{"id":105,"date":"2019-10-11T15:09:10","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T15:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/story.chandamama.in\/story\/?p=105"},"modified":"2020-02-05T16:52:30","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T16:52:30","slug":"theseus-and-the-minotaur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/2019\/10\/11\/theseus-and-the-minotaur\/","title":{"rendered":"Theseus and the Minotaur"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

Later on, when Minos\u2019s son Androgeus was killed by the Athenians, King Minos blamed the Athenians for the death of his only human son and for the destruction of his family line. He sailed against the Athenians and harassed them until they agreed to pay the price for his son’s death. King Minos demanded that Athens pay a tribute to Crete of seven maidens and seven youths every nine years. Reluctantly, the Athenians\u00a0submitted to Minos’ terms and King Minos returned to Crete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third year, Theseus, son of Aegeus\ndecided to be one of the seven young men that would go to Crete, in order to\nkill the Minotaur and end the human sacrifices to the monster. King Aegeus\ntried to make him change his mind but Theseus was determined to slay the\nMinotaur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theseus promised his father that he would put up white sails\ncoming back from Crete, allowing him to know in advance that he was coming back\nalive. The boat would return with the black sails if Theseus was killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the prince and the children\narrived on the island of Crete, King Minos and his daughters, the Princess\nAriadne and Phaedra, came out to greet them. The both Princesses fell madly in\nlove with him, who fell in love with him. Unable to cope with Theseus being\neaten by her half-brother the Minotaur, she decided to help Theseus. Late that\nnight, Ariadne went to Daedalus for help. She begged the craftsman to tell her\nhow one could escape from his Labyrinth. Once he had told her, she wrote Prince\nTheseus a note and slipped it under his bedroom door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Theseus (Ariadne wrote)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without my help, the Minotaur will surely gobble you up. I\nknow a trick that will save your life. If I help you kill the monster, you must\npromise to take me away from this island and marry me. If interested in this\ndeal, meet me by the gate to the Labyrinth in one hour.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yours very truly,
\nPrincess Ariadne<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prince Theseus\nslipped out of the palace and waited patiently by the gate. Princess Ariadne\nfinally showed up. In her hands, she carried a sword and a ball of string.\nAriadne gave the sword and the ball of string to Prince Theseus. “Hide\nthese inside the entrance to the maze. Tomorrow, when you and the other children from Athens enter the Labyrinth, wait until\nthe gate is closed, then tie the string to the door. Unroll it as you move\nthrough the maze. That way, you can find your way back again. The sword, well,\nyou know what to do with the sword,” she laughed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theseus thanked the princess for her kindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Don’t forget, now,” she cautioned Theseus. \u201cYou\nmust take me with you so that we can get married.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, the Athenian\nchildren, including Prince Theseus, were shoved into the maze. The door was\nlocked firmly behind them. Following Ariadne’s directions, Theseus tied one end\nof the string to the door. He told the children to stay by the door and to make\nsure the string stayed tied so the prince could find his way back again. The\nchildren hung on to the string tightly, as Theseus entered the maze alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the sword Ariadne had given him, Theseus killed the\nmonstrous beast. He followed the string back and knocked on the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Princess Ariadne opened the door. Without anyone noticing,\nPrince Theseus and the children of Athens ran to their ship and sailed quietly\naway along with Ariadne and Phaedra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the journey home, they stopped for\nsupplies on the tiny island of Naxos. Princess Ariadne insisted on coming\nashore. There was nothing much to do on the island. Soon, she fell asleep. All\nthe people gathered to admire the sleeping princess. Theseus continues to sail\nto Athens with his intended wife, Phaedra and the children of Athens and left\nher there, sleeping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nNaxos, Ariadne reflects on her actions and naivety of assisting with her\nbrother’s murder (the Minotaur) for Theseus, who she thought would marry her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theseus is overjoyed to be almost home with his new wife Phaedra but absent-mindlessly forgets to change the color of his sails from black to white. His father, King Aegeus, seeing the black sails from afar is overcome with grief and kills himself by jumping off a cliff into the sea. It is this act explains the origin name of the Aegean Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>Later on, when Minos\u2019s son Androgeus was killed by the Athenians, King Minos blamed the Athenians for the death of his only human son and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,6,17,19,20,24,29,30],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","tag-aegan","tag-ariadne","tag-labyrinth","tag-minos","tag-minotaur","tag-phaedra","tag-theseus","tag-theseus-and-minotaur"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chandamama.in\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}