Theseus and the Minotaur Once upon a time…
“Heritage of our lives
in the colors of the rainbow”
ERASMUS 2020-1-ES01 KA229 082283_3
Minos, the king of Crete, was a very cruel king
Knossos
Ar
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Minos
Beneath his palace in Knossos, he had a labyrinth built by Daedalus.
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Knossos Palace
In the labyrinth lived the Minotaur, a monster, half man, and half bull.
Every year Minos asked the Athenians to send him seven young boys and seven young girls to become food for the Minotaur. Otherwise, he threatened the city with war.
The boat that was going to carry them had black sails.
Aegeus, king of Athens, had a son named Theseus. One day Theseus told his father:
"I must stop this horrible suffering. Let me go to Crete and kill the Minotaur."
Eventually, Aegeus was convinced to let Theseus go to Crete. Theseus promised that he would change the black sails to white if he killed the Minotaur.
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They travelled to Crete, arrived at the palace of Knossos and were “welcomed� by the king Minos and his daughter Ariadne.
On the other day, they were guided to the maze to be eaten by the Minotaur.
Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with Theseus.
To help him, she gave him a ball of thread, known as ‘Ariadne’s mitos’ in Greek
and she said to him:
“You must unroll the thread while you move in the maze,
so as not to get lost and be able to get out of it again’’
Next morning, Theseus together with the young men and women were led to the Labyrinth.
They wandered for many hours in the dark labyrinth, while Theseus was unrolling the thread which would allow him to retrace his path. Suddenly, he faced the terrible monster.
They fought for a long time. The fight was unfair,
but brave Theseus, finally managed to kill Minotaur.
They were now free. Athenians didn’t owe anything to Minos anymore.
Being excited, however, they forgot to change the ship’s sails and left with black sails
Everyday Aegeus was going to the cape of Sounio waiting for his son’s return.
When he saw the black sails, he fell off the rocks and was drowned in the sea.
That’s why the sea was named after him Aegean Sea.
Special thanks to our students: Ιωάννα Α. Αναστασία Π. Άγγελος Π. Νικόλαος Χ. Γεωργία Κ. Ευστρατία Β. Ελένη Θ. Ελένη Α. Άννα Χ. Στέφανος Μ. Στέλλα Α. Παναγιώτα Δ. Αναστασία Κ. Στράτος Κ. Γιώργος Κ.
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