đ¸| Tal | 23 | She/Her/They|đ¸â¨ It's not delusion, it's divine inspiration ⨠Just like me, this too is a mess
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Mid-day Epiphanies Are The Best. I Dont Have To Get Out Of Bed To Write My Ideas Down!
Mid-day epiphanies are the best. I donât have to get out of bed to write my ideas down!
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The Minotaurâs Name
Written at 1 am because I couldnât sleep. Terrible summary about the mythology above the cut but my actual writing is below. There are also links to a short story.
A basic summary for those who would like a refresher, or have never heard of the Minotaur. Minos was one of three sons vying to become king on the island of Crete after their father, King Aseterion, died. Minos goes to Poseidon and asks for a bull to prove his divine right to rule. He gets the bull and exiles his brothers. Minos then doesnât sacrifice the bull as he promises he would. Poseidon becomes enraged at this and puts a curse on Pasiphae, Minos wife. Long story short, she is the Minotaurâs mother. King Minos demanded that Daedalus, father of Icarus, create the Labyrinth to house the Minotaur, a half man half bull creature. For retribution for the death of Minosâ son Androgeos, the people of Athens forced to send 14 Athenian nobles into the Labyrinth every seven years to be sacrificed. Eventually the Minotaur was slaughtered by Theseus the Athenian hero. There are multiple renditions of this story but it remains similar plot wise. (More in depth version below.)
But did you know that the Minotaur had a name? Asterion, starry one. Asterion had a life outside the labyrinth. A mother who had loved and cared for him as a child. Who probably held him as he fell asleep. He had known the warmth of the sunlight on his skin, the moon that lit up the night sky and the stars for which he was named after. But at what age was he locked up in the winding darkness?When he got older, when the horns came in ,and the tantrums became too much to handle? Or was it when the subjects began to notice the bull prince?
A child left to wander the endless twists and turns of the maze he would now have to call home. Sitting at the door by which he was first locked in crying out for his mother who wasnât there, who would never come. Seeking an embrace he would never feel the warmth of again. At some point Asterion had to realize that no one would respond to his cries. Was it then that he started to explore, moving away from that door and into his new home.
Would he get lost at first? Making deep notches and groves the walls. So that he would know his way around the endless halls. Favorite rooms marked out with his own symbols, a language all his own unable to understand anything else. Talking to himself, making up imaginary friends and new words so he didnât have to hear the silence. Bellowing words and shouts of glee, attempting to stave off boredom. Citizens above mistaking joy for a monster below.
When his brother died and they sent Athenians in, was he the one to strike the first blow? Scaring the solitary soul who had instinctually defended himself against their attacks. Unbeknownst why they were in his home of halls. Would they starve to death before even finding him, withering in the corners. Asterion, within the depths of the labyrinth amongst the best rooms working on a new carving in the walls.
When Theseus would come to kill him, would he be relieved? The cycle of pain and suffering broken. No longer forced to be punished for his existence, mercy for a creature such as himself. He probably decided long ago whether he would look Death in the eye as it faced him, hands at his side quietly waiting. Accepting being a monster in the myths, for peace in return.
Who decides what a monster is? The nature of a creature how virtuous or violent it is? The environment of which it was raised, kindness shown or cruelty dolled out? An age old debate among men that has plagued us for eternity. But what if man was the one who made the monster? Not nature, nurture, nor the creature itself; the societal views upon which makes us human.
âWould you believe it, Ariadne?â Said Theseus âThe Minotaur scarcely defended himself.â
The Minotaur by George Frederic Watts, oil on canvas, 1885
This would be incomplete without the short story that inspired this writing. La casa de AsteriĂłn (House of Asterion) by Jorge Luis Borges, written 1947. He was inspired by the painting pictured above.
English
http://klasrum.weebly.com/uploads/9/0/9/1/9091667/the_house_of_asterion.pdf
Spanish
Information for those who would like it on the Minotaur Mythology stories. I did not feel like writing a long summary.
About the painting.
