THE MYTH OF THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR

King Minos of Crete would imprison his enemies in the Labyrinth so that the Minotaur could eat them. So, every year Aegeus, the king of Athens had to send seven young men and women to be sacrificed to the Minotaur as debt for the death of King Mino’s son. Theseus, son of Aegeus decided to be one of the seven young men that would go to Crete, in order to kill the Minotaur. Theseus promised his father that coming back from Crete he would put up white sails, allowing him to know in advance that he was coming back alive. The boat would return with black sails if Theseus was killed. After arriving to Crete, Theseus announced to King Minos that he was going to kill the Monster, but King Minos knew that even if he did manage to kill the Minotaur, Theseus would never be able to exit the Labyrinth. Then, Theseus met Princess Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, who fell madly in love with him and decided to help him. She gave him a ball of thread and told him to unravel it as he would penetrate deeper and deeper into the Labyrinth, so that he would know his way out after having killed the monster. Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur and save the Athenians, and with Ariadne’s thread he managed to retrace his way out. Theseus took Princess Ariadne with him and left Crete sailing happily back to Athens. Theseus was so happy that he forgot to change the sails to white so King Aegeus who was waiting at Cape Sounion to see the sails of the boat saw the black sails from afar and presumed his son was dead. He then jumped into the water and was lost into the sea. Since then, this sea is called the Aegean Sea. After the death of his father, Theseus became the king of Athens. Up to this day he has been remembered as one of the greatest kings.