It goes back a lot further than you might think.

Theseus and the Minotaur

Pretty much everyone is familiar with the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. If you’re not, here’s a very quick recap.

King Minos has a wife called Pasiphae. Minos is supposed to sacrifice a rare white bull to Poseidon, God of the Sea. However, he decides to keep it for himself. Poseidon is not happy (to put it mildly) and curses Minos’ wife Pasiphae to sexually desire a bull.

We’ll not get into the details but she has Daedalus build her a cow suit which she climbs inside of to… Well I’m sure you can imagine. She becomes pregnant and gives birth to a hideous half man, half beast. The child is unfortunately more beast than man and begins killing people.

So King Mino has Daedalus build a labyrinth to house the Minotaur in. As you do.

As an aside, King Mino then has Daedalus imprisoned in a tower for his role in the cow suit and to keep the labyrinth a secret. He and his son Icarus try to escape by making wings. Icarus flies too close to the sun. The wax holding the wings together melts and he plunges to his death. Yeah, that Icarus.

Back to the story. King Minos has another son, Androgeus, who was killed by Athenians. So he demands they send him people he can sacrifice to the Minotaur.

Prince Theseus of Athens

Understandably, the people of Athens aren’t happy about this arrangement. So Prince Theseus of Athens is sent to kill the Minotaur. However, the labyrinth is impossible to escape from. Plucky old Theseus goes anyway. Determined to free his people from this tyranny. Luckily for him, while on Crete, King Minos daughter falls in love with him. And she gives him a clew (clue). In the form of a ball of twine so that he can retrace his steps and leave the labyrinth once he has killed the Minotaur(which he does).

This story is a wonderful example of how language evolves and how stories influence culture.

The Dawn of Recorded History

Lastly, the age of this story. Well the simple fact is this. We aren’t sure. An amphora from Tinos, which is dated to around 670 BCE depicts the oldest known picture of Theseus and the Minotaur in battle. However, bull and maze patterns and motifs are found all throughout the Minoan culture. This civilisation spread across the Mediterranean from around 3000 BCE to around 1100 BCE. So the story, or parts of it is likely much older.

Plutarch, the Greek philosopher is credited with giving us the first complete work of writing detailing the myth of the Minotaur, but he arrived much later. He lived between CE 46 – CE 119. So quite a bit after the date. Conceivably, he lived as far from the original telling of the story as we do to him.

So the next time someone asks you to give them a clue, you can give them a fascinating history lesson too.

Sources:

Theseus and the Minotaur (Wikipedia)

Clew (Wiktionary)

Plutarch (Wikipedia)

Theseus and the Minotaur (National Geographic)

Neck Amphora, Depicting Theseus and the Minotaur 500 BCE (British Museum)

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