Mythology and Legends

[gypolord]

it lived around the river lerna i think...it didn't have a name like typhon and echidna did is what they mean i think

[bingo]

oh, i guess so then. sort of like the kraken and the giant squid and so on,then? sea moster wise?

[J-Bit]

One of my favorite stories in mythology was the story about the labrynth and minotar....

[Rainbowstar]

Elaborate please.  there might be people who don't know what that is, so either elaborate or provide a link

[bingo]

i think i know it..is that the one where the minotaur goes into the labyrinth with a ball of wool so he can find his way back or something? correct me if im wrong...

[Rainbowstar]

That's completely wrong, because it isn't the Minotaur, but Theseus that goes in with a ball of string.  and there's so much more to it...

I can't remember why, but once a queen got tricked into mating with a bull (don't ask, I think it might have been Zeus under the disguise of a bull of something like that), and a child was born of it, with a human body and the head of a bull as punishment.  King Minos, the queen's husband, wanting to keep his shame secret, had a labyrinth made to keep his child, which they named the Minotaur.  Each couple of years, 7 virgins had to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, so that it would not try to escape too much.

The king's daughter, Ariadne, went in an out the labyrinth frequently (well in some stories she walked on top of the walls, in others they communicated through the walls....).  She started feeling sorry for the creature, and wished to help him out of his suffering.

The virgins came from the neighbouring country, from where the prince, once old enough, started to realise that it was very wrong to have to sacrifice 7 virgins each time, and that Minos had no right to take them from their country, so one day he dressed himself as a woman and took the place of one of the virgins, in order to to figure out what was happening.
When the virgins arrived in Minos' castle, Ariadne realised that he was a man, and took him apart.  Realising that he had come to end the capture of those virgins, and that that would be a way to end the beast's suffering, she decided to help him, explained what was going on and provided him with a ball of gold thread (or wool in other versions), so that he could find his way back.  The only thing she asked of Theseus was that the Minotaur would not suffer.  Of course she also fell in love with Theseus...

Theseus did murder the beast, but had him suffer for the deaths of all those girls.  He found his way back out of the labyrinth a,d presented himself in front of the king.  The king, thought relieved, was also furious with his daughter.  After seeing Theseus come out of the labyrinth, he realised that it had to be Ariadne who helped him, because she was the only one that knew the labyrinth in and out (having had the constructor killed after building it so that the secrets of it would remain secret).  Since killing a sibling was a huge offence in their society, he sent his daughter away, which is why he was so outraged.

Ariadne and Theseus left court together, to sail away to new adventures.   (where Theseus leaves Ariadne on an island and stuff like that.  As always with Greek myths and legends, the main characters always play in several stories, and have books dedicated to their adventures.)  I think he's also in the legend of the Golden Fleece...and I'm sure he's also in the legend of the hobos that torture weary travellers

[J-Bit]

thank you RA i was looking for an appropriate site for this story and it seems that you have beaten me to it.

[Rainbowstar]

Well that's cause I didn't need a sit, I just use my memory and what I learned in Latin classes.  But not everybody has that

[Tiaret]

site you mean? anyway, i enjoyed that story... anyone know where i can get a detailed version?

i read a few parody books last year, it was as if hades was telling it, and it was SO funny basically it told everything that happened from his point of view and then talked about how annoying zues was and how he was alway lying....lol.

then i read a book about hercules, i enjoyed that one alot

[bingo]

wow,where are those?? i read a book (its tia's) called Ulysses..it was absolutely fascinating. it had everything from how the trojan war started until how ulysses and his son regained control of the castle when they went home. apart from Horrible Histories it was one of my favourite ever mythology books,because it was really well written,interesting and funny.

my favourite mythological creature will always be the dragon though

[Tiaret]

yeah they do exist, since i did read them... i found them in my schools library i think one of them was called go home persephone.

[gypolord]

going back to thesus and the minotaur.

the reason is because. Minos, the king of Crete, was challenged as king and prayed to Poseidon for help. Poseidon sent a giant white bull out of the sea. Minos planned on sacrificing the bull to Poseidon, but then decided not to. He substituted a different bull. In rage, Poseidon cursed Pasipha?, Minos' wife, with zoophilia. Daedalus built her a wooden cow, which she hid inside. The bull mated with the wooden cow and Pasipha? was impregnated by the bull and things progressed from there

[bingo]

the problem with myths is that sometimes they have so many variations as different historians interpret them differently...( i wasnt reffering to that in particular,just in general)

[gypolord]

yeah there are many different versions of every myth...and every ancient city has at least two

[bingo]

ha. we would know very true. history has a lot of 'opinion' in it. the difference between myth and fact is hard to define.