2. Basic mystical terms Our universe is more unusual than we can imagine. We live next to secrets that we do not see because of our daily busyness with current affairs. The mysteries of the surrounding world are so great that their description requires special concepts or

Mystical Processes I think that among the readers there are quite a few people who experimented with various kinds of incense, entheogens, or simply ate certain types of plants for cognitive purposes. People like that don't need to be told what's right

Esoteric and mystical explanations Although the overall tone of this tutorial is pragmatic and rather materialistic, the main point of the phase is to bring people together on the basis of practice, not theory. The first is indisputable, the second is always and by all

Minotaur - the bull of Minos, king of Crete, according to legend, was a half-man, half-buffalo, which is remembered mainly in connection with the myths about the exploits of Theseus. Although there are images of the Minotaur related to the archaic period in the history of Ancient Greece, the first mention of it in the ancient sources that have come down to us is made by Apollodorus and Plutarch.

The history of the Minotaur, set forth by Apollodorus in the Library, is as follows: Asterius, the ruler of Crete, married the daughter of the Phoenician king Europe and adopted her children - Sarpedon, Rhadamanthia and Minos, the sons of Zeus. The grown-up brothers quarreled because of their love for the young Miletus, the son of Apollo and Aria. A war broke out, as a result of which Minos managed to expel the brothers and seize power in all of Crete. To consolidate his victory, Minos tries to earn the patronage of the gods. He asks Poseidon to send a bull from the depths of the sea, promising to sacrifice it to the gods. Poseidon complies with the request, but Minos sacrifices another bull. Enraged by the violation of the promise given to him, Poseidon endows the bull with a ferocious disposition and instills in the wife of Minos Pasiphae a love passion for the bull. Pasiphae asks Daedalus, an Athenian exiled to Crete for murder, to come up with a way that would allow her to satisfy her passion. Daedalus carves a hollow figure of a cow from wood, covers it with the skin of a sacrificial animal, and places Parsifae inside the figure. From copulation with a bull, Pasiphae gives birth to Asterius, who was nicknamed the Minotaur.

The Minotaur is a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull. On the advice of the oracles, Minos imprisons him in the Labyrinth, a building built by Daedalus in such a way that he can no longer get out of it.

After a while, another descendant of Minos, Androgey, goes to the Panathinian Games, where he defeats all rivals. King Aegeus sends him to kill the Marathon bull, which sows death and destruction throughout the Marathon valley. Androgey finds a bull brought by Hercules from Crete (this is one of his twelve labors), but dies in a duel with him. (According to another version, Androgeus is killed by envious rivals in the Panathenian games.) Having learned about the death of his son, Minos with his fleet attacks Athens and captures Megara, a suburb of Athens, but, not being able to conquer Athens, asks Zeus to avenge the Athenians for the death of his son. The city is covered by a terrible plague. The townspeople ask the oracle for advice, and he replies that the only way to exorcise the plague is to fulfill the demands of Minos, whatever they may be. Minos orders every year as a sacrifice to the Minotaur to send seven young men and seven girls to Crete. By the will of the lot or by choice, Theseus, the son of the king of Attica, Aegeus, falls into the third party. Upon arrival in Crete, the daughter of Minos Ariadne falls in love with him and promises him help if he takes her as his wife and takes her to Athens. Theseus vows to fulfill the request. On the advice of Daedalus, Ariadne gives Theseus a ball of thread, the end of which he ties at the entrance to the Labyrinth. Theseus unravels the tangle during his journey inside the trap building. In the middle of the Labyrinth, he finds a sleeping Minotaur and beats him to death with his fists. On the way back, which he finds holding on to the untangled thread, Theseus frees the other captives, who, together with Ariadne, leads to the sea, where they build a ship on which they go to Athens.

Not all ancient authors agree with Apollodorus' version. Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch in Theseus state that the Athenians were twice obliged to send a sacrifice to the Minotaur every ten years throughout his life. Referring to Hellanicus, Plutarch adds that Minos specially came to Athens to choose victims, who, according to various sources, then either died from the horns of the Minotaur, or were doomed to wander through the Labyrinth in search of a way out until their death. Moreover, not all Greek authors agree with the version about the death of the Minotaur. The same Plutarch writes that the captives were forbidden to take any weapons with them to Crete, however, judging by the image on the Greek amphora, Theseus, holding the bull by the horns, pierces him with a sword. On a gold ornament from Corinth dating from the 7th century AD. BC, perhaps the oldest depiction of this mythological scene, Theseus also pierces the Minotaur in the chest with a sword, holding him by the ear. A similar scene is depicted on a shield dating from about the same time.

An unusual interpretation of the scene of the death of the Minotaur is depicted on an amphora kept in the Museum of Basel (c. 660 BC). It depicts Theseus and Ariadne throwing stones at a bull-man who, contrary to tradition, does not look like a man with a bull's head, but like a bull with a human head. In this, Theseus and Ariadne are helped by the Athenian captives.

The Etruscans apparently had a special interest in the myth of the Minotaur. During excavations in Etruria (modern Tuscany), numerous images of mythological scenes were found, belonging to a fairly wide time range. The Etruscans often twisted the meaning of Greek myths and legends in a peculiar way. For example, the victor sitting on the back of the Minotaur with a bow in his left hand, depicted on the Castellan mirror, is not Theseus, but Hercules (Hercules). Another object, an Etruscan black vase from the Louvre, again depicts Hercules with a lion skin on his shoulders, who beats the Minotaur with a club.

In ancient times, there was no consensus about the appearance of the Minotaur. Apollodorus believes that he had the body of a man and the head of a bull. Diodorus agrees with him. However, on a black amphora from Vulci, the Minotaur is depicted with a tail and a spotted skin like that of a leopard. The Roman authors seem to have had an even more vague idea of ​​the Minotaur than the Greeks. Pausanias finds it difficult to say who the Minotaur was - a man or a beast. Catullus simply calls him a "wild monster", and Virgil - "a hybrid descendant with a dual nature." For Ovid, the Minotaur is "a monster with a dual essence" (in "Metamorphoses") and "half-man, half-bull" (in "Heroids"). In the indefinite image of a half-man, half-bull, the Minotaur also passed into the art of medieval Europe.

As part of the heroic myth of Theseus, the legend of the Minotaur did not escape the introduction of various details related to the intervention of the goddess Athena in their fate. On Greek vases, one can often see scenes in which Athena encourages the hero when he plunges the sword into the monster, or pulls him out of the gates of the Labyrinth.

Referring to Philochor, Plutarch cites a version of the legend allegedly stated by the inhabitants of Crete themselves. They claimed that the Minotaur was actually the commander of King Minos named Taurus. As a reward for winning the Games, which Minos hosted in memory of his son Androgeus, Taurus received young Athenian captives as slaves, who were kept in an impregnable Cretan dungeon known as the Labyrinth. Being by nature a rude person, Taurus treats them with extreme cruelty. However, at the third Games in honor of Androgey, Theseus significantly outperformed all other participants, including Taurus. For his athletic prowess, Theseus earned the love of Ariadne. Minos was also pleased with the victory of the Athenian, because he disliked the influential Taurus for his cruel character, moreover, the king suspected him of having an affair with his wife Pasiphae. Minos had to return the Athenian captives to their homeland and cancel the obligation he had imposed on Athens.

In the art of ancient Rome, mosaics depicting the Labyrinth were widespread. Such mosaics have been preserved in many parts of the former Roman Empire - in Pompeii, Cremona, Brindisi, Neapathos (Italy), Aix en Provence (France), Sousse (Tunisia), Kormerode (Switzerland), Salzburg (Austria), etc. in these images, the Minotaur is the central figure. On the mosaic floor of the palace in Pompeii, Theseus and the Minotaur clashed in a deadly duel in front of the frightened captive girls. On the Salzburg mosaic, Theseus, in a fluttering cloak, grabs the Minotaur by the right horn, in his free hand he holds a club, ready to bring it down on the back of the monster. Birds are also depicted in the mosaic at Camerod, possibly a reference to Daedalus and Icarus, who escaped the Labyrinth into which Minos imprisoned them with makeshift wings. The mosaic in Sousse depicts the defeated Minotaur. Theseus and the young Athenians sail from the gates of the Labyrinth, over which the words are written: "The prisoner here will perish."

Although the images of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth in Roman villas had hardly any symbolic meaning and served only for decoration, the mosaics in the crypts and on the sarcophagi reflect the Roman belief in the afterlife. On the reverse side of the Greek coins depicting the Labyrinth, one can often see not only the head of a bull, but also the faces of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. Thus, even in ancient Greece, the Labyrinth was considered a symbol of the underworld, and the Minotaur was considered the personification of death itself.

In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the Minotaur continued to be a popular character in church mosaics, illustrations for manuscripts, anthologies and encyclopedias, comments on ancient works, in poetry, and art. The dwelling of the Minotaur was seen as a symbol of worldly pleasures. On the mosaic in the church of San Savino in Piacenza, the Labyrinth symbolizes the world, wide at the entrance and narrow at the exit. It is not easy for a person spoiled by the pleasures of life to find his way to salvation. Guido of Pisa goes even further in his commentary on Dante's Inferno. In his opinion, the Minotaur was a descendant of Pasiphae and Taurus, the court king Minos, and symbolizes the Devil, and the Labyrinth is a symbol of the world of delusions (labor - "error" and intus - "inside"). Just as the Devil takes possession of souls when people take the wrong path, so the Minotaur devours young Athenians when they enter his dwelling. Just as Ariadne helped Theseus get out of the Labyrinth, so Jesus Christ leads lost souls to the light of eternal life. In other words, Theseus' duel with the Minotaur and the release of young captives symbolize the struggle of the Lord and Satan for human souls.

Such an understanding of the image of the Minotaur was close to the poetry of Boccaccio. In the "Genealogy of the Gods" he claims that from the union of the soul (Pasiphae - the daughter of the sun) and carnal pleasures comes the vice of bestial rage, which the Minotaur personifies. In the Middle Ages, it was customary to depict the Minotaur as resembling a centaur - with a human head and a bull's torso. This is apparently due to the vagueness of his description by Ovid and Virgil. Isidore of Seville mentions the Minotaur in an article on the centaur in his Etymology. In the form of a centaur, he is depicted both on the mosaic in the Cathedral of San Michele in Pavia, and on most of the illustrations for Dante's Inferno. Of interest is an extract from the translation of the works of Orosius, made by King Alfred, which says that the Minotaur is half-man, half-lion.

Undoubtedly, the best literary monument to the Minotaur was Dante's "Hell", in which the monster guards the "cruel" in the seventh circle. Dante does not directly name the Minotaur and speaks of him as "the misfortune of Crete", "creature" and "brutal wrath". During a journey through hell, Virgil, who accompanies Dante, taunts the Minotaur with a reminder of his death at the hands of Theseus. Enraged by the words of the poet, the monster begins to rush about in a blind rage, and the wanderers hurriedly bypass it. In Dante, the Minotaur is a victim of his own passions, he cannot forget his defeat, which predetermined his eternal fate.

In The Legend of the Good Woman by Geoffrey Chaucer (14th century), another variation of the ancient myth is set forth: Theseus takes with him pieces of wax and resin into the Labyrinth, which he throws into the mouth of the Minotaur to glue his teeth together. This episode is interpreted allegorically by Guido of Pisa. In his opinion, wax and resin symbolize the self-sacrifice of Christ in the name of saving mankind from Satan.

In the era of the late Middle Ages, the history of the Minotaur continued to interest artists and researchers and, to a lesser extent, poets and writers. In the editions of Metamorphoses and heraldic collections of the 16th and 17th centuries, one can find many engravings depicting the Minotaur. In the comments of George Sandis on the works of Ovid (1632), the Labyrinth is the world in which a person lives, the Minotaur symbolizes sensual pleasures, and Ariadne symbolizes sincere love.

Researchers of the 18th century tried to see in myths a reflection of real historical events. So, Diderot in the Encyclopedia (1765) writes that the monstrous image of the Minotaur should be understood as a condemnation of the betrayal of Pasiphae with the courtier of Minos Taurus, and the victory of Theseus over the Minotaur is an allegory for the outcome of the struggle of King Minos with the Athenians.

The marble statue of the sculptor Antonio Canova "Theseus the Triumphant" (1781-1782) symbolizes the victory of mind and beauty over the animal nature. Inspired by the frescoes of Pompeii, Canova sculpted Theseus sitting on the lifeless body of a bull-headed monster. The beautiful, muscular body of Theseus, the calm expression of his face, contrasts with the heavy body and bullish head of his opponent.

On the canvas Postav Moreau "The Athenians in the Labyrinth of the Minotaur" (1855) Theseus is not at all. On one of the sketches, Moreau depicted the Minotaur, squeezing a victim in his hands and trampling on a mountain of lifeless bodies with his foot, but in the end the artist abandoned this idea and depicted an equally dramatic scene: young Athenians hear the steps of an approaching monster - the girls huddle in horror against each other, the young men listen in fright, one of them, on his knees, points with his hand in the direction of the corridor, along which a creature resembling a centaur with the head and arms of a man and the body of a bull is approaching.

Moreau to some extent anticipated the attitude towards the Minotaur that was formed in the 20th century. The Minotaur was torn out of the usual circle of Theseus' exploits and the mysteries of the Labyrinth. Comparative mythology, the works of Darwin and Freud forced us to take a fresh look at this creature, at humanity in the beast and bestial cruelty in man. Such a change can be seen, for example, on the painting by George Watts "Minotaur". Impressed by a newspaper article about street prostitution, the artist decided to allegorically depict the destruction of innocence by rudeness. Minotaur looks into the distance from the wall of his citadel. In his hand he squeezes the crushed body of a swan. However, although the meaning of the allegory is quite transparent, the Minotaur hardly looks like a monster. Rather, as a being in which the human mind and consciousness struggle with dark instincts.

Since it was established how strong the influence of the Minoan civilization was on Greek culture, the emergence of the myth of the Minotaur began to be associated with the dominion of the Minoans at sea. Jackson Knight believes that the legend of the half-bull, half-man Minotaur arose from the stories of Athenian youths who brought tribute to Crete (some of which may have been tribute themselves). They talked about a culture they hardly understood: about an unusual palace and rituals, priests in bull masks and a labyrinth dance. Knight believes that the Minotaur is a figment of the imagination of the Greeks, a mythological image of priests with bull-headed masks.

Martin Nilsson disagrees with this point of view, and points out that although attempts to connect the legend of the Minotaur with the Cretan bull cult seem logical, there is no evidence that the Minoans also adhered to this cult. In Crete, bullfights were common entertainment, not a sacred ceremony. Nilson believes that the formation of the myth was influenced by images of half-humans, half-animals.

Cretan frescoes depicting jumping over a bull, apparently, can serve as confirmation that the myth of the Minotaur is a reflection of the Minoan custom of setting up a bull as opponents of captive gladiators. Such a duel usually ended badly for the captive, and the bull was sacrificed, killing with a double-sided ax - “labrys” (perhaps the word “labyrinth” comes from here).

The most significant contribution to the artistic image of the Minotaur in the 20th century can be considered a series of engravings and sketches made by Picasso between 1933 and 1937. For the surrealists, the Minotaur was a symbol of the conflict between the forces of consciousness and the subconscious. Picasso made a sketch for the cover of the first issue of the Minotaur magazine. On each of the subsequent issues, published until 1939, the Minotaur was depicted, as it was represented by Dali, Magritte, Max Ernst, Rivera and others. Picasso's minotaur is changeable: in one drawing he is the personification of the dark and cruel in man, in the other he is a playful cheerful animal. In depictions of the death of the Minotaur, Picasso connects the Spanish bullfight with the Cretan ritual. In the engraving "The Minotaur in the Arena", a naked girl pierces the monster's back with a sword in front of an indifferent audience. In the drawing “Death of the Minotaur”, a bull-man bleeding in an empty arena, raising his head, looks longingly at the sky. The series ends with an image of the redemption of the Minotaur, which brings to mind the finale of the story of King Oedipus: a blind, decrepit beast is led by a leash by a little girl with a bouquet of flowers.

In these and other drawings, Picasso not only reinterprets the myth of the Minotaur, but turns him into a tragic hero. The artist, like no one else, managed to use the versatility of this image to reflect the various states of the human soul. A contradictory image in which incompatible concepts have merged: bestial cruelty and humanity, anger and suffering, death and extraordinary vitality, is perhaps one of the best symbols of human consciousness of the 20th century.

Name: Minotaur

Country: Greece

Creator: ancient Greek mythology

Activity: monster with a human body and a bull's head

Family status: not married

Minotaur: Character Story

The character of ancient Greek mythology, a monster with a human body and a bull's head. Born to Pasiphae, the wife of the Cretan king, after she entered into an intimate relationship with a bull. King Minos settled the monster in the labyrinth of Knossos. The minotaur was fed with human flesh, sending criminals to him in the labyrinth. Once every nine years, a batch of young men and women from Athens also came, who were given to be torn to pieces by a monster. Killed by the son of the Athenian king. The name "Minotaur" means "Bull of Minos".

Origin story

There are several interpretations of the image of the Minotaur and its possible origin. Historian Vladimir Borukhovich points to the similarity of the Minotaur with the gods of Ancient Egypt, who were also depicted as people with animal heads. Another similar version says that the image of the Minotaur in Ancient Greece is a variation on the theme of the Phoenician deity named Moloch, who also looked like a bull and a man in one body. Children were sacrificed to this deity. The killing of the Minotaur symbolizes the elimination of the cult of Moloch.

The ancient Greek philosopher rationalistically interprets the myth and believes that the image of the Minotaur embodied the memory of a man who once really existed. Allegedly, King Minos had a fierce head of the guard named Taurus, and he took part in the battles that were arranged in the Labyrinth with captives for entertainment. Later, this Taurus was killed by the Athenian Theseus during a battle in the harbor.

The English writer Mary Renault created the novel "Theseus" based on the myths of ancient Greece. In this literary version of the story of the appearance of the image of the Minotaur, the tradition of the “bull dance” that really existed on the island of Crete, a type of sacrifice, was transformed into a myth. On the Cretan frescoes, you can allegedly see images of a “bull dance”.

In Greek mythology, there are many characters whose appearance combines human and animal features. The minotaur is sometimes confused with the centaur, but they are different characters. A centaur is a creature with a human torso that "grows" from the body of a horse, a mythologized image of a rider. The Minotaur has a bull's head "sitting" on the human body. Another animal-like character is a faun. A man with goat legs, horns and a beard, patron of shepherds and cattle breeders.

Legend of the Minotaur

The god of the seas (or, alternatively, the thunderer) sent a white bull to the king of the island of Crete, Minos, so that the king would sacrifice it to the gods. Minos liked the bull so much that the king felt sorry for killing the luxurious animal. An ordinary bull was sacrificed. The gods took revenge on Minos: the king's wife, Pasiphae, was inflamed with passion for the bull and lay down with the beast. To attract the attention of the bull, the queen lay down in a wooden cow, which was made especially for this purpose. From this unnatural union, the Minotaur was born.

The monstrous son of Pasiphae showed the character of the beast and looked a little like a man. The Minotaur lived in the Labyrinth built for him and preferred humans for dinner. The minotaur was given criminals. Once every nine years, a ship from Athens came to Crete, carrying fourteen boys and girls on board. Athens thus paid tribute to Crete. These young people were thrown to the mercy of the Minotaur.

One day, with a group of young people from Athens, the son of the Athenian king, Theseus, arrived. The young man decided to put an end to the payments of monstrous tribute and deal with the Minotaur. The daughter of Minos fell in love with Theseus and gave him a ball of thread. The Athenian hero tied the end of the thread at the entrance and unwound the ball as he made his way through the labyrinth, and then along this thread of Ariadne he went back along with the saved fellow tribesmen. In the labyrinth, Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur with his bare hands or, according to another version, with a sword.

Screen adaptations

The image of the Minotaur appears in movies and cartoons based on Greek myths, but the character usually appears there in the guise of a monster, the enemy of the heroes - without replicas and a meaningful role in the plot.

In the adventure film "Sinbad and the Minotaur", released in 2011 in Australia, King Minos turns into the captain of the Minos pirates, who keeps an unprecedented treasure - the head of the Colossus of Rhodes, cast from pure gold. The protagonist wants to get this treasure, but for this Sinbad will have to face the monster Minotaur, who guards the labyrinth of Minos.

In the same 2011, the American fantasy thriller "War of the Gods: Immortals" was released. The film is based on the ancient Greek myths about Theseus and the Minotaur and about the Wars of the Titans. Mythological plots in the script have undergone strong changes. For starters, the main character Theseus in the film is not the son of the Athenian king, but a simple peasant youth. The hero confronts the despotic king Hyperion. This king in one of the episodes sends the monstrous Minotaur against Theseus, whom the hero defeats.

In 2006, the horror film "Minotaur" was released with an English actor in the role of Theo - the main character, who takes the place of Theseus in the script. Athens in the story is replaced by a certain settlement, whose inhabitants killed the heir to the Cretan king and are now doomed to pay tribute to the young men and women who are sacrificed to the Minotaur.

Theo is the son of the elder of this settlement and is in a privileged position in relation to the rest of the young people. The hero does not threaten to “fall under the distribution”, the father protects the hero. Theo, however, himself secretly sneaks onto the ship, which is carrying another batch of victims to the Minotaur, because Theo's fiancee got into the previous batch. The hero wants to fight the Minotaur and return the bride while she is still alive.

The animated incarnation of the Minotaur can be seen in the Soviet animated film "Labyrinth. The exploits of Theseus, published in 1971.

Minotaurs as a people are present in the books and films of the Chronicles of Narnia series. It is a humanoid type of creature with a human body and a bull's head. They are in the service of the White Witch. The film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) features the minotaur Otmin, played by actor Shane Rangi. Prince Caspian (2008) and The Dawn Treader (2010) also feature minotaur characters. All these secondary characters, although they represent "different" minotaurs, are played by the same actor.

Quotes

“I will build a labyrinth in which I can get lost with someone who wants to find me - who said this and about what?”

(, "Helm of Terror: Creatiff on Theseus and the Minotaur")

« But, according to Philochor, the Cretans reject this tradition and say that the Labyrinth was an ordinary prison, where nothing bad was done to the prisoners and only guarded them so that they would not run away, and that Minos arranged hymn competitions in memory of Androgea, and gave the winner an award for Athenian teenagers, who for the time being were kept in custody in the Labyrinth. The first competition was won by a commander named Taurus, who then enjoyed the greatest confidence in Minos, a man of a rude and wild temper, who treated teenagers arrogantly and cruelly. Aristotle, in The State Structure of Bottia, also makes it quite clear that he does not believe that Minos deprived teenagers of life: they, the philosopher believes, had time to grow old in Crete, carrying out slave service.»

According to the historian Demon, the commander Taurus started a battle with Theseus in the harbor and was killed. Plutarch cites information from various historians, from which one can learn that King Minos had such a military leader Taurus, who died in the war with the Athenians, and all other details are apparently a product of myth-making, as scientists of late antiquity believed.

According to Pausanias, his real name was Asterius("star") - the son of Minos, defeated by Theseus.

On vases, his body is dotted with stars or dotted with eyes; on a coin from Knossos, he was depicted in a bull mask.

Goddess mentioned in Mycenaean texts da-pu 2-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja (Laburinthoio Potnia, "mistress of the Labyrinth").

Interpretations

According to one hypothesis, the myth of the Minotaur is borrowed from Phenicia, where Moloch was also depicted with a bull's head and demanded human sacrifices. The slaying of the Minotaur marks the destruction of his cult.

According to a number of modern historians, the history of the Minotaur is an encrypted narrative about the clash of Indo-European cultures with the cultures of the autochthonous "peoples of the sea" (who worshiped the bull), in which the Indo-Europeans turned out to be the winner.

In Mary Renault's novel Theseus, the sacrifice to the Minotaur is interpreted from a purely realistic point of view - from her point of view, the victims were forced to participate in the sacrifice - the "bull dance" (protocorrida), images of which can be seen on Cretan frescoes.

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An excerpt characterizing the Minotaur

One evening, when the old countess, sighing and groaning, in a night cap and blouse, without overhead letters, and with one poor tuft of hair protruding from under a white calico cap, was laying prostrations of the evening prayer on the rug, her door creaked, and in shoes on her bare feet, also in a blouse and hairpins, Natasha ran in. The Countess looked back and frowned. She was finishing her last prayer: “Will this coffin be my bed?” Her prayer mood was destroyed. Natasha, red and animated, seeing her mother at prayer, suddenly stopped in her run, sat down and involuntarily stuck out her tongue, threatening herself. Noticing that her mother was continuing her prayer, she ran on tiptoe to the bed, quickly sliding one small foot against the other, kicked off her shoes and jumped onto that bed, for which the countess was afraid that he would not be her coffin. This bed was high, feather-bed, with five ever-decreasing pillows. Natasha jumped up, drowned in a featherbed, rolled over to the wall and began to fiddle under the covers, laying down, bending her knees to her chin, kicking her legs and laughing a little audibly, now covering her head, then looking at her mother. The countess finished her prayer and with a stern face went up to the bed; but, seeing that Natasha was covered with her head, she smiled her kind, weak smile.
“Well, well, well,” said the mother.
“Mom, can we talk, huh?” – said Natasha. - Well, in the darling once, well, more, and it will be. And she took her mother's neck and kissed her under the chin. In her treatment of her mother, Natasha showed outward rudeness of manner, but she was so sensitive and dexterous that no matter how she wrapped her arms around her mother, she always knew how to do it so that the mother would not be hurt, unpleasant, or embarrassed.

Most often, only old memories remain from ancient myths and legends, which are considered fairy tales that are passed down from generation to generation. But sometimes the thin line between reality and fantasy is erased, revealing undeniable facts to the world. Such an exception was the Knossos Labyrinth of the Minotaur on the island of Crete, the ruins of which we can contemplate to this day.

According to one of the ancient Greek myths, a huge palace with an intricate system of moves was erected on this island during the reign of King Minos. This labyrinth was built for a reason. It was within its walls that the king settled: a monster with a human body and a bull's head, which came from the unnatural love of Pasiphae, the wife of King Minos, for the bull sent by Poseidon, the god of the seas.

Every seven years, Athens, enslaved by Minos, sent seven beautiful girls and seven young men to Crete, who were given to be torn to pieces by the ferocious Minotaur. Decades passed and the number of victims increased inexorably, bringing pain and suffering to the inhabitants of Athens...

When once again a mourning ship with black sails was to deliver a terrible tribute, the young hero Theseus decided to go with the Athenian youths and girls to put an end to this madness. The choice was small: to slay the Minotaur or perish himself.

The aged Aegeus did not want to hear about the wild idea of ​​​​his only son, but the brave Theseus was unshakable. He made a sacrifice to Apollo Delphinius himself, the patron saint of sea travel, and the oracle instructed him to choose the goddess of love Aphrodite as the patroness in this feat. Having called Aphrodite for help and made a sacrifice to her, the young hero went to Crete.

When the ship sailed to the ill-fated island, the Athenian youths and girls were taken to Minos. The king immediately drew attention to the athletic and beautiful young man, whom Theseus was. The daughter of the king, Ariadne, also noticed him, and the patroness of Theseus, Aphrodite, aroused in her heart a strong love for the young son of Aegeus.

Ariadne, fascinated by Theseus, decided to help the brave young man and, so that he would not die in a gloomy labyrinth, secretly gave him a sword and a ball of thread.

When Theseus and all the doomed were taken to the entrance to the Labyrinth, he imperceptibly tied a thread to one of the stone columns, so that if he won, he would find his way back along it. Then the hero stepped into the dark and confusing abode of the monster, where death could await him at every turn.

Theseus made his way further and further and finally came to the place where the Minotaur was. With a formidable roar, bowing his head with huge sharp horns, the Minotaur rushed at the brave man, and a terrible battle began. The half-beast, half-man, full of hatred for people, fiercely attacked Theseus, but he repelled his blows with his sword. Finally, the son of Aegeus grabbed the monster by the horn and plunged his sharp sword into his chest. A heartbreaking roar echoed through the labyrinth and was lost in its depths.

This feat is often depicted on many Attic household items. For example, on a wide-mouthed amphora, which is stored in the Gregorian Etruscan Museum of the Vatican, located in the palace of Innocent VIII.

Having slain the Minotaur, Theseus left the dungeon by thread, leading all the Athenian boys and girls. At the exit, Ariadne met him, rejoicing that her lover was still alive. Those whom he saved also rejoiced - glorifying the hero and his patroness Aphrodite, they led a cheerful round dance.

To avoid the wrath of the king, Theseus, Ariadne and the Athenians cut through the bottom of all the Cretan ships pulled ashore, equipped the ship and set sail back to Athens in full sail.

On the way back, Theseus landed on the coast of Naxos. When the hero and his companions were resting from their wanderings, the god of wine Dionysus appeared in a dream to Theseus and told him that he must leave Ariadne on the desert coast of Naxos, since the gods appointed her as his wife to him, the god Dionysus. Theseus woke up and, full of sadness, quickly got ready to go. He did not dare to disobey the will of the gods. The goddess was Ariadne, the wife of the great Dionysus. The companions of Dionysus Ariadne greeted loudly and glorified the wife of the great god with singing.

Theseus' ship was speeding along on its black sails, cutting through the waves of the sea. The coast of Attica has already appeared in the distance. Theseus, saddened by the loss of Ariadne, forgot the promise given to Aegeus - to replace black sails with white ones if he returns to Athens with victory.

Aegeus often stood on a high rock and looked into the sea, looking for a white dot there - a symbol of his son's return home. When a black dot appeared in the distance, the father's hopes began to crumble, but he peered at the approaching ship to the last. When there was no doubt about the black sails, Aegeus, seized with despair, threw himself off the cliff into the raging sea. And after some time, his lifeless body was washed ashore by the waves.

Theseus landed on the shores of Attica and was already offering thanksgiving sacrifices to the gods, when suddenly, to his horror, he learned that he had become the unwitting cause of his father's death. With great honors, the grief-stricken Theseus buried the body of his father, and after the funeral he assumed power over Athens.

At the moment, it is known that not only Athenians, but also various kinds of criminals were taken to the Knossos Labyrinth. According to one version, the killers even gouged out their eyes so that before death they would feel the full horror of the sinister uncertainty that reigns there. Whether the Minotaur existed or not, in those dark corridors, something strong, feeding on human flesh, clearly lived ...

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