails stay black his father should assume Theseus has met his demise. After the Athenians arrive in Crete they are welcomed by King Mino’s and princess Ariadne, upon seeing

Promoting Greek unity gave the Greeks greater strength in numbers during the wars. Plutarch states “The greatest of all his achievements was to put an ending to all the fighting within Greece, to reconcile the various cities with one another and persuade them to lay aside their differences because of the war with Persia”. Themistocles’ relationship with naval commander Eurybiades also was very important. With Themistocles’ great foresight and decision making, the value of this working relationship with Eurybiades was the ability of Eurybiades to trust in Themistocles and his opinions. This proved very effective in the battles of Artemisium and Salamis. Thucydides praises this: “This man was supreme at doing precisely the right thing at precisely the right moment.” All of these pre-war efforts are contributions to which Themistocles played a great role in Greek victory.

The battle between Sparta's well-built army and Athens's exemplary navy was like a battle between a bear and a shark. If the bear goes into the water, the shark wins. However, if the shark enters land, the bear will kill it. The Athenian general and military genius Pericles knew this. Therefore, he devised a strategy that was based on the strength of his navy and the Spartan inability to battle him on sea; he devised a strategy of attrition where they would sit at home, and outlast the enemy (Kagan 52). In his mind, if Athens disregarded the Spartan land attacks, and instead survived off sea trade from their allies, the enemy would be unable to cause much damage. He wanted to drain them out psychologically, to get them to surrender from attacking the Athenian Empire (Kagan 52). One of the most important steps in doing this was to connect Athens to its navy city and their port. They did this by building walls that connected them, later known as the Long Walls (Kagan 9). Back then, walls were almost impregnable to attacks, and were one of the best defenses in the ancient world. Therefore, the addition of the Long Walls made both Athens and the port extremely hard to crack; they were ready for any Spartan land attack that would come their way. When the war finally started and the Spartans did come, they found that their attacks were not going to work. Their strategy of totally crushing the Athenian Empire and fighting a battle of annihilation was countered by the

The Odyssey is a story made up of stories. Because there is very little action that happens in the present, the presence of storytelling within the Odyssey is something that characterizes it and makes it unique. The spreading of stories serve to form legends and myths that can have the effect of shaping a culture. In addition, since stories were such an important aspect of entertainment in Greek culture, stories also shape the audience, either by entertaining them or creating feelings of sympathy in them. The function of storytelling in the Odyssey, is to evoke emotions and leave powerful, lasting impressions on the audience. However, the stories that are told

One Greek named Themistocles had been preparing for that moment for years. Although all the city-states of ancient Greece spoke the same language and worshiped the same gods, they were not united. Themistocles who came from the aristocratic ranks was the only man who could unite Greece. He knew how to make a city great and free. Themistocles wanted to build a navy that the world has never seen before. He built the Trireme, the deadliest warship of the ancient world. Greeks wanted to win battles by force, unlike the Persians who preferred to win battles through diplomacy, intimidation, and traders. Athens at that time had a practice called ostracism in which an individual is exile for ten years annually by an unpopularity contest. People would vote for a politician who

The Minotaur, meaning Minos bull, was “a monster of dire appearance, having the body of a powerful man and the head of a bull” (Seltman 98). Against his newfound father’s request, Theseus leaves Athens in hopes of returning victorious against the bull-headed beast. In a heroic fashion, Theseus leaps over the next step in Campbell’s hero journey and never refuses his call to adventure. The next step to any hero’s journey is an encounter with a super natural aid, but Theseus’ story takes a moral mentor to gather resources needed for the rest of his journey (Robertson 269). Theseus encounters his unlikely mentor upon arriving to Crete; Minos daughter, Ariadne, instructs Theseus to take a ball of linen with him into the labyrinth in order to trace back his steps after defeating the Minotaur (Martin 129). Crossing the threshold, Theseus ties one end of his ball of linen to the front door and journeys into the unconquerable maze and towards the beast (129). Theseus passes through his first trial of navigating the labyrinth inwards with ease straight into danger. Walking

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.

The following year, faced with the arduous effects of war, both Sparta and Athens consented to a peace treaty. In 418 B.C.E., the new Athenian general, Alcibiades, convinced the assembly to break off the peace treaty and instead strike Spartan’s allies. In 416-415 B.C.E., the small island of Melos was taken over because of its refusal to sever ties with Sparta. Later in 415 B.C.E., in the hopes of conquering the wealthy Sicilian city of Syracuse, Alcibiades swayed the assembly to move forward with the invasion. Well, things did not go as planned. Alcibiades’ political opponents removed him from command and Syracuse defeated the invaders. In anger, Alcibiades joined Sparta, and in 413 B.C.E., convinced them to take over a military station located in the Athenian countryside. From there Sparta conducted annual raids. Because of repeated raids and not being able to defend themselves, Athenian farming was destroyed and silver mining was discontinued as slave laborers (twenty thousand) defected to the other

This book details a true story of American John Alexander. Alexander vacationed to the island of Crete in Greece with his sister and parents to visit his grandparents. However, Alexander’s peaceful vacation was interrupted by the invasion of Germany. Germany had launched the first airborne invasion of an island fortress on the beautiful paradise. The Cretan people and their British, Australian, and New Zealand allies fought the Germans for ten long, bloody days until they were finally defeated and Crete was conquered.

The Peloponnesian War was the turning point in Athenian hegemony in Ancient Greece. It was fought in 431 B.C. between the Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. According to Thucydides, Athens’ imposing hegemonic status and its overwhelming quest for more power made the Peloponnesian War and Athens’s eventual fall from power inevitable. Despite the Athenians having a far more superior navy and being considerably wealthier, they were defeated and made subjects of Sparta. In this paper, I will discuss Thucydides’ and Socrates’ reasons for why

Bravery, the ability to perform accordingly, even when half scared to death is an exceptional trait possessed by humans, which allows us to move ahead in spite of fear and take risks to be successful within our lives. Perseus, son of Olympian King Zeus, is a prestigious hero in Greek mythology, illustrious for severing the head of vicious Gorgon Medusa. Theseus, son of Poseidon and King Aengus, is a prominent hero in Greek mythology, distinguished for the innumerable quests he participated in for the welfare of others to help eradicate notorious, obnoxious monsters. Theseus is extraordinarily courageous, which he proves throughout the multitudinous quests he goes on, while Perseus on the contrary demonstrates inconsequential courage when compared to Theseus. Correspondingly, Theseus justifies he is intelligent as he successfully completes his quests individually,

of Theseus and more specifically the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in the labyrinth. The

This essay examines the evolution of the Athens strategy from the beginning to the end of The Peloponnesian War (431 to 404 BCE). The Strategy will be evaluated in the context of the relationship of ends, means, and ways by testing the suitability, acceptability, feasibility, and risk.

Thesëus mercifully agrees to to get vengeance on the tyrant Creon, who “[set] his dogs to eat” the women’s husbands instead of burying them. Theseus’ mercy did not reach so far, as he went to Thebes to fight and slay Creon “manfully, like knight, / [i]n open war” (26-27).