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The Story of Theseus and the Minotaur

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The Story of Theseus and the Minotaur
The Story of Theseus and the Minotaur

The story of the Minotaur started off when the god Zeus became interested with a princess named Europa. In order to get her, Zeus transformed himself into a magnificent bull and with it persuaded Europa to climb on his back. With Europa on his back, Zeus sped off to the island of Crete. After reaching the island, Zeus resumed in his manly form again. From Europa and Zeus their son Minos was born. When Minos was older, he became the King of Crete marrying Pasiphae.

Minos was seen as a great ruler. He was particularly famous for his justice and law codes. One time during a ceremony Zeus offered Minos a brilliant white bull, but Minos was very reluctant to kill it. Instead he switched the white bull for another bull to offer. Zeus was angered with this act and as a punishment caused Pasiphae to fall in love with the bull. From their union, the Minotaur was born.

Ashamed by the monster, Minos had the minotaur imprisoned. Minos ordered Daidalos, an engineer, to create a prison where no one would be able to see the beast. He created a maze like building which he named the Labyrinth.

Minos and Pasiphae had a son by the name of Androgeos. One day he visited Athens where he joined in some games that were held. As the games proceeded he became friendly towards the Athenians and won most of the competitions. Aegeus, the King of Athens was starting to get worried. He feared that Androgeos, and his fellows athenian friends would create a powerful cretan fleet and attack him. With this, Aegeus had Androgeos murdered as soon as he left Athens. This point is rational because in that time, Kings were constantly fearing that there would be war upon their kingdom and that someone would take their throne. Kings were proud of their royalty and would do anything to prevent it from being taken from them, thus killing anyone that was suspicious to them.

When Minos found out about the murder of his son, held demanded that every eight

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