![]() That is the true magic of the creative life. Often, this is what must happen to find the creative treasure at the center of ourselves, that one thing that must be brought into the world through our creative efforts. We take wrong turns, hit walls, get lost. In a creative journey, we must often find our way through a labyrinth. Monsters are often the guardians of treasure, who must be slain in order to bring the treasure out. The first interpretation of this story is that a monster must be slayed as part of the initiatory journey of following the path through the maze, but I think there is more to his presence here than that. The story does not start or end with the Minotaur, but he is at the heart of it, as he is at the heart of the labyrinth. This is a complex and rich myth, with many story threads we can pull, to find the creative metaphor in the myth. She thinks she is about to die, that this is the end of her story, but she is discovered there by the god Dionysus, who falls in love with her and makes her his wife, and was the only husband among the Greek gods to remain faithful to his wife. Theseus took Ariadne away from Crete, but then forsake his promise to marry her by abandoning her as she sleeps on the beach of the island of Naxos. He found the minotaur deep in the recesses of the labyrinth, killed it with his sword, and followed the thread back to the entrance. Ariadne gave him a ball of red thread, and Theseus unrolled it as he penetrated the labyrinth, which allowed him to find his way back out. She offered to help him conquer the labyrinth and kill the minotaur if he would marry her and take her away from Crete. He traveled to Crete, and as soon as he arrived Ariadne, King Minos' daughter, fell in love with him. Theseus volunteered to join the band of youths who were to be sacrificed. Theseus' story is a long and complex one, and he is one of the great heroes of Greek myth, so we'll only be looking at the portion of his story that involves the labyrinth. Theseus was a son of King Aegeus of Athens. Minos had recently conquered Athens, and he demanded as tribute that every year Athens would send seven maidens and seven youths to be sacrificed to the minotaur. ![]() It was famous for being unnavigable once in, anyone who entered was doomed to be eaten by the Minotaur. Minos instructed the great architect and engineer Daedalus to build the labyrinth to house the Minotaur. Poseidon was angry when Minos broke his promise, so he punished him by making his queen, Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull. Minos had promised to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, but broke his promise when he saw how beautiful the bull was, and sacrificed a lesser animal instead. The story of the minotaur starts with Minos, who became king of Crete when Poseidon sent a great white bull out of the ocean as a sign Minos should rule. What can this story teach us about both finding the center of the labyrinth and finding our way out again? Sometimes the creative process can feel like we're walking a maze, getting lost along the way. The story of the labyrinth from Greek myth is an excellent example of this. Myth is rich in metaphor that can illustrate and inform the creative journey.
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