Theseus and Minotaur

Minos was the king who ruled the kingdom of Crete. Pasiphae was Minos's wife. One of the children of Minos and Pasiphae was Androgeus.

Androgeus participated in the Panathenaic Games. The Panathenaic games were held in Athens in ancient Greece. There were many competitions held in the Panathenaic Games like Musical, Equestrian and Athletic competitions.

Androgeus won many of these competitions.

This made the Athenians jealous of Androgeus. So the Athenians ambushed and killed Androgeus.

When Minos heard about the death of his son he was overcome with grief.

He led an attack against Athenians.

Then he also prayed to Zeus, the Greek God of the Skies and thunder who was the King of Gods, that the Athenians should be punished for their evil deeds.

Because of this the city of Athens was hit by famine.

Wanting to know how they could get over the curse of Zeus, the citizens of Athens approached the Oracle twice. (The Oracle of Delphi was considered powerful among the Greeks. It was believed that the Oracle could look into the future and make prophecies.)

The second time the Oracle directed the Athenians to give Minos anything that he wanted as revenge.

Minos wanted the Athenians to send seven men and seven girls on a ship to Crete, once every seven years, and these people would never be seen again.



Among the Greeks it was also believed that Daedalus was a skillful architect.

The labyrinth was a complex structure constructed by Daedalus for king Minos to imprison the Minotaur.

The Minotaur was a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man.

It was believed that king Minos sent the fourteen Athenians to the labyrinth so that they would be killed by the Minotaur.



Theseus was the son of Aegeus the king of Athens.

The third time that the Athenians sent a group of fourteen young men and women to Crete, Theseus insisted that he wanted to be a part of the group.



King Minos had a daughter called Ariadne.

Ariadne fell in love with Theseus soon as he landed in Crete.

So Ariadne taught Theseus the secret behind the labyrinth - go forward and down and never to the left and right. She also gave Theseus a ball of thread so that he could find his way out of the labyrinth.

Theseus kept a sword hidden in his tunic and made sure that the Crete soldiers who guarded the labyrinth did not find it.

As soon as Theseus entered the labyrinth he tied one end of the thread to the doorpost of the structure.

Following Ariadne's instructions, Theseus was able to come to the heart of the labyrinth.

There he found the sleeping Minotaur.

A huge battle took place between Theseus and the Minotaur and finally Theseus beheaded the Minotaur.

Theseus used the ball of string and came out of the labyrinth. He was able to help the other young Athenians to come out of the labyrinth as well.

After this he took all the Athenians and Ariadne and Ariadne’s younger sister Phaedra and escaped Crete by ship.

(Minos wanted the Athenians to send seven young men and seven young women, once every seven solar cycles. This period could be seven or nine normal years.)

Adapted from Greek mythology