WEBVTT - The Minotaur, Part 1 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:09.080 Every nine years, nine men come into the house so 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.800 that I can free them from all evil. I hear 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:17.120 their footsteps or their voices far away in the galleries 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.239 of stone, and I run joyously to find them. The 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:25.720 ceremony lasts but a few minutes. One after another, they fall, 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.320 without my ever having to bloody my hands. Where they fall, 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:34.240 they remain, and their bodies help distinguish one gallery from 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.440 the others. I do not know how many there have been, 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.760 but I do know that one of them predicted as 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:46.360 he died, that some day my redeemer would come. Since then, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.680 there has been no pain for me in solitude, because 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.199 I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.800 he will rise and stand above the dust. If my 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.680 ear could hear every sound in the world, I would 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.480 hear his footsteps. I hope he takes me to a 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.840 place with fewer galleries and fewer doors. What will my 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:13.319 Redeemer be like? I wonder? Will he be bull or man? 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:16.840 Could he possibly be a bull with the face of 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:25.000 a man, or will he be like me? Welcome to 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:33.360 stot to blow your mind production of my heart Radio. Hey, 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:35.360 you welcome to stuff to blow your mind. My name 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.680 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's been 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.640 a long time coming. We finally enter the labyrinth of 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:46.200 the Minotaur. That's right. We're gonna try and leave some 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.720 string behind us as we go through these episodes so 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:51.880 that you can find your way back out again. But 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.640 we figured this would be a perfect journey to take 0:01:54.960 --> 0:02:01.880 during October when we frequently engage on Halloween themed episodes. Now, 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.640 that cold opening I want to point out was from 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:08.720 the the just fabulous short story The House of Hysterian 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:13.400 by Johey Luis Borges. This one is translated by Andrew 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.320 Hurley and I got this out of the Book of 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.560 Collected Fictions, which is put out by Penguin. The minotaur 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.560 is kind of the perfect monster. I think the minotaur 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:28.880 has very often been done injustice by by films and 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.440 TV shows, And one of the few exceptions I can 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:36.160 think of is Jim Hinson's Storyteller, where that minotaur I 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.760 think has has just the right balance of of pain 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.520 and terror and anguish and and and uh and menace 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.000 uh and and I like that. You you don't often 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:51.360 get a very full look at the minotaur in that story. Yeah, 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:55.200 they do the Hintston team does a fabulous job presenting 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.760 just the physicality of the minotaur, but then also the 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:02.480 minotaur is written and performed in such a way that 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:05.080 that he is this true hybrid. You know, he's not 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.920 just beast, but he is also uh human as well. 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.000 You know, there's this juxtaposition in his being. He stands 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.800 across this threshold because we we we find him both 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.880 both terrifying and tragic. You know, we fear the minotaur 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.200 even as we empathize with it um you know, and 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.320 and even as just an adversary in the myth it 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:31.000 can it is supposed to combine brute strength and savagery, 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:35.000 but also with this cunning, predatory nature. That story by 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:38.720 Jorge Luis Borges is quite good because it captures the 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.520 pity and the pathos that we should feel for him, 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:43.600 but it does it in an ironic way. It's like 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:47.200 that you feel pity for the minotaur because he's deluded, 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:51.120 like he he has a very his vision of his 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.800 role in in the culture is very confused, like he believes. 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:57.960 At one point, he says he gets out of his 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.360 labyrinth and he wanders around in streets and he says 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:03.720 the people are afraid of him, but he believes it's 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.320 because they recognize his royal blood and they're like, oh, 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.400 you know, here's the you know, here's the powerful descendant 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.880 of the queen. We must defer. But of course, the 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:15.480 the implication once you get to the end of the 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.080 story and realize that it's about the minotaur, is that 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:22.360 I guess they were looking at his horns. Yes. Yeah, 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.120 this is as as perfect a short story as as 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.640 I can think of, and it is about really about 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:32.160 the perfect monster. And Borhes of course totally this was this. 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.600 I mean, Borhes was was obsessed by by labyrinths and 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.280 uh and the like, so that this is the perfect 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.280 myth for him to consider. And indeed the labyrinth is 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.600 essential to understanding the minotaur. If you take the minotaur 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:51.279 out of the labyrinth, as so many works of fiction 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.120 and films and games do, and all you have is 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.760 like a pretty cool beast man, but just a beast man. 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:00.400 For for the myths to work, for the monster to 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.480 have its true terror and and and all of these 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:07.000 other emotions were attributing to it, he has to reside 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:13.800 within this maze, within this artificial habitat that is seemingly 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.720 designed to confuse us. Yeah, in a way, I think 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:20.679 it's almost a mistake to have made the minotaur into 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.680 um less of a less of a unique sort of 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.520 proper noun type monster, and more into a species of 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.480 monster that you might encounter in Dungeons and Dragons or 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:32.920 something like that, because it really does. It takes him 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.440 out of his proper context, right right, and and and 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.160 we'll come back to Dungeons and Dragons in a bit, 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:40.600 because I think there are cases where it can be 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.000 where there has been some correction applied. But for the 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.160 most part, yeah, you you you take me make the 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.440 minotaur into just a species, and you mostly just have 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.920 a beast man. Uh. The setting is key, and in 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.520 fact is as Borges pointed out in another work, The 0:05:55.560 --> 0:06:00.920 Book of Imaginary Beings. This is also from translation by Hurley. Indeed, 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:02.960 the image of the labyrinth and the image of the 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.080 minotaur seemed to go together. It is fitting that at 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.320 the center of a monstrous house there should live a 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:13.520 monstrous inhabitant. I agree, And I think another uniting theme 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:17.960 here is confusion, Because what is the thing that makes 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.000 the hybrid scary. It's that it is a perversion. It 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:25.960 is a confusion of nature and what makes the labyrinth scary? Uh, 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.880 this is the I guess, the more classic maze understanding 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.760 of the labyrinth, rather than the unidirectional labyrinth. We can 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:35.839 get into those distinctions in a bit. But the terror 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.760 there is also a confusion. It's a um it's you know, 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.719 having the stability of nature and of direction, uh, taken 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:46.640 out from under you. You are unmoored when dealing with 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.080 the minotaur because you don't know which way is which, 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:52.360 and you don't know what kind of beasts this is. Yeah, 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:56.240 and and and in many ways, this basic idea reverberates 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:58.240 through a lot of our horror fiction. I mean, a 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.240 haunted house has a ghost in it, you know, like that, 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.159 That's that's how it works. So Leatherface lives in the 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:09.200 crazy Chainsaw house, you know, and uh uh, Leathers takes 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.920 Manhattan would not work right, Uh? You know. Freddie Krueger 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:17.240 occupies the realm of dreams. And even even Jason is 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:19.640 a is a creature of like of Crystal Lake, right, 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.240 He's a creature of the woods, of this environment that 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.080 is far into the various teenagers and what have you 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.360 that have that are visiting it. I guess That is 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.480 one reason Jason Takes Manhattan is so funny is because 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:34.640 like he just doesn't make any sense whatsoever out of 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.320 his context. And you actually see that in the tone 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.840 of the movie because in Jason Takes Manhattan, when he's 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.680 walking around Times Square, the movie at that point transitions 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.320 to become a full comedy, like on purpose comedy with 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.680 jokes where he just lifts his mask up at the 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.160 punks and scares them, you know, and everybody's now and 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.160 the kids are saying, like there's a maniac chasing us 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.200 in the waitress at the diners, like welcomed into York. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.840 You know, I never thought of this before, but I'm 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.720 now assuming that movie came out after Crocodile Dundee, right, probably, 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:11.680 Oh yeah, it's Crocodile Dundee, but he's Jason. Yeah, And 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:14.680 of course that's another fish out of water story. But 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.760 the minotaur is very much a fish in its own waters, 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:22.120 waters that are foreign and dark and mysterious to us. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.720 And uh and I and I feel like like this 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.200 is a perfect metaphor for so many fears and anxieties 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.600 in life. And that's another huge reason that the minotar 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.760 myth and things that are like the Minetar myth resonates 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.440 so strongly the idea of a realm that we're uncertain 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.560 about and the things that might be in there that 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.640 can harm us. I don't think we've said it so far, 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:45.480 but we should acknowledge this is gonna be a two 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:47.880 part series because we've wanted to do the Minotaur for years. 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:49.280 I don't know why it took us so long to 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:51.880 get around to it, but we're gonna have two episodes 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.400 worth of Minotaur for you. And I think maybe at 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.520 first here we should just tell the myth, right, Yeah, yeah, 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.120 we should. We should just remind everybody what the story is, 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.880 who the major players are here and and what happens 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:06.480 now before we we get going. I do want to 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.480 to drive home, of course, that the Minetar emergence from 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:12.199 Greek myth, but as always, myths are amorphous. They change 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.840 over time, with different tellings, with different peoples and cultures. 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:20.360 Stories merged together, stories split apart, stories are finally recorded 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:25.080 and then re recorded and translated, ETCETERA real history, magical thinking, 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:28.680 and many other factors come into the creation of a myth, 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.600 and the Minotaur is no exception. That's right, and This 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:33.240 is one thing we talked about when we when we 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.480 did the Medusa episodes earlier this year that I find 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:40.760 often today, like kids are really insistent on knowing what 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.080 canon is, like what is what is technically canon and 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.760 what is not canon. I think that that's a product 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.800 of modern myth making, like Star Wars and stuff, where 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:54.320 you've got ideas of intellectual property and like one artist 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:58.400 or owner's control over what technically really happens in this 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:01.920 mythical universe. That's not how ancient myths are Ancient myths 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.520 or you know, there's a million different versions of them, 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:06.560 especially with like you know, the ones where we have 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.480 a lot of different sources over hundreds of years, like 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:11.920 the Greek myths. You know, you've got sources they go 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.360 back to a couple of centuries b C. And you've 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:16.840 got sources going way up into Some of our fullest 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:20.360 sources are from the earliest centuries c E. And so 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.240 you end up with tons of different variations and there's 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:24.960 no way to pick one and say, oh, this is 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.560 the real version of the myth. Yeah, And I feel 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:30.920 like it would be healthier for us if we approached 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.040 things like Star Wars in that way. I've thought about 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:35.920 this a little bit because I've been thinking way too 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:38.440 much about Star Wars this year. Uh. But yeah, I 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:41.680 feel like the Clone Wars, for instance, this is uh, 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.600 you know, this is a mythic event. Uh. And You're 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:48.080 going to have various tellings and retellings of it, and 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.400 there will continue to be tellings and retellings of it, 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.319 and and and it's and the thing itself is going 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.880 to ultimately be shapeless and unformed at the center. The 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.360 fixed canon is a product of a society that operates 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.400 largely on the basis of fixed recorded media and has 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:08.520 a like capitalist conception of intellectual property. I think those 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:13.440 things are just death to mythology. You gotta let it breathe. Yeah. 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:16.400 And and certainly you see even with with with films 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.080 and whatnot, you see that energy there in the in 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.440 the fandom and people that follow, you know, we we 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:23.880 all want to have our own interpretations of what happened, 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:29.960 alternate interpretations. There's this yearning for for for for these interpretations, 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:34.440 for fan fictions, for additional fleshings out of mysteries. And 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.400 I think I think that's basically the same sort of 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.560 energy that you would see go into the deviation and 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:43.040 the and the recreation of myths over time. Now having 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.720 said all that, I guess we should also try to identify, though, 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.520 what are the main sources we would be looking at 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.200 for the closest thing to a canonical version of the myth. 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.000 I guess the closest thing to canonical would be the 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.800 version of the myth that most people know, right, And 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.840 a lot of a lot of the modern understanding of 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:04.040 of the men at our story, like as without many 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.560 other myths, comes down down to of its metamorphosis. Uh. 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.040 And so that was one of the key areas we 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:12.920 turned to here. As always, I I pick up Carol 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.920 Rose's uh books of Monsters and Fairies, because she she 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:21.160 did such a fabulous job, uh, you know, basically, uh, 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.400 you know, nailing down that the essential myths, uh, that 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:26.319 sort of thing. But certainly what we're gonna about to 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.080 roll out here is not the It is not the cannon, 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.040 but it is maybe as close to the cannon as 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:32.840 we can sort of agree on for the purposes of 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.880 moving forward. Yeah. I just want to mention another major 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.120 source on this, I think would be pseudo Apolodorus. The 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:41.560 I think this is probably now believed to be like 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.720 a first or second century CE work. But you know, 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.920 it's the Biblioteca. It's tells a lot of classic Greek 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.800 and Roman myths, and it was traditionally attributed to an 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.000 author named a Polydorus. Now that authorship is questioned, so 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.880 it's largely known as pseudo Apolodorus. Now ask your doctors 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:02.320 about pseudo Apolodorus. Okay, Well, what's the story? Okay? Alright? 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.200 So so here we go on the isle of Crete. 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.079 There is a king who, like most kings, desires above 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.559 all else to ensure and extend his reign. And as 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:13.520 he lives in a world ruled by the gods and 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:19.719 is himself not entirely without divine blood, he seeks their support. Now, 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.199 given the creed is surrounded on all sides by the sea, 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:26.040 it makes sense to reach out to Poseidon getting into 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:31.120 bad company there. Yeah, But you know, kings, they're they're vain, uh, 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.480 and they see themselves as powerful enough to stand beside 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.920 such deities. So he asked the sea god to deliver 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:41.800 up a sign of his divine right to rule, as 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.760 well as a proper beast of sacrifice. And so the 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.760 god does just this. He delivers up this white bull 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.640 from the surf. It comes, comes, comes out, It's as 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.880 white as the frothing sea foam itself, and this beast 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.000 comes to be known as the Cretan Bull. I think 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.960 even this aspect of the myth is very interesting because 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:04.040 is what he does is King Minos asks Poseidon to 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.680 send him a bull that he can then turn around 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.600 and sacrifice to Poseidon. So he wouldn't even really be 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.600 giving of himself, he'd just be sort of returning the 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.959 favor in a way. Well, I guess it does kind 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.280 of remind me of like the the gesture of say 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.600 you you visit somebody's house for dinner, and you bring 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.360 a bottle of wine, and then the expectation is kind 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:28.560 of like that bottle of wine will then be opened 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.680 and shared with the guests. Okay, I can see that. 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.280 The analogy I was thinking of was checking the ball 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:37.680 in a game of basketball where you've only got one goal, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:42.080 Check the ball. Check the ball, you know, like when 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:44.680 you never played half court basketball where you get to 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.840 the when possession changes you, you check the ball, you 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:49.840 throw it to the other team, you say check, and 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:51.880 then they throw the ball back to you. It is 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.920 a sign that possession has changed. Okay, I'll take your 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.720 word for it. Okay, so the Cretan bowl is fabulous, 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.480 is beautiful, and then the factors into some other myths 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.240 as well. But but so splendid is this beast, and 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:07.320 so self interested is King Minos that he decides to 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.760 keep this trophy for himself and instead to offer up 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.160 the blood sacrifice of immortal bowl so that Poseidon, you know, 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.840 will still be pleased. Uh. So it's like you bring 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:20.520 a really nice bottle of wine to dinner and the 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.000 host is like, oh thanks, and then gets out the 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:27.480 two buck chuck exactly. Yeah. But, as we've touched on before, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:31.960 Poseidon is certainly nobody to trifle with um, even if 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:34.440 you do have a little bit of of royal blood 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.600 of Zeus in your system, as is uh supposed to 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.440 be the case with Minos. Okay, well, we know from 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.040 experience that Poseidon does not deal well with slides. In fact, 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.920 Poseidon does not even usually treat people well if they've 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.240 done nothing to him. So he is he's bad news. 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.280 How is he going to react to this? Well horribly? 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.000 But by comparing preparing it to other things, Besidon is done. 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.920 I mean he he was almost playing at softball here, 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.520 as we'll see, but that still he definitely has the 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.760 last laugh. So here's what Poseidon did. He bewitched Minos's wife, Pacific, 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.720 causing her to fall in love with the Cretan bull. 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.960 So she ends up belonging to be one with this beast. 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:20.800 And she convinces the master artificer Daedalus, who was then 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.440 residing in Crete, to craft for her this mechanical bovine 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:29.040 likeness that wouldn't enable her to then mate with the bull. Yes, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:32.760 So Poseidon, by which is pacifically says you're gonna fall 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.920 in love with this bull? She does. She gets Deadalus 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.840 to build her robot bull so she can get inside 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.400 it and have sex with the white bull. Yes, and 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.720 this results in a monstrous pregnancy, producing a monstrous hybrid 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:51.160 part human part bull. This is the Bull of Minos, 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:56.080 or the Minotaur, also known as a stereon. Yes um, 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:58.600 And certainly that that gets back to the title of 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:02.400 that borhe story, the House of Hysteria. Now, the exact 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.520 form of the minotaur was not always well to find uh. 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.920 The The A. S. Klein translation of The Metamorphosis describes 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:13.119 a quote strange hybrid creature, a twin form of bull 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.359 and man and bores. Is actually in that passage that 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.680 I read, he's alluding to this a little bit, uh 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.120 the idea that sometimes there is this idea that maybe 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.560 the minotaur is more like the face of a man 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:26.480 on the body of a bull rather than the reverse. 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.439 So now we have the minotaur, and it's easy to 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.880 sort of overlook how strange this creature is and exactly 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.080 like what it's mixed lineage means, because this is a 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.199 monster of two worlds yet none. It's the It's a 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:45.399 product of minos Is blasphemy, Poseidon's wrath, Pacific's lust. It 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.720 was an unnatural being, and yet it also was sacred. 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.520 Minos could not simply just kill it and slaughter it, 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:53.879 or cast it out back into the sea. You know 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.840 where it's a it's it's father, the bull came from. 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:00.720 So instead he chooses to hide it away, and luckily 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.639 he had in his employ just the right man to 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:08.359 design a most elegant hiding place. I want to read 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:13.040 here from the Metamorphoses, the garthen Dryden translation that talks 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:17.320 about this part. So Avid writes, when Minos willing to 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.920 conceal the shame that sprung from the reports of tattling 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:25.520 fame resolves a dark enclosure to provide, and far from sight, 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:30.119 the two formed creature hide. Great Dadalus of Athens was 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:33.160 the man that made the draft and formed the wondrous 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:38.720 plan where rooms within themselves encircled lie with various windings 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:43.280 to deceive the eye. As soft meanders wanton current plays 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:47.639 when through the phrygian fields, it loosely strays backward and 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:51.679 forward rolls the dimpled tide, seeming at once two different 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:56.680 ways to glide when circling streams their former banks survey 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.919 and waters past succeeding waters sea now floating to the 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:05.080 sea with downward course now pointing upward to its ancient source. 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:09.120 Such was the work, so intricate, the place that scarce 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.560 the workman all its turns could trace, And Dadalus was 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.879 puzzled how to find the secret ways of what himself designed. 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.760 That's that's wonderful. Oh yeah, So he's describing this thing 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:24.639 that these galleries, this place that's often described as a 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.760 maze or a labyrinth, as as being as confusing as 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:34.000 waters that churned back and forth without apparent rhyme or reason. Yeah, 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:36.760 I love this. So he makes some comparisons to the 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:40.200 natural world here, But but it is the ultimate unnatural 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:44.080 environment to house the ultimate unnatural creature. But maybe I 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.320 should read the next two lines because that sets up 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.200 what we're getting into now, these private walls the minotaur 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:55.320 include who twice was glutted with Athenian blood. That's not 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.400 a good rhyme, is it. I guess that reflects how 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:01.000 English pronunciation has changed over time. This is a very 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:04.560 old translation. I think it's ultimately perfect too, that that 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.720 Minos has this constructed, you know, because ultimately again, think 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:12.879 of the of the minotaur as a creature representing the 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:15.800 shaming of Minos. You know, it is the revenge of 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:19.159 of Poseidon. But a king doesn't really suffer shame like 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.960 you or I. His awfulness is common knowledge, right. He 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:27.440 He can't just change the central vileness upon which everything spends, 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:33.640 but he can alter the surrounding reality. He can foster confusion, misinformation. 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:36.639 He can tear apart your faith in the ordered structure 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.439 of cosmos, of society, of law or order. In short, 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:43.960 a king builds a maze, or certainly he pays a 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.440 great inventor who is by the way, in the case 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:49.320 of data lists, fleeing his own shame to build it 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:51.719 for him. Yeah, and so it's kind of hard to 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:57.080 understand exactly what it means that Dadalusts, like the great craftsman, 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.399 builds this maze. The other things we know of Dalists 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:02.919 for creating are, for example, the wings that he uses 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:07.639 ultimately to escape the realm of King Minos or Minos. 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:09.320 I know, we keep saying it both ways, and we're 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.200 probably just gonna keep saying it both ways. I hope 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:13.240 you're all right with that. But yeah, he makes the 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:15.359 wings of the wax and the feathers that he and 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.679 Icarus used to to escape the island. That doesn't go 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.240 so well for for Icarus. We all know that story. 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.199 But he, you know, and he's also renowned to be, 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.919 you know, the great master craftsman who makes statues that 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:30.680 are so lifelike it seems as if they will they 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:35.320 will become quickened and walk away. But here he has 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.920 made this this sort of like Palace of Confusion, which 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:43.960 is ultimately some combination of prison and weapon, and it 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:47.320 is his ultimate creation. And is Ovid points out a 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:53.200 creation so well designed, the Datalus himself barely escapes it. Uh, 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.120 and that of course plays more into the myth of Icarus. 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:58.439 But you're right, yes, the maze of the King becomes 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:01.560 not only a defensive ploy but weapon. And indeed the 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:06.359 Minoan mays came to feature into Minos's destructive policies. He 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.600 required tributes sent each year by other lands, including Athens, 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:14.000 and these individuals were thrown into the labyrinth, where they 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:16.920 were then hunted through the twisted halls amid the echoing 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:20.920 screams until they too confronted the minotaur and were torn 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:25.320 to bloody shreds and and presumably consumed as well. Yes, 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:29.280 so they demand tribute from Athens or is it just 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:31.920 from Athens or is it from other city states as well? 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:34.040 I believe other city states as well. But of course 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:37.119 this is the Athens is most central to the telling 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:39.520 of the myth, right because ultimately the hero of the story, 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:43.240 theseus will come from Athens. But from Athens. Every nine 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:48.680 years they demanded fourteen young people of sacrifice, seven maidens 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:51.320 and seven young men, and so they would be taken 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:55.280 away by ship to to the palace of of Minos, 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:57.600 and then they would be sent into the labyrinth to 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:01.920