The Myths of Crete

Crete, though not traditionally considered a part of ancient Greece, plays a significant role in the history of the Grecian mainland and its associated islands. Cretan myth, in addition, is very closely bound with Greek myth, especially Athenian Mythology. I have always found Cretan myth, and the overlapping Athenian myths,  very interesting and, in fact, the particular story of the Minotaur was one of the tales which, like so many river nymphs did to so many heroes, grabbed me without warning and dragged me down to the wonderful depths of classical mythology.

The Palace Complex at Knossos, near Modern Heraklion, Crete

As princes of Crete, Minos and his brother Rhadamanthus fight for the throne. Minos asks Poseidon to send him a bull if it is divine will that he and not his brother should rule. He promises to sacrifice the bull back to Poseidon if it is indeed sent. Poseidon obliges and at the appearance of the divine bull, Minos is crowned King. However, he reneges on his promise to sacrifice the bull. He is enamoured by the bull's beauty and desires it for himself. So he sacrifices another bull in its stead. In anger, Poseidon makes Minos' wife Pasiphae lust for the bull. Easily bent by the god's will, Pasiphae desires the bull more than anything else. She summons the Athenian engineer Daedalus to devise a contraption by which she could copulate with Poseidon's bull. Of this union is born the Minotaur: half bull and half human. Minos now commissions Daedalus to engineer a home for the Minotaur from which the beast could not escape. Daedalus builds the famed Labyrinth of Knossos to keep the Minotaur captive. Now this is where Athens comes in. Minos' son had gone to Athens to participate in an athletic contest and there he was accidentally killed. To avenge his son's death, Minos laid siege to, and captured, the city of Athens and forced the King, Aegeus, to vow to send over 7 youths and 7 maidens to Knossos every 9 years to sacrifice to the Minotaur. Aegeus was compelled to agree lest his city be destroyed. So every 9 years, Athens lost 7 youths and 7 maidens to the Minotaur. It just so happened that the year Theseus came to Athens was a year in which the sacrifice was to be made. Immediately upon hearing about it, Theseus volunteered to be among the unfortunate youths and maidens chosen to travel to Knossos. He planned to free his people from this burden by killing the Minotaur and removing the need for such a sacrifice. From the time he landed at Knossos, the gods were on his side. Aphrodite made Minos' daughter Ariadne fall deeply and irrevocably in love with Theseus (probably via Eros) and Theseus was able to use Ariadne's knowledge and connections in Knossos to plan his success and escape. Ariadne learned through Daedalus that Theseus could escape from the Labyrinth by carrying with him a ball of string which he would unroll as he went along into the maze thus marking his way out to safety. 

Theseus Slaying the Minotaur

Armed with this ingenious exit strategy, Theseus entered the Labyrinth, slayed the Minotaur with his bare hands, and escaped using Ariadne's string. Then he, along with Ariadne and the other Athenians crept to their ship and sailed homeward. On the way, Ariadne was somehow abandoned on the island of Naxos. There are divergent myths about how this came to pass. Some say that Theseus never loved Ariadne and had used her and, when he had no more need of her, he had abandoned her on purpose. Others say that Ariadne had gone ashore on Naxos to collect supplies while Theseus and the crew fixed the mast when a squall of wind blew the ship away from the island and a storm prevented the Athenians from finding their way back. However, both these versions agree that Ariadne was rescued by the god Dionysus who fell in love with her, married her, and took her with him to Olympus. Little remains to be said about Theseus' return journey except the tale of Aegeus' death. When Theseus had first set out for Crete, Aegeus had made him promise that he would change the ship's black sail to a white one on the return trip if his journey had been successful. Now whether because of his grief at abandoning Ariadne or simple forgetfulness, Theseus forgot to fulfil his father's wish and Aegeus, upon seeing the ship's black sail from behind the Parthenon, threw himself from the Acropolis in his grief at losing his son. The sea into which he fell has been known as the Aegean sea ever since.