Editing Theseus (section)

==Theseus and the Minotaur==
[[Pasiphaë]], wife of King [[Minos]] of Crete, had several children. The eldest of these, [[Androgeus (son of Minos)|Androgeus]], set sail for Athens to take part in the [[Panathenaic Games]], which were held there every four years. Being strong and skillful, he did very well, winning some events outright. He soon became a crowd favorite, much to the resentment of the Pallantides, who assassinated him, incurring the wrath of Minos.

[[File: Theseus and the Minotaur.gif|thumb|left|upright|Theseus and the Minotaur]]

When King Minos heard what had befallen his son, he ordered the Cretan fleet to set sail for Athens. Minos asked Aegeus for his son's assassins, saying that if they were to be handed to him, the city would be spared. However, not knowing who the assassins were, King [[Aegeus]] surrendered the whole city to Minos' mercy. His retribution was to stipulate that at the end of every [[Great Year]], which occurred after every seven cycles on the solar calendar, the seven most courageous youths and the seven most beautiful maidens were to board a boat and be sent as tribute to Crete, never to be seen again.

[[File:Teseo in lotta col minotauro, da chieti, s.n. 01.JPG|thumb|Mosaic from [[Chieti]] depicting Theseus fighting the Minotaur, [[National Archaeological Museum, Naples]], 1st c. BC – 1st c. AD]]

In another version, King Minos had waged war with the Athenians and was successful. He then demanded that, at nine-year intervals, seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls were to be sent to Crete to be devoured by the [[Minotaur]], a half-man, half-bull monster that lived in the [[Labyrinth]] created by [[Daedalus]].

{{anchor|Labyrinth}}On the third occasion, Theseus volunteered to talk to the monster to stop this horror. He took the place of one of the youths and set off with a black sail, promising to his father, Aegeus, that if successful he would return with a white sail.<ref group="lower-roman">Plutarch quotes [[Simonides]] to the effect that the alternate sail given by Aegeus was not white, but "a scarlet sail dyed with the tender flower of luxuriant [[Quercus ilex|holm oak]]." (Plutarch, 17.5).</ref> Like the others, Theseus was stripped of his weapons when they sailed. On his arrival in Crete, [[Ariadne]], King Minos' daughter, fell in love with Theseus and, on the advice of Daedalus, gave him a ball of thread (a clew), so he could find his way out of the Labyrinth.<ref group="lower-roman">Ariadne is sometimes represented in vase-paintings with the thread wound on her [[spindle (textiles)|spindle]].</ref> That night, Ariadne escorted Theseus to the Labyrinth, and Theseus promised that if he returned from the Labyrinth he would take Ariadne with him. As soon as Theseus entered the Labyrinth, he tied one end of the ball of string to the doorpost and brandished his sword which he had kept hidden from the guards inside his tunic. Theseus followed Daedalus' instructions given to Ariadne: go forwards, always down, and never left or right. Theseus came to the heart of the Labyrinth and upon the sleeping Minotaur. The beast awoke and a tremendous fight occurred. Theseus overpowered the Minotaur with his strength and stabbed the beast in the throat with his sword (according to one ''[[scholium]]'' on Pindar's Fifth Nemean Ode, Theseus strangled it).<ref>[[Károly Kerényi|Kerényi, Karl]] (1959). ''The Heroes of the Greeks.'' p. 232, note 532.</ref>
[[File:Affreschi romani - Ercolano - Teseo liberatore.JPG|thumb|Theseus on an antique fresco from [[Herculaneum]]]]

After decapitating the beast, Theseus used the string to escape the Labyrinth and managed to escape with all of the young Athenians and Ariadne as well as her younger sister [[Phaedra (mythology)|Phaedra]]. Then he and the rest of the crew fell asleep on the beach of the island of Naxos, where they stopped on their way back, looking for water. Theseus then abandoned Ariadne, where [[Dionysus]] eventually found and married her. On his way back from Crete, he also stopped on the island of [[Delos]], where, according to [[Plutarch]], "Theseus danced with the young Athenians a dance still performed by the inhabitants of the island, consisting of twisting and twisted movements that reproduce the shapes of the labyrinth. Dicearchos states that this dance is called 'Crane'."<ref>{{cite Plutarch|Theseus|21}}</ref> Theseus forgot to put up the white sails instead of the black ones, so his father, the king, believing he was dead, committed suicide, throwing himself off a cliff of [[Sounion]] and into the sea, causing this body of water to be named the Aegean Sea.