What Is The Pity For The Minotaur

A key event that delays Odysseus immensely on his journey home is Poseidon’s revenge. While sailing home, Odysseus and his men come to encounter Polyphemus, Poseidon’s Cyclops son. Odysseus and his men try to steal food from Polyphemus while he is away tending to his flock (Homer 362). When Polyphemus returns to his cave, he finds Odysseus and his men, and traps them in his cave. While trapped in the cave, Polyphemus eats many of Odysseus’

One of the most interesting qualities of Greek mythology is probably the depiction of monsters in the myths. However, these monsters are not all unique. In fact, they all fall into very distinct categories, making them almost the same. Most monsters in Greek mythology look and act in the same ways. Several monsters from these myths look the same in that they have very similar qualities such as being large, snake or human like. However, they are also very alike in that they behave in very similar ways, from guarding something or roaming freely and causing chaos. Generally, the monsters in Greek mythology follow this outline and are depicted in a way to show these qualities.

The Minotaur and Polyphemus are different in various ways. In one way, Polyphemus had his eye poked out by Odysseus and his men, but never died. On the other hand, the Minotaur was defeated by Theseus, and he did die. Another way is that every year, the Minotaur was sent 14 children to eat in his labyrinth, whereas Polyphemus just peacefully raised sheep. The last difference between them is the Minotaur was part man, part bull, and Polyphemus was a whole monster as himself.

and an appetite. The monster knows none but savage ways and a quote to help my statement is “A prodigious man slept in this cave alones, and took his flocks to graze afield-remote from all companions knowing none but savage ways a brute so huge”(580)Homer. The monster archetype can be anything that you fear. The monster can also be anything that is a bad temptation. A quote from the story to help my thesis is “ the sirens who lure sailors to their destruction;the wandering rocks, sea rocks that even destroy seabirds at flight”(580)Homer. The sirens can stand for temptation and temptation is not always good. Sometimes, monsters can come when you have two decisions and neither one is a good choice but you have to choose and this is an example of my statement “The perils of the sea monster Scylia and nearby, the whirlpool charybdis”(580)Homer. Both decision can be bad but you still have to choose and it will have consequences. I know a similar situation is with popularity, you do the wrong things to be popular and get in trouble for it or not do it and be left out. Now do think this was so easy for Odysseus? He had to have a damsel in distress to save to become the hero, or should I say, damsels’ in distress.

Thousands of years ago, the ancient Greek civilization had a god for everything that they could have thought of. One such god was Poseidon. Poseidon was the god of the sea and horses (Gil). Symbols that represented Poseidon included the trident and dolphin(Gil). He became one of the most well known of the gods because of his fierce temper and his adulterous ways. Poseidon was also part of many battles, such as the Trojan Wars. (Poseidon: Greek) He also caused many hardships for Odysseus as he returned home from the war.(Gall 49). Poseidon was a lustful (Gall 48) being who showed signs of violence and was also known to hold fierce grudges against those who wronged him (Poseidon).

The way he had tortured the suitors was appalling, there are a multitude of graphic examples in the Penelopiad. “ Odysseus and Telemachus hacked off the ears and nose and hands and feet and genitals of Melanthius the evil goatherd and threw them to the dogs, paying no attention to the poor man’s agonized screams.” (23). This exemplifies bie, a Greek value that means “violent might or brute

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

In fact, he was quite the opposite. When the monster was first created, he was curious and just wanted to learn. Not quite aware of how malicious he really looked, he traveled to a nearby village. "The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel, quite bare, and making a wretched appearance after the palaces I had beheld in the village." (74) When he entered the village, due to his physical appearance, the women fainted and the children screamed in terror. This monster, though, was not a cruel being. He was, in fact, looking for food, and for companionship, something nearly every living creature has in life. Whether it is the lifelong mate of a swan or a pod of dolphins swimming in the wild, all creatures have the universal need for companionship. So ultimately, when the monster was rejected because of the villagers perceived him, the understanding and feeling of isolation started to form within

When the creature notices what he is capable of doing, he begins to enjoy the power he has over regular people, “I gazed on my victim and my heart swelled with exultation,” (Shelley, 144). The creature, at first, does not want to commit crimes or hurt people, he is only looking for friendship, but if he gets upset or someone insults him, he will lose control and will do anything to make them feel the same way, even if that means inflicting physical pain on others. As the story goes on, he begins to realize and know the difference between right and wrong, which can make the readers not feel bad for him because he notices what he is doing and it is considered immoral.

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.

Overall, I enjoyed the reading. I admire how the author put his readers into a different perspective on this Greek myth. To see how the minotaur lived in the labyrinth before Theseus came

When we first meet the creature (truly meet him, that is), he shows his intelligence through speech. One must certainly expect him to be a drooling, dumb and violent creature, but he is, in fact, quite the opposite. He is violent, yes, but he does not show his violent physical side unless provoked to anger. More often than not the creature is full of self pity, cursing his existence and his creator for

In The Odyssey, there are both divine and mortal villains. Poseidon, the God of the sea and earthquakes, is the divine vengeful villain archetype that goes against Odysseus. Once Odysseus won the Trojan War, he boasted to the gods that he did it by himself and did not require their assistance. However, Poseidon had helped them win and strongly disliked the idea of a mortal thinking that he was more powerful than him. This is when the grudge began. When Athena is asking Zeus for permission to have Odysseus returned home, he says, “Only the god who laps the land in water bears the fighter a grudge” (Homer 3) and that “buffets him away from home” (Homer 3). The sea god has been withholding Odysseus from his home for ten years after the war because he is angry with his actions of excessive pride. The other reason that Poseidon is out for vengeance is because Odysseus blinded Poseidon’s son, Polyphemus, and proceeded to brag once again about how he was invincible. Polyphemus then proceeded to invoke his father’s power, yelling out, “Hear me, Poseidon who circle the earth, dark-haired. If truly I am your son, and you acknowledge yourself as my father, grant that Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes, who makes his home in Ithaka, may never reach that home,” (Homer 249) and it is then that Poseidon becomes one of Odysseus’s true antagonists in the story. He only lets up in his efforts when Zeus

Several monsters such as the Minotaur, Medusa, and centaurs appear to be partially human. These monsters have human characteristics because the gods decided to create them that way. The Minotaur has the head of a bull with the body of a man. He was born as the offspring of Minos’ wife and a beautiful white bull sent by Poseidon (Hamilton 157). Poseidon forced Minos’ wife to love the bull. Their offspring was the

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