We said that all Cretans are liars. Indeed. They said the Cretans themselves.
Among the various stories handed down more or less far-fetched that the other Greeks, we report that tells how Minos, who became king of Crete, in spite of his legendary Justice, refused to fulfill a vow he made, not sacrificed to Poseidon that God sent the bull from the sea to help his nephew to claim the throne.
Strange people these demi-gods: they who are children or descendants, are pretend not to know the touchiness and the implacable vengeance of God's own relatives. Minos perhaps rely on the protection of his father ... In fact, Poseidon
not retaliated directly on the treacherous nephew, preferring to use Pasiphae, the beautiful wife of Minos, the daughter of the Sun
The union between the two had been fruitful: Androgeus, Catreo, II Deucalion, Glaucus, Ariadne, Phaedra and other children were shown how the son of the bull-god bull had to read the force of his father.
Indeed, the king spared his attentions of any woman attractive island. Britomart chose to jump off a cliff just to escape the attentions of the king, while Periboea not lost his passion and the nymphs Paria Dessitea and gave him children.
To pique or jealousy, the lawful wife cursed Minos, and with success: each time the king had a sexual relationship, its members came from snakes and scorpions. We can imagine the satisfaction of the partners ...
Minos was saved thanks to procreate, that in exchange for some magical gifts (a dog that no prey could escape and an unerring javelin) agreed to give him the 'grass of Circe, which healed and the curse. Minos, perjury, perhaps he believed that everyone was like him, then forced Procris back guarantee or your money back ": it was Procris to share a bed with Minos and check (imagine the kind of apprehension) that the remedy was in fact effective.
Meanwhile Pasiphae (imagine) had to resign themselves to abstinence with the legitimate wife. Perhaps the queen was already distracted by other things: the effect of the wrath of Poseidon (though not excluding a vindictive action of Aphrodite), Pasiphae fell in love with the beautiful bull ... Yes, that's bull that the husband did not want to sacrifice.
A burning passion, of course, unquenchable, of course, unsatisfiable (sorry for the invention of language) even if not by the will of the lady. She was also willing, but there was the fact that the bull was well in the herd of Minos, was enjoying his harem and did not want (rightly) know of nothing that was not a cow. So
poor Pasiphae was dying of unrequited love.
But, as in the current era, where science meets nature prevents it. In Crete had taken refuge Daedalus, Athenian genius inventor who had killed his nephew Talos (a student who was already surpassing the master) by throwing it down from the Acropolis.
The inventor, as a good scientist, you do not put scruples of conscience: he wanted to see his genius prevail over a nature that was contrary to the will of man. So devised a hollow structure of wood covered with cowhide, so perfect as to deceive anyone. And the bull fooled: as was his custom when he saw a new cow, fell through, only this time the artificial being was ... and inside was hidden Pasiphae, so that he could see his desires satisfied.
sopresona Surprise, the queen became pregnant. But when the child was born, this was monstrous: he had the human body and the head of a bull!
The Minotaur, in fact.
mythographers I say that Minos was learned mating forbidden, and therefore ruled that the child could only be monstrous son of the bull. But we can not exclude that the king, after he son of a bull, had no doubt that this monstrosity was the fruit of his loins (perhaps as a side effect of snakes and scorpions). The fact is that Minos had already imposed on Daedalus not leave Crete for punishment (or perhaps admiration of his genius and thought to have him at your own service), and now forced to resolve the hot potato: do not kill the baby could (at the bottom was a punishment for perjury of the king, that was certain), but you could not even leave it around ... So Daedalus conceived the famous Labyrinth of Crete, the house where the Minotaur, Asterion called, waiting for victims Minos would have caused.
But that was another matter, and did not stop the perjury of Minos.
Some small notes ...
It is said that Minos was the inventor of the homosexual relationship: the young Miles, Ganymede, and even the Athenian hero Theseus would have been her lovers.
The strange lover of Pasiphae could not enjoy his menagerie vaccine in peace: Heracles came from the mainland, another bastard Zeus. The hero, on behalf of his cousin Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, was to capture the Cretan bull to make one of his famous labors.
Minos agreed that the brother would capture the bull, Heracles and took him across the continent. Eurystheus then left in the animal freedom. The beast wandered the Peloponnese, Attica and the Isthmus bringing devastation, until his Theseus, "cousin" (it seems that his divine father was Poseidon, even though her father was human Aegean) captured him back to Marathon.
The Minotaur, half man and half bull, ate human flesh. Why half cow is a symbol carnivore is necessarily complex to explain ...
"The House of Asterion" is a story short, wonderful, Jose Luis Borges. Read it, as we invite you to read the entire production of the Argentine master of the fantastic: it's worth it.
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