We have told the birth, rise, loves and conquests of that liar named Minos. Today we'll tell you its sunset and its purpose.
Minos, son of Zeus, reigned supreme in Crete (country of liars), with two worries: the white bull which had inadvertently become the lover of his wife, and the Minotaur, the fruit of this foul union. Mind the latter was closed in the Labyrinth built by Daedalus, the first wild and uncontrollable ran around the whole island.
Perhaps mindful of the fact that the bull was a gift from Poseidon, and the dire consequences of having kept alive, Minos did little to capture the beast.
However, the king did not object when his brother arrived in Crete Heracles (Hercules, in the Latin), another demi-god son of one of the many worldly adventures of Zeus. Heracles had to fulfill one of his labors capturing the bull and put it in the court of Eurystheus of Mycenae: Minos gave him the green light, strong man and the hero did not fail the enterprise, capturing the bull and wearing on the continent.
On the question of the Minotaur, Minos saw him unexpectedly resolved by the Athenian Theseus, son of Aegeus, king of Athens (Or, according to others, of Poseidon the sea god).
As you may recall, the Athenians were defeated by Minos, and forced to pay a ruthless toll: each year, Crete had to send seven boys and seven girls were virgins who serve as food for the Minotaur.
Also that year the ship arrived in Athens, but Theseus was one of seven children, already famous for having wiped out the breed of ruffians and murderers who rule the roost across the Isthmus of Corinth.
arrival of the ship, Minos behaved like his usual: one of the girls caught his attention, and the king would take advantage on the spot. Theseus
opposed, proclaiming himself the son of Poseidon. Minos, once time rather blasphemous and disrespectful to the god of the sea, first ventured to say that God certainly did not comply with the girls that liked them. Then he challenged Theseus to prove his divine origin: the king threw a ring into the sea and said he would have recognized as Theseus son of Poseidon if the Athenians had brought the jewel.
Theseus, who did not bend to anyone, said he would do it only after Minos had proved to be the son of Zeus. The boy was cheeky, but Minos could not accept a challenge to his house, he called Zeus, and straightway the father sent a lightning and thunder.
We can imagine the satisfied grin of Minos when turned to Theseus, but the young man had already dipped: a group of dolphins led the hero to the palace of the Nereids and there Teti (according to others it was Amphitrite) gave Theseus the ring and a jeweled crown, wedding gift Aphrodite.
When the hero emerged, Minos was forced to bite the bullet, but someone else noticed the boy was Ariadne, the young daughter of the king.
The girl in the night, came secretly to the room where Theseus rested waiting to be taken to the Labyrinth. Arianna brought with him two gifts for the hero: a sword to kill the Minotaur and a magic ball of thread, a gift of Daedalus, to find their way out of the maze. In return, Theseus gave him the crown, and promised to take her and marry her.
Theseus performed the enterprise: he killed the Minotaur, rescued his companions and fled with
Ariadne from Crete. Minos did not take it, but eventually reconciled with Theseus, that has become king of Athens: the young man had stolen a child (Theseus then abandoned by order of Dionysius), but had eliminated the hassle and shame of the Minotaur . To seal this peace, Minos gave her another daughter to Theseus, Phaedra: even this union, however, was not lucky. But there was another Athenian that Minos had its intention to forgive: the inventor Daedalus. Some say that Daedalus had been closed in the Maze after having allowed the union between Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, and the bull. If it did not happen at that time, surely it was then that Minos imprisoned Daedalus in the Labyrinth, and his son Icarus, as a reward for having given the magic ball to Ariadne. But
Daedalus created the wings with feathers and wax them with the inventor and his son escaped from the Maze.
Minos went out of the grace of God: Daedalus wanted revenge!
did not know that the Athenian had already been punished for disobeying orders of his father Daedalus, Icarus had flown too close to the sun above, and the heat had melted the wax of the wings.
The poor boy fell into the sea, where he met his death, while his father came to an end in Sicily at the court of Cocalo, king of shirts. Those fees and the games ... great monuments to the king's daughters.
Minos organized his fleet and sailed to the west. But as Stan
the ingenious inventor?
Minos was a perjurer and a liar, but was no fool: he knew that Daedalus would not have survived a challenge that only he could solve. So the king, landed anywhere, showed a shell of Triton, and promised a great reward to those who had been able to get us through a linen thread.
Cocalo proposed the challenge to its inventor, Daedalus, and he succeeded brilliantly, as usual: he made a hole in the shell, and poured in the honey, then picked up an ant and tied them around a thin wire, then let in the el'insetto ant hole, eating the honey, crossed the entire shell. Finally Daedalus fastened to a linen thread attached to the thin end of the wire ant ... and the game was done.
Cocalo went to claim the prize, and Minos was a bad payer as usual: rather than pay as promised, made his big voice and demanded the surrender of Daedalus, the only man capable of making the enterprise. We do not know if Cocalo, seeing the Cretan fleet, has surrendered at once, but his daughters did not agree: never ever gave up the one who invented the game for them so beautiful. So
plotted with Daedalus: While Minos was enjoying a warm bath, through a tube hidden Daedalus brought down the king boiling water, or according to other pitch. The fact is that the king of Crete we stayed dry instantly.
But his story would last even nell'aldià ...
fact, dead in her bathtub more than Marat, Minos, treacherous, lying, wicked, and horned cornificatore ended his mortal career based on lies and bulls, and began a new, far more rewarding: ended the Underworld ... with the role of judge of the dead, because they recognized him as one of the most righteous among men. Given the curriculum of Minos, one wonders what the level of morality of others!
At his side, in the court of hell sat brother Rhadamanthus, now reconciled, and Aiakos, once its rival.
There, centuries later, find him during his mystical journey Dante Alighieri. But little remains of the royal Minos, a roaring bull-headed beast, with a large serpentine queue that wraps around itself, giving the sinner the circle which it is intended.
Coming Soon ...
Our description Migration continues!
We take a break from Greece, where Cadmus, brother of Europe, would have caused a stir, and we will follow Daedalus: continuing to migrate to the West, the inventor, left Sicily, arrived in Sardinia. Here began the service of other famous emigrants \\ immigrants, the sons of Heracles and daughters of Thespis, or the Tespiadi. And to their factory
... But more about that in another post, the first of a series dedicated to the legendary settlers of Sardinia.
Some small notes ... The bull
Crete captured by Heracles was set free by King Eurystheus. The beast fled across the Isthmus of Corinth came to the plain of Marathon, Attica. Here Theseus killed him, according to some mythographers before the journey of Theseus in Crete.
According to the charge of fourteen children should not be sent every year, but every nine years, ie at the end of a Great Year.
The myth of Icarus finds a match in a myth of the Zuni Indians. One of them tells of a young man in love with female eagle who had reared, and released her, tramutatosi to turn into a bird, followed her to the Turquoise Mountain. Here was given a dress to the young eagle, but also the admonition not to fly beyond the chain of mountains that you could see horizon. But one day, while flying, the young man was seized with a feeling of power that violated the ban, passed the chain saw and the city of the dead. After various events, as happened to Icarus, the young man was also ripped the dress eagle and the boy fell crashing to the ground.
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