S2E1 - Theseus and the Minotaur

The stories featured in Greaking Out are original adaptations of classic Greek myths.

This week's story features many improper coping mechanisms for grief, including competing with your siblings for supremacy, imprisoning your own son, demanding tribute from neighbors in the form of their children, improper use of mazes, and throwing yourself into the sea.

There's also a scary Minotaur, so listen with the lights on.

Listen and you'll see it spread

out.

Theseus and the Minotaur

This is the story of a monster, but it's also a story about two kings, a clever princess, and a brave hero.

It's the story of a deep, dark maze called the labyrinth.

But let's start with the monster because like most monsters in Greek mythology, there's a lot more to it than just angry claws and teeth and horns.

The word monster comes from the Latin word monere,

meaning to warn.

From it, we also get demonstrate, monument, and summon.

The story of the Minotaur and the Maze begins on the Greek island of Crete, one of the most famous places in ancient Greece, and it was ruled by a kindly man named Asterion.

He had three sons: Minos,

Sarpedon, and Radamanthus.

What's up?

And when he passed away, all three of them wanted to be king.

And when they argued over who would make the best ruler, Minos made an outrageous claim.

He said that he should be named king because he had a special relationship with the Olympian gods and could get favors from them.

Also, the word Minos actually means king in the Cretan language.

Well, I'm sure that didn't hurt either, but it was really the god connection that tipped the scales towards Minos.

Sarpedon and Radamanthus demanded proof, so Minos announced that he would make a great bull rise from the ocean.

This was a pretty wild thing to say.

I mean, have you ever seen a bull swim?

Actually, most cows and bulls are very adept swimmers.

Many can swim hundreds of yards at a time without resting.

Okay, fine.

Maybe you have then.

Also, cows chew for about eight hours per day, and they can see nearly 360 degrees.

Interesting, but they don't typically rise out of the ocean.

It would definitely prove Minos was favored by the gods.

So Minos prayed to Poseidon, the god of the sea, promising to make a large sacrifice to the god if he would only grant this one request to show up Minos brothers.

When a massive white bull rose from the waves of the sea and presented itself to Minos, Radamanthus and Sarpedon had to admit that it was pretty impressive.

They agreed that Minos should become ruler of Crete, and in return, he immediately banished his brothers from the island forever.

And he did not fulfill his vow to Poseidon.

Did he learn nothing from our episode about Arachne?

Right?

It's one thing to be rude to your brothers.

It's entirely another thing to deliberately anger the gods.

Poseidon was furious about the lack of respect Minos showed for him, so he decided to take revenge.

Instead of acting against King Minos directly, Poseidon cursed his wife, Queen Pasiphae, so that their first son was born a monster, a wild, snarling creature with the head and tail of a bull.

King Minos was devastated.

Pasiphae tried her best to raise the baby.

She even named him Asterion after his grandfather.

But as he grew, he became ferocious and dangerous.

He even started attacking people.

In order to keep the creature called the Minotaur away from the people of Crete, King Minos commanded the famous builder Daedalus to create a giant maze for him to live in.

They called that maze the labyrinth and it became a legend across all of the Greek isles.

Daedalus was a skillful architect, craftsman, and artist and Icarus was his son.

They have their own famous adventures in Greek mythology.

Yes, they do, but that's another story for another time.

Meanwhile, back in the palace, life returned to normal.

Minos and Pasive had another son named Androgias, and he was delightfully heroic.

Smart, strong, and athletic, he even volunteered to represent the country of Crete in Athens at the Panathenaic Games.

The Panathenaic Games were held every four years in Athens, a city-state in ancient Greece.

The events incorporated religious festivals, athletic competitions, and cultural events, and are considered to be the basis of our modern Olympic Games.

Unfortunately, the games did not go well for Team Crete.

In fact, they were a disaster.

During one of the competitions, Androgias was accidentally killed and the Cretians were devastated.

In a weird coincidence, Androgias was killed by a bull.

Kind of ironic, right?

Actually, irony is a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects.

The ancient Greeks used dramatic irony as a plot device in their plays.

His death was just bad luck.

Well, as you might expect, King Minos was upset.

Even though it was clearly an accident, Minos demanded revenge for the death of his son and he threatened to go to war with Athens.

King Aegeus of Athens was a wise ruler, and he felt terrible for what had happened.

He also knew that his navy was no match for the ships and soldiers from Crete.

He desperately wanted to avoid a war, so he sent a message to Minos to see if there was any kind of tribute or offering that Athens could provide instead.

This got Minos thinking about the Minotaur.

So he told the king of Athens that if he would send seven boys and seven girls to Crete every year for him to feed to the creature, then he would not attack the city of Athens.

For three long years, the Athenians sent seven boys and seven girls to the island of Crete, where they would be set loose in the maze with the Minotaur.

It was nearly impossible not to get lost in there, so the Minotaur would always find them somewhere deep in the labyrinth.

If you are ever trapped in a maze, experts today recommend the method of wall following for escaping most standard mazes.

Essentially, you place one hand on a wall of the maze and then keep walking.

Eventually, you will get out.

Hey, Oracle, are a maze and a labyrinth the same thing?

While most might say yes, many experts maintain that a labyrinth contains only one path, often spiraling around and folding back on itself, while a maze contains branching paths, presenting the explorer with choices.

Well, they both sound complicated, and for our purposes, let's just think of a maze.

It makes the story better.

So we've got a monster.

We've got a man grieving for his favorite son.

And we've got the young people of Athens heading to a weirdly complicated death.

I don't know about you, but I think our story could use a hero right about now.

Maybe a handsome, wise, and clever prince type?

Enter Theseus, son of Aegis and heir to the throne of Athens.

After two years of seeing his people suffer, Theseus decided that he had to do something to put a stop to this, and it seemed seemed the only way to do it would be to kill the Minotaur.

Theseus told his father that he was going to volunteer to be one of the seven young men that were sent to Crete next year.

He believed that if he killed the Minotaur, the sacrifices would have to stop.

So he trained for a year, preparing himself to fight in the dark with a sword and a shield or with his bare hands.

When the time came to set sail for Crete, he was as ready as he could ever be.

Today, flying is the quickest way to get from Crete to Athens.

The trip will take about 55 minutes.

You can also travel by ferry across the Mediterranean Sea.

This takes about five hours.

Well, back in the day, this journey would take about a day, depending upon the wind and the weather.

King Aegis begged his son one last time not to go, but Theseus was determined.

To set his father's mind at ease at least a little, Theseus promised to switch the colors of his ship's sails to white if he came back victorious.

If he failed, the ship's sails would stay black.

This way, King Aegis would know the news the minute he saw the ship on the horizon.

When Theseus and the other Athenians landed at the port of Crete, they were greeted by King Minos himself.

He looked over the group of scared teenagers before him, but stopped when he got to Theseus.

And who might you be?

Minas asked.

Why do you not cower and beg like the others?

I am Theseus, he replied, seventh son of King Aegis of Athens.

I will enter your maze and slay the monster within.

I am not afraid.

Minos was impressed.

You mean Aegis has sent his own son to meet the Minotaur?

Does he really think you can kill my Minotaur in the labyrinth?

Theseus told him that he did.

and Minos roared with laughter, encouraging all of his soldiers and courtiers to join in.

Soon everyone was laughing at Theseus, all except one person.

Theseus could see her from the corner of his eyes as he stared straight ahead, absorbing the jeers from Minos and his cronies.

She was Ariadne, princess of Crete.

She looked like her father, but had the quick brain and compassion of her mother.

She felt horrible for Theseus and the Athenians, and she admired his bravery and his determination.

King Minos seemed to admire Theseus a bit as well, because he made a deal with the young prince.

Very well, your highness, the king sneered.

I will make you this bargain.

If you manage to slay the Minotaur and escape the labyrinth, I will let you and your friends return to your home unharmed.

And you will no longer demand tribute from Athens?

Theseus asked.

There was a pause as Minos considered this.

He was still hurting from the death of his heroic son, and people who are hurting sometimes just want to hurt other people.

King Minos still had some hurting to do, and he didn't want to give in so easily, but what could one scrawny human do against his minotaur?

Even if he got lucky and killed the beast, he would certainly be lost in the labyrinth forever.

Agreed, said Minos, and Theseus allowed himself a small, satisfied smile.

It was only there for an instant, but Ariadne noticed.

They go into the labyrinth at dawn tomorrow, the king decreed, and the crowd dispersed as the soldiers began to escort Theseus and the Athenians to their cell for the night.

They spent the night in a large cell, like a cage with a wall of iron bars and a dirt floor.

While the others went to sleep, Theseus stood guard, thinking about his upcoming fight.

In the darkest part of the night, he looked up from his thoughts and saw a familiar face looking at him from the other side of the bars.

It was the girl from the docks this morning, the only one who hadn't laughed at him.

I am Ariadne, she said, daughter of Minos, and I am here to help you.

Theseus and Ariadne talked all through the rest of the night.

She was curious about this handsome stranger, and she confessed to him that she longed to leave Crete and her father behind and start a new life somewhere else.

So they made a bargain of their own.

If Ariadne helped Theseus defeat the Minotaur, he would take her back to Athens with him.

A bargain is an agreement between two or more parties as to what each party will do for the other.

In Greek mythology, if you make a bargain, you better stick to it.

The next morning, as the first rays of the sun were beginning to break through, the soldiers roused the Athenians and pulled them from their cell, marching them to the entrance of a labyrinth.

A wooden door stood open before a long, dark tunnel that led into the side of a mountain.

A crowd had gathered to witness the party of Athenians marching towards certain doom.

As they made their way to the entrance, Ariadne stepped out from the crowd and spoke briefly to Theseus.

Just inside the door, she said, there's a sword and a large ball of yarn.

Use them well.

And with that, she melted back into the crowd, and Theseus and the other Athenian youth were forced inside the labyrinth.

The door closed, and their world became blackness.

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Theseus felt around on the ground just inside the door and after a few seconds of fumbling found the hilt of the sword and the soft ball of yarn.

He could feel that one side of the yarn led outside the labyrinth doors.

He tugged on it gently and heard someone say softly from the other side, I'll hold this in.

Follow the yarn back so you don't get lost.

He gave another gentle tug of the yarn so she'd know he'd heard and told the other boys and girls to wait for him.

Slowly, One step at a time, Theseus began to make his way down the dark hall into the labyrinth, letting the string out behind him as he went.

The world's largest ball of twine is in Cocker City, Kansas.

It presently measures more than 41 feet around, is almost 11 feet tall, and contains more than 8 million feet of twine.

It was a long walk in the dark.

It was more than dark, actually.

It was complete blackness.

Not a single sliver of light made its way into the deep tunnels of the labyrinth, but Theseus Theseus kept going.

There were curves and turns and a couple of dead ends where he had to turn around, but Theseus was always able to find his way.

When he got stuck, he was able to follow the yarn Ariadne was patiently holding back a little bit and write his course, moving deeper and deeper into the maze.

After what seemed like hours, Theseus stopped to rest.

He leaned his back against the wall and sat for a second in the darkness, thinking and listening.

After a moment or two, he thought he heard a noise.

Perhaps not.

Maybe his ears were just playing tricks on him.

Things sound different in the dark.

This is very true.

Sound waves travel differently during the night than they do in the day.

In the day, the sound bends away from the ground.

During the night, it bends towards the ground.

You actually have more sound reaching you at night than during the day.

But then Theseus heard it again.

It was a sniffing, snorting kind of sound, and it was slowly getting louder.

After a few moments, Theseus thought he could hear footsteps.

He stood up.

He grabbed the sword, listening hard for more sounds.

There were definitely footsteps, and now the sniffing sounded more like heavy breathing.

Theseus had never met a Minotaur before, but he imagined this is what one sounded like.

But which way was it coming from?

Theseus had pushed himself back against one of the walls of the tunnel, so he knew the Minotaur had to be coming from either the left or the right.

But which one?

The steps grew louder and faster, and the breathing was almost like a growl now.

Theseus snapped his head back and forth from left to right, trying to see something, anything in the darkness that would let him know where the creature was.

The breathing was loud now.

The Minotaur was near, when suddenly

the footsteps stopped.

The raspy, deep huffing of the Minotaur's breath filled the hall.

He was waiting, sniffing the air, hunting Theseus.

And Theseus had no idea which way to turn to face him.

He was so scared he could barely move, but he knew he had to do something.

As he nervously shuffled his feet a bit, his foot encountered a few small pebbles on the ground.

And this gave him an idea.

He took a pebble and he threw it down the dark tunnel to his left.

He heard nothing but the clackety clackety clack of the small rock bouncing and rolling.

So he tried again, this time throwing a pebble to his right.

There was a soft thud and then a terrible roar.

Well, that solves that, thought Theseus to himself.

An instant later, the Minotaur charged.

Fast, heavy footsteps and a bellow of rage bearing down on Theseus.

He only had a second to react.

Unable to see anything, Theseus pressed his back even closer to the wall and swung blindly with his sword, waving and chopping, hoping to make contact with something.

And he did.

Theseus heard a loud snap.

and then a roar of outrage.

And then the Minotaur was upon him, slamming Theseus and flinging him into the air.

He landed hard on the floor of the tunnel.

His sword had been knocked from his hand.

He could hear it clanging as it hit the ground somewhere nearby.

He rolled towards it just as the creature attacked again.

Theseus could feel its massive legs stomping the ground where he lay only a second ago.

He scrambled for the sword, fumbling in the dark, feeling around for the touch of steel when his hand felt something hard and pointy.

It wasn't his sword.

Maybe a stick?

No, it was a horn.

Theseus had broken off one of the Minotaur's horns with his sword.

But it didn't matter.

He was out of time.

As the Minotaur turned and pounced on him, Theseus did the only thing he could do.

He thrust the horn forward with all his might and the beast fell upon it, piercing himself through the heart and collapsing dead upon the Prince of Athens.

A cow's horn is made of hard dermal bone, covered by a thin layer of skin.

and keratinized cells.

Unlike the antlers of a deer, horns do not shed or grow back, but they are much harder to break.

Theseus managed to pull himself out from under the body of the beast and, once he was sure it was dead, began to feel around for the sword.

He was almost giddy with relief.

He had done it!

He had killed the Minotaur!

Athens was free of its debt.

All he had to do now was follow the yarn back to Ariadne through the labyrinth, and he was

wait,

where was the yarn?

He didn't have have the yarn.

In all of the chaos and commotion with the Minotaur, Theseus had dropped the ball of yarn.

If he didn't find it, he would be trapped in the maze forever.

Theseus fought the urge to panic.

It was still pitch black in the labyrinth.

Theseus didn't know where he was or where he should go.

So he prayed to the gods for help.

He took a deep breath and thought about what he did know.

He knew where the wall was.

He knew which direction the creature had come from.

So, very slowly, Theseus made his way back to the wall, crawling on all fours, feeling around on the ground.

Once he found the wall, he headed left, away from where the Minotaur had come from.

Keeping his hand on the wall, Theseus slowly retraced his steps one by one until his foot touched something soft.

He reached down and found the ball of yarn.

See, what did I tell you about the wall thing?

Did I call it or did I call it?

Yes, you were right.

You called that.

You know, these stories would be a lot shorter if people would just listen to the oracle more often.

Yeah, you're probably right about that too, but at least things are looking up for our hero.

He gave the yarn a gentle tug and felt Ariadne give a tug back.

She'd kept her promise and was still standing at the door, holding the other side.

Theseus retraced his steps back to the front of the labyrinth and joined the other Athenians.

He knocked loudly on the doors and in a few short moments he heard the locks turning and the doors slowly opened.

There was Ariadne ready to help them make their escape.

They had spent nearly an entire day in the maze and Ariadne had been at the door the whole time holding the yarn.

Theseus wanted to wake King Minos and make him acknowledge the bargain was complete, but Ariadne knew her father and she knew that was a bad idea.

This time, darkness was a friend and the Athenians were able to make it to the docks without anyone even realizing they were gone.

It would be hours later when some soldiers would notice the door to the labyrinth standing open.

King Minos let out a scream of anguish and frustration that would have made the Minotaur cower in fear.

Since it was night, The Athenians decided not to sail all the way back to Athens in one day.

They stopped on the island of Naxos and had a great feast.

Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades island group in Greece.

Its fertile landscape spans mountain villages, ancient ruins, and long stretches of beach.

According to Greek mythology, this was where Zeus lived when he was a baby.

The morning after the feast, Theseus and the Athenians decided they wanted to get back home in a hurry.

They had slept longer than expected, so they packed up the ship quickly and set sail for Athens.

It was hours later when Theseus wondered where Ariadne was.

He realized they had left her behind.

She had fallen asleep on the beach and didn't wake up with the others.

Everyone was in such a hurry, they didn't realize she wasn't aboard.

Some say it was a mistake, but some say he did it on purpose.

What?

Wait, why?

I mean, isn't he supposed to be the hero of the story?

Just because he did something great doesn't make him a great person.

But they made a bargain.

And Theseus broke that bargain.

Well, I guess he did.

Whether it was a mistake or not, bargains are serious things in Greek mythology.

Maybe Theseus was just careless, or maybe the gods made him careless, but either way, because he left Ariadne on Naxos, Theseus forgot his promise to his father and did not change the sails from black to white while sailing home.

King Aegis of Athens saw the ship returning with black sails, and he thought that could only mean that the mission had failed and that his son was dead.

He was so upset over the loss of his son that he threw himself from the cliffs into the sea below.

Ever since, that body of water has been known as the Aegean Sea.

Theseus returned home and assumed the throne of Athens and had many other adventures.

Meanwhile, the labyrinth on Crete remained empty.

Athens no longer had to offer tribute to King Minos.

They spent the next few years building ships and training sailors until their navy was the most respected fleet of ships in all of Greece.

As for Ariadne, she woke up alone on the island of Naxos, understandably mad.

But she couldn't just text Theseus to figure out what happened, so she made the best of it.

making a good life for herself on the island because she was smart and had lived through worse things.

One day, she met and fell in love with a handsome stranger named Dionysus.

He turned out to be a god and they loved each other dearly, so

I'd call that a win.

Exactly.

Greaking Out.

Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Greaking Out.

Stay tuned for next week's episode about a pair of star-crossed lovers.

National Geographic Kids Greaking Out is written and hosted by Kenny Curtis, with Tori Kerr as the oracle of Wi-Fi, audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam, Diane Klein is our expert researcher, and Perry Gripp composed our themes.

Emily Everhart is our production manager.