Topical Guide 647
Mark Dorset
Myths: Characters in Myths
What a Piece of Work I Am, Chapter 2:
Minos, the King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa
What a Piece of Work I Am, Chapter 2:
Minos prayed to Neptune to send him a bull. […]
Neptune sent Minos a bull, as Minos had asked, but, as was the wont of the gods, he added a twist: the bull was so beautiful that Minos couldn’t bring himself to sacrifice it to Neptune, as he should have, according to the custom of the times and the implied contractual arrangement between Minos and Neptune.
Neptune was furious. […] He caused Minos’s wife Pasiphaë (pass-if-AH-ee) to fall in love with the bull, and he made the bull return her ardor. […]
Pasiphaë gave birth to a monster, a beast with the head of a bull and the body of a man, a beast that came to be called the Minotaur.
Minos ordered Daedalus to build a house—or prison—for the beast. Taking the inspiration for his design from the river Meander (you could look it up), […]
Wikipedia, “Büyük Menderes River”:
The Büyük Menderes River ("Great Meander", historically the Maeander or Meander, from Ancient Greek: Μαίανδρος, Maíandros; Turkish: Büyük Menderes Irmağı), is a river in southwestern Turkey. It rises in west central Turkey near Dinar before flowing west through the Büyük Menderes graben until reaching the Aegean Sea in the proximity of the ancient Ionian city Miletus. The river was well known for its sinuous, curving pattern, and gives its name to the common term used to describe these characteristic bends in rivers [and to the style of strolling favored by flâneurs MD].
What a Piece of Work I Am, Chapter 2:
On the way home to Athens, Theseus and Ariadne stopped at Naxos, and there Theseus deserted her while she slept.
What a Piece of Work I Am, Chapter 2:
Ariadne was miserable, of course, when she woke up and saw Theseus sailing off, leaving her stranded, but she eventually found happiness in the arms of Dionysus […]
See also:
Myths and Hoaxes TG 138
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