Editing Minotaur (section)

== Theseus myth ==
[[File:Kylix Theseus Aison MNA Inv11365 n1.jpg|left|thumb|[[Tondo (art)|Tondo]] showing the victory of [[Theseus]] over the Minotaur in the presence of [[Athena]] from {{Circa|435}} BC]]
All the stories agree that prince [[Androgeus (son of Minos)|Androgeus]], son of King Minos, died and that the fault lay with the Athenians. The sacrifice of [[Sacrificial victims of Minotaur|young Athenian men and women]] was a penalty for his death.

In some versions he was killed by the [[Athens|Athenians]] because of their jealousy of the victories he had won at the [[Panathenaic Games]]; in others he was killed at [[Marathon, Greece|Marathon]] by the Cretan Bull, his mother's former taurine lover, because [[Aegeus]], king of Athens, had commanded Androgeus to slay it. The common tradition holds that Minos waged a war of revenge for the death of his son, and won. The consequence of Athens losing the war was the regular sacrifice of [[Sacrificial victims of Minotaur|several of their youths and maidens]]. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]' account of the myth said that Minos had led a fleet against Athens and simply harassed the Athenians until they had agreed to send children as sacrifices.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, Attica, chapter 27 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=1:chapter=27&highlight=minotaur |access-date=18 May 2023 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> In his account of the Minotaur's birth, [[Catullus]] refers to yet another version<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Catullus]] |url=http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e64.htm |title=Carmen&nbsp;64}}</ref> in which Athens was "compelled by the cruel plague to pay penalties for the killing of [[Androgeus (son of Minos)|Androgeon]]". To avert a plague caused by divine retribution for the Cretan prince's death, Aegeus had to send into the Labyrinth "young men at the same time as the best of unwed girls as a feast" for the Minotaur. Some accounts declare that Minos required [[Sacrificial victims of Minotaur|seven Athenian youths and seven maidens]], chosen by lots, to be sent every seventh year (or ninth); some versions say every year.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] |title=On the [[Aeneid]] |at=6.14 |quote={{lang|la|singulis quibusque annis}} 'every one year'.}}

: The annual period is given by {{cite dictionary |year=1964 |title=Androgeus |dictionary=Dictionary of Classical Mythology |publisher=[[Harper & Row]] |last=Zimmerman |first=J.E. |postscript=;}} and {{cite book |last=Rose |first=H.J. |title=A Handbook of Greek Mythology |publisher=Dutton |year=1959 |page=265}} Zimmerman cites [[Virgil]], [[Apollodorus]], and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]].

: The nine-year period appears in [[Plutarch]] and [[Ovid]].</ref>

[[File:Theseus Minotaur BM Vase E84.jpg|thumb|203x203px|Theseus dragging the Minotaur out of the Labyrinth, red-figure kylix from {{Circa|440-430}} BC]]
When the time for the third sacrifice approached, the Athenian prince [[Theseus]] volunteered to slay the Minotaur. Isocrates orates that Theseus thought that he would rather die than rule a city that paid a tribute of children's lives to their enemy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Isocrates, Helen, section 27 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0144:speech=10:section=27&highlight=minotaur |access-date=18 May 2023 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> He promised his father Aegeus that he would change the somber black sail of the boat carrying the victims from Athens to Crete, and put up a white sail for his return journey if he was successful; the crew would leave up the black sail if he was killed.

In Crete, Minos's daughter [[Ariadne]] fell madly in love with Theseus and helped him navigate the Labyrinth. In most accounts she gave him a ball of thread, allowing him to retrace his path. According to various classical sources and representations, Theseus killed the Minotaur with his bare hands, sometimes with a club or a sword.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} He then led the Athenians out of the Labyrinth, and they sailed with Ariadne away from Crete. On the way home, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of [[Naxos (island)|Naxos]] and continued to Athens. The returning group neglected to replace the black sail with the promised white sail, and from his lookout on Cape [[Sounion]], King Aegeus saw the black-sailed ship approach. Presuming his son dead, he killed himself by leaping into the [[Aegean Sea|sea that is since named after him]].<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=Theseus |at=15–19}}{{cite book |author=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |at=i.16, iv.61}}{{cite book |author=[[Apollodorus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]] |at=iii.1, 15}}</ref> His death secured the throne for Theseus.