Theseus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



"Why did Theseus need a ball of yarn to kill the Minotaur?"

~(Simply Jim:  Anti-Christ, Armilus, Dajjal)~

"I don't know."

~(The Very Reverne William Thigpen III:  St. Bartholomew Episcophal Church)~

Dedication of Labyrinth

Dedication April 1, 2012
The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
Bell Tower Lawn

This labyrinth is a medieval labyrinth and is a modified form of the 11 circuit labyrinth found in the stone floor of the 12th century Chartres Cathedral, France. The St. Bartholomew¡¦s labyrinth has 7 circuits (or paths) that begin, as with all labyrinths, at the perimeter and end in the center. One returns to the world on the same path one came in. Although labyrinths are maze like, there are no dead ends and the path always leads to the center and back out again. You cannot lose your way, offering a metaphor for living life if one stays open to the Holy Other. 

One historical use of the labyrinth by the medieval church began during the Crusades. At the time, a practice for Christians was to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem especially during Holy Week. Since the practice became dangerous and unaffordable for many, the Pope instructed pilgrims to go to their cathedrals and follow the path of Jesus. The labyrinth was a part of that pilgrimage.

Many ancient cultures had labyrinths created in many forms and used for many purposes ¡V Native Americans, Jews, Egyptians, Greeks, and Mayans, to name just a few. It seems cultures developed them without knowledge of each other, signifying their emergence as a human response to experiences of life, and the unseen and unknowable. 

THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR

Pasiphae, wife of King Minos of Crete, had several children before the Minotaur. The eldest of these, Androgeus, set sail for Athens to take part in the Pan-Athenian games, which were held there every four years. Being strong and skillful, he did very well, winning some events outright. He soon became a crowd favorite, much to the resentment of the Pallantides, and they assassinated him, incurring the wrath of Minos.

When King Minos had heard of what befell his son, he ordered the Cretan fleet to set sail for Athens. Minos asked Aegeus for his son's assassins, and if they were to be handed to him, the town would be spared. However, not knowing who the assassins were, King Aegeus surrendered the whole town to Minos' mercy. His retribution was that, at the end of every Great Year (seven solar years), the seven most courageous youths and the seven most beautiful maidens were to board a boat and be sent as tribute to Crete, never to be seen again.

In another version, King Minos had waged war with the Athenians and was successful. He then demanded that, at nine-year intervals, seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls were to be sent to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster that lived in the Labyrinth created by Daedalus.

On the third occasion, Theseus volunteered to slay the monster to stop this horror. He took the place of one of the youths and set off with a black sail, promising to his father, Aegeus, that if successful he would return with a white sail.^[10] Like the others, Theseus was stripped of his weapons when they sailed. On his arrival in Crete, Ariadne, King Minos' daughter, fell in love with Theseus and, on the advice of Daedalus, gave him a ball of thread or clue, so he could find his way out of the Labyrinth.^[11] That night, Ariadne escorted Theseus to the Labyrinth, and Theseus promised that if he returned from the Labyrinth he would take Ariadne with him. As soon as Theseus entered the Labyrinth, he tied one end of the ball of string to the door post and brandished his sword which he had kept hidden from the guards inside his tunic. Theseus followed Daedalus' instructions given to Ariadne; go forwards, always down and never left or right. Theseus came to the heart of the Labyrinth and also upon the sleeping Minotaur. The beast awoke and a tremendous fight then occurred. Theseus overpowered the Minotaur with his strength and stabbed the beast in the throat with his sword (according to one scholium on Pindar's Fifth Nemean Ode, Theseus strangled it).

After decapitating the beast, Theseus used the string to escape the Labyrinth and managed to escape with all of the young Athenians and Ariadne as well as her younger sister Phaedra. Then he and the rest of the crew fell asleep on the beach. Athena woke Theseus and told him to leave early that morning. Athena told Theseus to leave Ariadne and Phaedra on the beach. Stricken with distress, Theseus forgot to put up the white sails instead of the black ones, so the king committed suicide, in some versions throwing himself off a cliff and into the sea, thus causing this body of water to be named the Aegean. Dionysus later saw Ariadne crying out for Theseus and took pity on her and married her.

Theseus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Theseus (/ˈθiːsiːəs/; Ancient Greek: Θησεύς [tʰɛːsěu̯s]) was the mythical[1] founder-king of Athens and was the son of Aethra by two fathers: Aegeus and Poseidon.

Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were identified with an archaic religious and social order.[2] As Heracles was the Dorian hero, Theseus was a founding hero, considered by Athenians as their own great reformer: his name comes from the same root as θεσμός ("thesmos"), Greek for "The Gathering". The myths surrounding Theseus—his journeys, exploits, and family—have provided material for fiction throughout the ages.

***

My theory 

is that the Minotaur represents our primal instinct for "fight or flight."