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Poseidon’s Present:

A long time ago, a young man called Minos became the king of Crete. He knew that the god of the sea, Poseidon, had helped other kings before, so he went to ask Poseidon for help.’ Poseidon,’ King Minos said, ‘I want to give the gods a present so that they will help me to be a good king.’ Poseidon replied, ‘You’re a kind and trustworthy man, Minos, so Iwill help you.’ ‘I’ll give you one of my bulls to give to the gods. They will be pleased with that.’ Immediately, a beautiful white bull came running out of the sea. It was so beautiful that King Minos did not want to kill it, so he killed another bull instead and gave it as a present to the gods. Poseidon knew what had happened and became very angry.

The Minotaur

‘A horrible monsterwill come from this bull,’ Poseidon said to King Minos, ‘and there will be trouble all through your country. ’Poseidon was right. The beautiful white bull became a horrible monster called the Minotaur. It was half bull and half man. The Minotaur ran throughout King Minos’ country killing people and terrifying everyone. King Minos went to find Daedalus. Daedalus was an inventor and an architectwho had invented many interesting new things that had helped people before. Daedalus, can you help me? What can we do about the monster, the Minotaur? It’s killing people all over my country.’ Daedalus thought for a while and replied, ‘I’ll build a labyrinth and we can put the Minotaur in the center so it won’t be able to get out.’ ‘That’s an excellent idea,’ replied King Minos, ‘and when I haveprisoners I will send them into the labyrinth for the Minotaur to eat.’
King Minos and King Aegeus
Many years after this, King Minos had had a war with his enemy, King Aegeus of Athens. King Minos defeated King Aegeus, so at the end of the war, King Minos said, ‘You have lost the war and so every year you must send seven young men and seven young women to Crete as prisoners. If you do not dothis, there will be another war.’ The King of Athens had to agree to this, and each year King Minos sent the prisoners into the labyrinth for the Minotaur to eat.

Theseus and the Minotaur

King Aegeus had a son called Theseus. Theseus wanted to stop the agreement with King Minos. So, he asked his father if he could go to Crete. ‘Please, father,’ begged Theseus, ‘send me to Crete and I cankill the Minotaur.’ Although the king didn’t want his son to go he realized it was important to Theseus and finally agreed to let him go. He told Theseus to fly a white flag from his ship as he returned, so that he would know that he had killed the Minotaur.

Daedalus’ String

When Theseus arrived in Crete, Ariadne, one of King Minos’ daughter fell in love with him. She didn’t want Theseusto go into the labyrinth because she knew that the Minotaur would kill him. She ran to Daedalus and asked for help, ‘Please help me, Daedalus. Theseus is going into the labyrinth tomorrow. What can we do?’
Daedalus gave her some string and said, ‘Tell Theseus to tie this string to something at the entrance to the labyrinth. If he goes quietly into the labyrinth, he will be able to killthe Minotaur while it is asleep and then he can escape by following the string back out of the labyrinth.’
Theseus took the string into the labyrinth and quietly killed the Minotaur with his sword while it was asleep. Then, following the string, he walked back out of the labyrinth with the other prisoners.
A very tired Theseus and happy Ariadne sailed back towards Athens, but Theseusforgot to fly a white flag from his ship. His father, King Aegeus, saw Theseus’ ship coming back without a white flag and, thinking that his son had been killed by the minotaur in the labyrinth, he threw himself into the sea – which is why, today, the Greeks call it the ‘Aegean Sea’.



















MYTHS & LEGENDS
THE MINOTAUR
• Main idea
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