The minotaur was a prince.
Do you ever think about how we’ll never know if the minotaur could’ve learned to speak? To communicate in any way? What kind of a life could he have lived if he wasn’t torn away from his mother and tossed into a prison for the crime of being born? Do you think of the stories that describe the infant as “ferocious” as if that excuses what was done to him?
Do you think about how the only names we know him by are ones taken from his jailer, the man who locked up a child and sent countless others to their doom? At the very worst he was a pawn caught up in the crossfire of an angry god and a foolish king. But truly he was just hurt. Abused. Neglected.
The prince of a kingdom that feared and reviled him.
“but he eats people!” yeah. good.
Note that the monster name is his father’s (His mother’s husband’s) name.
Minotaur. Taur (Taurus) means bull. Mino (Minos), he is the legal son of King Minos. It’s his patrilineal line and a physical description.
His Jailer gave him his own name.
There’s surely something there about projection. The son is serving time for his father’s crimes.
Literally in this case. The Minotaur is a curse from the gods on Minos because Minos dishonored his contract with them. He promised that if he was made King of Crete he would sacrifice his best bull to them. He became King and sacrificed another bull in order to keep that wealth of his best bull. So the gods gave Queen Pasiphaë a lust for the bull and made her bear the minotaur.
Minos was certainly meant to be reminded forever of his transgressions in the face of his child.
But here we can return to this alternate take. Minos has Daedalus build the Labyrinth and confines the Minotaur inside it, feeding it by sacrifices sent in to be killed. Was that the gods’ intent?
Or did the gods grant him a choice? To atone for his sins by caring for the consequences, to do what he should have done in the first place and give up his pride to be the bigger person for the sake of others. To honor the contract of Father where he failed the contract of King.
And Minos chose instead to make his son the whipping boy for his own crimes. To project his crime, which caused the Minotaur, onto the Minotaur.
Is it both projection and victim blaming? I will punish you for my crimes. I will punish you because you are the consequence of my crimes. I will punish you because better you than me.
And so, Sins beget Sins.
The Tragedy is meant as a teaching tool, to illustrate wisdom through playing at foolishness.
And so does King Minos show the layers of pain wrought by a failure to own one’s failings; to honor one’s word.
His Minotaur, like the Creature of Dr Frankenstein centuries later, was an avoidable Monster.
me earlier in this thread - wait did icarus fuck the minotaur
