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Theseus Slays The Minotaur King Minos had long hated the people of Athens, for they had killed his son when he took all the prizes at the Athenian games. To prevent King Minos from waging war against them, every nine years the people of Athens had to sacrifice seven young men and seven young women. Beneath King Minos’s palace at Knossos was a labyrinth, a maze of passageways. At the heart of the labyrinth lived a Minotaur – a fearsome creature, half man and half bull, who fed on human flesh. When the Minotaur was hungry it bellowed so loudly that the whole palace shook. Theseus, the son of the King Aegeus of Athens, was a brave young man. He vowed he would slay the Minotaur. Try as he might, Aegeus could not change his mind. Theseus was determined to kill the monster so no more innocent people would die. So, when the next victims set sail for Crete, Theseus took the place of the seventh man. King Aegeus vowed he would watch the horizon constantly. “On your return my son, replace the black sails with white ones and I shall know immediately you have been victorious.” As they were paraded through the streets, King Minos taunted the prisoners. When Ariadne, King Minos’s daughter, saw the handsome and brave Theseus it was love at first sight. She decided to help him kill the dreaded Minotaur. Under cover of night, she visited Theseus in his prison cell. “Take this ball of twine,” she said. “Tie one end of it to the gate of the labyrinth before you go in so you can follow it and find your way out again. If you go now you will be able to kill the Minotaur while it’s sleeping. All I ask is that you take me back to Athens as your bride.” Theseus did as Ariadne instructed. He made his way slowly though the foul smelling passageways, all the time unwinding the string. He could hear the snores of the Minotaur and set off towards the noise. A few minutes later however, he could hardly hear it. The path had doubled back and he was now further away from the centre than when he started! Suddenly he found himself at the mouth of its lair. There in front of him was a grotesque figure. It fixed Theseus with its eyes and pawed the ground with its foot. Then it lowered its head and charged. Theseus was tossed high into the air. Lying winded on the cold slabs, being trampled beneath the beast’s huge hooves, Theseus thought he was doomed. Finding a strength he didn’t know he possessed, Theseus grabbed one of the beast’s horns and wrenched it off. He plunged it into the folds of flesh again and again. A stream of blood gushed from the wound and after what seemed like an age, the monster sank to its knees. It let out a gurgling gasp and crashed to the ground. Dead! To his horror Theseus realised that in the struggle he had let go of the twine, his lifeline. He scrabbled around in the pitch dark. Time and time again Theseus thought he had found the twine only to discover it was a long wiry hair from the Minotaur. Just as it seemed all was lost he found the end. Theseus retraced his steps until, to his enormous relief, he found himself back at the entrance. Ariadne and Theseus freed the other prisoners and together they made their escape from the island of Crete. No more innocent Athenians would die. Theseus was a hero. On their way home, they stopped at the island of Naxos. Theseus sent Ariadne for supplies and while she was gone, he set sail without her. He had no intention of honouring a promise to marry his enemy’s daughter. Unfortunately, in his haste to get away, Theseus forgot his promise to his father to change the sails. When the ship came into view, King Aegeus was distraught to see black sails. Devastated at losing his only son, the king threw himself off the cliffs into the raging waters below.