The Minotaur: Sacrifice In Grecian Myth

The Minotaur, commonly displayed in Grecian mythology as a half-man-half-bull creature, depicted with the head of a bull and the large body of a man. This menacing creature would usually have been shown with large axes, spears, halberds or swords to slay the humans that entered into the labyrinth, where this creature resided. The story goes that the king of Crete; Minos, was struggling with being ruler, so he prayed to the god Poseidon, to help him. One day, a beautiful, white, perfect calf was born. King Minos love this calf so much, but every year the god Poseidon demanded a sacrifice from King Minos. Not any old sacrifice, but his best bull. King Minos saw the white bull’s beauty and, because of the beast’s beauty, he spared it; sacrificing one of his own bulls instead.

Poseidon had become greatly angry with King Minos, so he made Minos’ wife; Pasiphae, fall in love with the white bull and, with the help of Daedalus the craftsman, she became pregnant with the fabled Minotaur.

As a youth, the Minotaur seemed calm enough, but soon demanded humans as sustenance and became ferocious. Because King Minos feared the Minotaur, he got the advice of the oracle at Delphi, and with that advice, he asked Daedalus to construct a large labyrinth and placed the Minotaur inside of the middle. Now, King Minos had made a contract with Athens. This contract stated that Athens would not have war waged upon it, but they would have to send seven young men and seven young women to be sent into the Minotaur’s labyrinth. The Minotaur’s labyrinth was near Minos’ palace in Knossos. Every seventh or ninth year (some sources even say every year), seven Athenian youths and seven maidens, drawn by lots, be sent to the Minotaur's labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur itself. At the time that the third sacrifice advanced, Theseus volunteered that he would slay the mighty

Minotaur.
Back In Crete, Minos’ daughter fell crazily in love with Theseus and wanted to help Theseus. Most sources say that she gave him a ball of thread or a spool of thread to allow him to retrace his path and not get lost. Theseus successfully had slain the Minotaur with the sword of Aegeus (Aegeus is Theseus’ father), and led the remaining Athenians to safety, out of the labyrinth. Now, Theseus promised his father that he would put up white sails if he was alive, or his crew would put up black sails if he did not return. Theseus left Ariadne so that he could continue on the island of Naxos, and forgot one vital thing; he did not put up the white sails. When his ship returned home, King Aegeus saw from his lookout on Cape Sounion that the ship wore black sails. Seeing this, and jumping (no pun intended) to the conclusion that his son was dead, King Aegeus committed suicide by jumping into the sea. The sea is thus named after him. Because Aegeus committed suicide, Theseus now had the throne secured and waiting just for him.