Theseus in the Labyrinth
King Minos of Crete had once vowed to sacrifice to the gods whatever should appear from the sea. A white bull appeared, and it was so perfect that the king refused to sacrifice it. As revenge, the gods drove the bull crazy, and Crete was only saved when Heracles came to take the bull away as one of his labors.
But the bull left behind it a horrible offspring: a monster called the Minotaur, half man and half bull, which feasted on human flesh. Minos needed a way to protect his people, so he asked his chief craftsman, a man called Daedalus, to make a home for the beast. Daedalus created something truly great: the labyrinth, a maze with so many crossing paths, winding in and out, that everyone who entered it was sure to get lost and never leave.
Minos decided this was the perfect place to put the Minotaur so that it could never get out, so they herded the beast into the labyrinth and locked the door tightly. Because the Minotaur fed on human flesh, King Minos decided that he would demand from Athens a tribute of seven young men and seven young women every year, who would be fed alive to the Minotaur.
If the Athenians dared to refuse, he threated to destroy their city, so they complied with his demands and sent their human sacrifices for the Minotaur to devour. Theseus offered himself to be one of these victims, telling his father that he planned to kill the Minotaur and thus free everyone from the beast's curse.
When Theseus reached Crete, he won the heart of Minos's daughter Ariadne, who was horrified by the injustice of feeding innocent young men and women to the Minotaur. She went in secret to Daedalus and asked him, as the inventor of the labyrinth, how someone could escape. He told her the secret, which she in turn relayed to Theseus: always walk straight, never turn left or right. He also gave her a ball of golden thread that could guide Theseus out.
Ariadne bribed the labyrinth's guards to abandon their post for a few moments, during which time Theseus slipped into the labyrinth with his sword. He tied the golden thread to the door post at the entrance, and followed Daedalus's instruction to always walk straight.
Soon he found himself in the center of the labyrinth, where the Minotaur was sleeping. The beast heard him approach and woke up, and the two fought - the Minotaur trying to pierce Theseus on its horns or grab him with its strong arms, and Theseus trying to stab the beast with his sword.
Finally, Theseus managed to overpower the Minotaur and killed it, then turned to see the other young Athenian youths standing nearby, struck white with fear.
Using the golden ball of thread given to him by Ariadne, he guided the other Athenians back to the exit of the labyrinth, and thus were the first to escape. Exhausted, they made their way to the boat and sailed back to Athens.
