Here Minotaur’s legend comes alive

Ranjita Biswas

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Those familiar with Greek mythology would immediately perk up at the mention of Crete on the Aegean Sea. For, it is related to one of the most ferocious mythical monsters, the Minotaur. Half man and half bull, he devoured prisoners let loose by powerful King Minos in a labyrinth. Crete is Greece’s largest island and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. The Minoan culture is said to have flourished during the Bronze Age (approximately between 3650 BC and 1400 BC) as the dawn of the European civilisation.

History and myth merge together in the imagery of Minotaur. At the excavation site of Knossos, the palace complex of King Minos, near Heraklion, Crete’s capital, his legend came alive.

As the story goes, Minotaur was born to Pasiphae, wife of King Minos, through cohabitation with a bull due to a curse by Zeus, supreme god. He grew huge and ferocious. The embarrassed Minos hid the monster in a labyrinth built by architect Daedalus at his orders.

Meanwhile, Androgeus, the Minoan prince went to Athens to participate in the Panathenaic Games. He won all races but jealous competitors killed him. Minos attacked Athens, won and cursed the inhabitants with an onset of plague. Begged by the king Aegeus, he demanded that seven men and seven virgins were sent every year.

According to the myth, Minos sent them to the labyrinth so that the Minotaur could kill them. It was such a complicated construction that no one could ever find the way out alive.

In the third year, prince Theseus, son of Aegeus, volunteered to be one of the seven young men on way to Crete. He promised to kill the Minotaur and end the human sacrifices.

On arrival, Theseus announced to King Minos his intention, but the king knew that even if he managed to kill the Minotaur, he would never be able to exit the labyrinth.

Meanwhile, Theseus met princess Ariadne, the king’s daughter, who fell in love with him. To help him come out alive, she gave Theseus a reel of thread and told him to unravel it as he would penetrate deeper into the labyrinth, and could return safely by tracing the thread.

Theseus followed the instructions, managed to kill the Minotaur and save the Athenians. He sailed back, taking Ariadne along with him.

There is another sub-plot to the story. Enraged, king Minos sentenced to death Daedalus, who he believed helped his daughter, and his son Icarus. Escaping at the nick of time both tried to jump down from the precipice of a hill ‘flying’. But young Icarus did not listen to his father: ‘Fly not too low, not too high’. He flew too high and the wax that held together the wings melted and he fell to death. Myth though it is Icarus remains a symbol of man’s eternal wish to fly like birds.

The pottery, jewellery , paintings recovered during the excavation of Knossos showcase a highly developed culture that later influenced the Greek civilisation. Some of these can be seen at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum and the Archaeological Museum in Athens. The presence of the bull head (rhyton) in various artefacts is remarkable.

A historical explanation of the myth refers to the time when Crete was the main political and cultural power in the Aegean Sea. As the vassal Athens and other Greek cities had to pay tribute to Crete, it can be assumed that it also included young men and women for sacrifice. This ceremony was performed by a priest disguised with a bull head or mask, thus explaining the imagery of the Minotaur.

Later, the fight of Theseus and the Minotaur was a popular subject for art as, experts point out, the myth embodies the basic struggle between the natural and unnatural or the civilised versus the uncivilised, which is a common theme in many Greek artistic representations.