WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Minotaur, Part 1 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:07.680 Hey, welcome to stuff to blow your mind. This is 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:11.000 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and today we're going 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.039 into the vault for an older episode of the show. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.720 This one was part one of our series on the Minotaur, 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:27.400 originally published October six. Every nine years, nine men come 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:30.080 into the house so that I can free them from 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:34.840 all evil. I hear their footsteps or their voices far 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:38.640 away in the galleries of stone, and I run joyously 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.760 to find them. The ceremony lasts but a few minutes. 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.839 One after another, they fall, without my ever having to 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.880 bloody my hands. Where they fall, they remain, and their 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.800 bodies helped distinguish one gallery from the others. I do 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.680 not know how many there have been, but I do 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:01.160 know that one of them predicted as he died that 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:06.319 someday my redeemer would come. Since then, there has been 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.679 no pain for me in solitude, because I know that 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.360 my Redeemer lives, and in the end he will rise 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.160 and stand above the dust. If my ear could hear 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:21.160 every sound in the world, I would hear his footsteps. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:24.720 I hope he takes me to a place with fewer 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:29.120 galleries and fewer doors. What will my Redeemer be like 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:33.680 I wonder will he be bull or man? Could he 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.400 possibly be a bull with the face of a man? 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:44.640 Or will he be like me? Welcome to Stuff to 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:52.600 Blow Your Mind? Production of my Heart Radio album Hey 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:54.560 you Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:57.920 is Robert lamp and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's been 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.800 a long time coming. We finally enter a labyrinth of 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:05.919 the Minotaur. That's right. We're gonna try and leave string 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:09.080 behind us as we go through these episodes so that 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.320 you can find your way back out again. But we 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.519 figured this would be a perfect journey to take during 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:21.120 October when we frequently engage on Halloween themed episodes. Now, 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:23.799 that cold opening I want to point out was from 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:28.280 the just fabulous short story The House of Hysterian by 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:33.359 Johey Luis Borges. This one is translated by Andrew Hurley 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:37.560 and I got this out of the Book of Collected Fictions, 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.200 which is put out by Penguin. The Minotaur is kind 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.640 of the perfect monster. I think the Minotaur has very 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:48.920 often been done injustice by by films and TV shows, 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.160 and one of the few exceptions I can think of 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.839 is Jim Hinson's storyteller, where that minotaur I think has 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.840 has just the right balance of of pain and terror 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:04.079 and anguish and and and uh and menace uh and 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:06.800 and I like that. You you don't often get a 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:10.600 very full look at the minotaur in that story. Yeah, 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:14.440 they do. The Hintston team does a fabulous job presenting 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.000 just the physicality of the minotaur. But then also the 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.720 minotaur is written and performed in such a way that 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.320 that he is this true hybrid. You know, he's not 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:28.119 just beast, but he is also uh human as well. 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:32.720 You know, there's this juxtaposition in his being. Uh. He 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.760 stands across this threshold because we we we find him 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:39.680 both both terrifying and tragic. You know, we fear the 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.040 minotaur even as we empathize with it um you know, 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:45.800 and and even as just an adversary in the myth 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.240 it can it is supposed to combine brute strength and savagery, 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.200 but also with this cunning, predatory nature. That story by 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.920 Jorge Luis Borgees is quite good because it captures the 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.760 pity and the pathos that we should feel for him, 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:02.840 but it does it in an ironic way. It's like 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.400 that you feel pity for the minotaur because he's deluded, 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:10.360 like he he has a very his vision of his 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:15.000 role in in the culture is very confused, like he believes. 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.159 At one point, he says, he gets out of his 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.320 labyrinth and he wanders around in the streets, and he 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.680 says the people are afraid of him, but he believes 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:26.560 it's because they recognize his royal blood and they're like, oh, 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.560 you know, here's the you know, here's the powerful descendant 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:33.080 of the queen. We must defer. But of course, the 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:34.719 the implication once you get to the end of the 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.279 story and realize that it's about the minotaur, is that 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.560 I guess they were looking at his horns. Yes, yeah, 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.280 this is as as perfect a short story as as 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:47.840 I can think of, and it is about really about 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.400 the perfect monster. And Borhes of course totally this was this. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.720 I mean, Borhes was was obsessed by a by labyrinths 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.440 and and the like, so that this is the perfect 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.960 myth for him to consider. And indeed the labyrinth is 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:05.840 essential to understanding the minotaur. If you take the minotaur 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.520 out of the labyrinth, as so many works of fiction 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:14.359 and films and games do, and all you have is 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.000 like a pretty cool beast man, but just a beast man. 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:19.599 For for the myths to work, for the monster to 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.760 have its true terror, and and and all of these 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:26.200 other emotions were attributing to it, he has to reside 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:33.000 within this maze, within this artificial habitat that is seemingly 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.960 designed to confuse us. Yeah, in a way, I think 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:39.880 it's almost a mistake to have made the minotaur into 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.919 um less of a less of a unique sort of 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.760 proper noun type monster, and more into a species of 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.719 monster that you might encounter in Dungeons and Dragons or 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.160 something like that, because it really does it takes him 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.640 out of his proper context, right right, and and and 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:57.320 we'll come back to Dungeons and Dragons in a bit, 0:05:57.400 --> 0:05:59.640 because I think there are cases where it can be 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:04.039 it has been some correction applied, But for the most part, Yeah, 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.479 you you take me, you make the minotaur into just 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:10.000 a species, and you mostly just have a beast man. Uh. 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.479 The setting is key, and in fact is as Borges 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.200 pointed out in another work, The Book of Imaginary Beings. 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.320 This is also from translation by Hurley quote. Indeed, the 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.640 image of the labyrinth and the image of the minotaur 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:25.440 seemed to go together. It is fitting that at the 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:29.960 center of a monstrous house there should live a monstrous inhabitant. 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:34.200 I agree, And I think another uniting theme here is confusion, 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:38.400 because what is the thing that makes the hybrid scary. 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.400 It's that it is a perversion. It is a confusion 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:45.360 of nature and what makes the labyrinth scary? Uh, this 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:49.200 is the I guess, the more classic maze understanding of 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:52.160 the labyrinth rather than the unidirectional labyrinth. We can get 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.360 into those distinctions in a bit. But the terror there 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:59.000 is also a confusion. It's a um it's you know, 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.599 having the stability city of nature and of direction, uh 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.800 taken out from under you. You are unmoored when dealing 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.320 with the minotaur because you don't know which way is which, 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.600 and you don't know what kind of beasts this is. Yeah, 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:13.960 and and in and in many ways, this basic idea 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:17.360 reverberates through a lot of our horror fiction. I mean, 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:19.800 a haunted house has a ghost in it, you know, 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.840 like that, That's that's how it works. So Leatherface lives 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.120 in the crazy chainsaw house, you know, and uh uh, 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:30.880 Leatherface takes Manhattan would not work right? Uh? You know, 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:35.440 Freddie Krueger occupies the realm of dreams, and even even 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.840 Jason is a is a creature of like of Crystal Lake, right, 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.480 He's a creature of the woods, of this environment that 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.280 is farig into the various teenagers and what have you 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.600 that have that are visiting it. I guess that is 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.760 one reason Jason Takes Manhattan is so funny, is because 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.640 it just doesn't make any sense whatsoever out of his context. 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:56.720 And you actually see that in the tone of the 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.600 movie because in Jason Takes Manhattan when he's walking around 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:02.360 times where the movie at that point transitions to become 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.200 a full comedy, like on purpose comedy with jokes where 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.880 he just lifts his mask up at the punks and 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.240 scares them, you know, and everybody's now and the kids 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:14.680 are saying, like there's a maniac chasing us, and the 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:19.440 waitress at the diners like welcomed into York. You know, 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:22.800 I never thought of this before, but I'm now assuming 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.400 that movie came out after Crocodile Dundee, right, probably, Oh yeah, 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:31.560 it's Crocodile Dundee, but he's Jason. Yeah, and yeah, of 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.000 course that's another fish out of water story. But the 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:36.960 minotaur is very much a fish in its own waters, 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:41.360 waters that are foreign and dark and mysterious to us. 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:43.959 And uh and I and I feel like like this 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:47.400 is a perfect metaphor for so many fears and anxieties 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.800 in life. And that's another huge reason that the Minotar 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.960 myth and things that are like the Minetar myth resonates 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:56.680 so strongly, the idea of a realm that we're uncertain 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.720 about and the things that might be in there that 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.880 can harm us. I don't think we've said it so far, 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:04.640 but we should acknowledge this is gonna be a two 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:07.120 part series because we've wanted to do the Minotaur for years. 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:08.520 I don't know why it took us so long to 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.120 get around to it, but we're gonna have two episodes 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.600 worth of Minotaur for you. And I think maybe at 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.760 first here we should just tell the myth, right, yeah, yeah, 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.200 we should. We should just remind everybody what the story is, 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:23.120 who the major players are here, and and what happens 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:25.720 now before we we get going. I do want to 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:27.719 to drive home, of course, that the minuetar emergence from 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:31.400 Greek myth, but as always, myths are amorphous they change 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.079 over time with different tellings, with different peoples and cultures, 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:39.600 stories merged together, stories split apart, stories are finally recorded 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:44.320 and then re recorded and translated, etcetera real history, magical thinking, 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.880 and many other factors come into the creation of a myth, 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:50.839 and the Minotaur is no exception. That's right. And this 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:52.440 is one thing we talked about when we when we 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:55.720 did the Medusa episodes earlier this year that I find 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.840 often today, like kids are really insistent on knowing what 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.320 cannon is, like what is what is technically canon and 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.000 what is not cannon. I think that that's a product 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:09.040 of modern myth making, like star wars and stuff, where 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:13.559 you've got ideas of intellectual property and like one artist 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:17.640 or owner's control over what technically really happens in this 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:21.160 mythical universe. That's not how ancient myths are ancient myths 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.800 or you know, there's a million different versions of them, 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:25.800 especially with like you know, the ones where we have 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.719 a lot of different sources over hundreds of years, like 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.160 the Greek myths. You know, you've got sources they go 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.600 back to a couple of centuries b c. And you've 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.079 got sources going way up into some of our fullest 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.720 sources are from the earliest centuries c. And so you 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.560 end up with tons of different variations and there's no 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:44.280 way to pick one and say, oh, this is the 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.960 real version of the myth. Yeah. And I feel like 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:50.760 it would be healthier for us if we approached things 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.319 like Star Wars in that way. I've thought about this 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.360 a little bit because I've been thinking way too much 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.920 about Star Wars this year. Uh. But yeah, I feel 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.160 like the Clone Wars, for instance, this is uh, you know, 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.160 this is a mythic event. Uh. And You're going to 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.720 have various tellings and retellings of it, and there will 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.120 continue to be tellings and retellings of it, and and 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.280 and it's and the thing itself is going to ultimately 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:17.040 be shapeless and unformed at the center. The fixed canon 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.160 is a product of a society that operates largely on 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:24.000 the basis of fixed recorded media and has a like 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:28.199 capitalist conception of intellectual property. I think those things are 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:32.720 just death to mythology. You gotta let it breathe. Yeah. 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.640 And and certainly you see even with with with films 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:38.320 and whatnot, you see that energy there in the in 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.680 the fandom and people that follow. You know, we we 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.120 all want to have our own interpretations of what happened, 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:49.160 alternate interpretations. There's this yearning for for for for these interpretations, 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:53.640 for fan fictions, for additional fleshings out of mysteries, And 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:55.600 I think I think that's basically the same sort of 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.760 energy that you would see go into the deviation and 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.880 the and the recreation and of myths over time. Now, 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:04.040 having said all that, I guess we should also try 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.120 to identify, though, what are the main sources we would 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:10.560 be looking at for the closest thing to a canonical 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:12.439 version of the myth. I guess the closest thing to 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.160 canonical would be the version of the myth that most 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.240 people know right, And a lot of a lot of 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:22.800 the modern understanding of of the menatur story, like as 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.760 without many other myths, comes down down to all its metamorphosis. Uh. 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.280 And so that was one of the key areas we 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.160 turned to here. As always, I I pick up Carol 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:36.160 Rose's uh books of Monsters and Fairies, because she she 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:40.400 did such a fabulous job, uh, you know, basically, uh, 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:43.640 you know, nailing down that the essential myths, uh, that 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:45.559 sort of thing. But certainly what we're gonna about to 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.360 roll out. Here is not the It is not the cannon, 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:50.240 but it is maybe as close to the cannon as 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:52.080 we can sort of agree on for the purposes of 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.120 moving forward. Yeah, I just wanted to mention another major 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.360 source on this I think would be pseudo Apollodorus. The 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:00.760 I think this is probably now leave to be like 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.960 a first or second century CE work, but you know, 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.160 it's the Biblioteca. It's tells a lot of classic Greek 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.040 and Roman myths, and it was traditionally attributed to an 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:13.240 author named a Polydorus. Now that authorship is questioned, so 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.120 it's largely known as pseudo Apolodorus. Now ask your doctors 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.520 about pseudo Apolodorus. Okay, Well, what's the story? Okay, alright, 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.440 So so here we go on the isle of Crete. 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.280 There is a king who, like most kings, desires above 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.800 all else to ensure and extend his reign. And as 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:32.720 he lives in a world ruled by the gods, and 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:38.959 is himself not entirely without divine blood, he seeks their support. Now, 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:41.400 given the creed is surrounded on all sides by the sea, 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.240 it makes sense to reach out to Poseidon. Getting into 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:50.320 bad company there. Yeah, but you know, kings, they're they're vain, uh, 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.720 and they see themselves as powerful enough to stand beside 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.120 such deities. So he asked the sea god to deliver 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.199 up a sign of his divine to rule, as well 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.319 as a proper beast of sacrifice. And so the god 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.320 does just this. He delivers up this white bull from 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.120 the surf. It comes, comes comes out. It's just why 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.160 it is the frothing sea foam itself. And this beast 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.240 comes to be known as the Cretan Bull. I think 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.400 even this aspect of the myth is very interesting because 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:24.000 what he does is King Minos asks Poseidon to send 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.080 him a bull that he can then turn around and 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.160 sacrifice to Poseidon. So he wouldn't even really be giving 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.280 of himself. He'd just be sort of returning the favor 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.240 in a way. Well, I guess it does kind of 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:39.880 remind me of like the the gesture of say you 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.920 you visit somebody's house for dinner, and you bring a 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.680 bottle of wine, and then the expectation is kind of 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:47.880 like that bottle of wine will then be opened and 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:52.080 shared with the guests. Okay, I can see that the 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.640 analogy I was thinking of was checking the ball in 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:56.920 a game of basketball where you've only got one goal. 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:01.320 Check the ball like the ball, you know, like when 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:03.840 you you never played half court basketball where you get 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.880 to the when possession changes you, you check the ball, 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:08.920 you throw it to the other team, you say check, 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:10.920 and then they throw the ball back to you. It 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:14.040 is a sign that possession has changed. Okay, I'll take 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.960 your word for it. Okay, So the Cretan Bowl is fabulous, 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.720 is beautiful, and then then factors into some other myths 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.440 as well. But but so splendid is this beast, and 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:26.520 so self interested is King Minos that he decides to 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:29.960 keep this trophy for himself and instead to offer up 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:33.400 the blood sacrifice of immortal bowl so that Poseidon, you know, 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:37.080 will still be pleased. Uh So, it's like you bring 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:39.720 a really nice bottle of wine to dinner and the 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.160 host is like, oh thanks, and then gets out the 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:46.720 two buck chuck exactly. Yeah. But, as we've touched on before, 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:51.200 Poseidon is certainly nobody to trifle with um, even if 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:53.640 you do have a little bit of of royal blood 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.800 of Zeus in your system, as is uh supposed to 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.640 be the case with Minos. Okay, Well, we know from 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.920 experience ends that Poseidon does not deal well with slides. 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.640 In fact, Poseidon does not even usually treat people well 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.760 if they've done nothing to him. So he is he's 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.000 bad news. How is he going to react to this? 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:15.320 Well horribly, But by comparing preparing it to other things, 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.880 Poseidon is done. I mean he he was almost playing 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.440 a little softball here, as we'll see, but that still 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.800 he definitely has the last laugh. So here's what Poseidon did. 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.520 He bewitched Ninos, his wife Pacific, causing her to fall 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.280 in love with the Cretan bull. So she ends up 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:36.520 belonging to be one with this beast, and she convinces 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:41.120 the master artificer Daedalus, who was then residing in Crete, 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.760 to craft for her this mechanical bovine likeness that wouldn't 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:49.600 enable her to then mate with the bull. Yes, so Poseidon, 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.320 by which is pacifically says, you're gonna fall in love 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:55.640 with this bull? She does. She gets Deadalus to build 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.200 her a robot bull so she can get inside it 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.640 and have sex with the white bull bowl. Yes, and 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.920 this results in a monstrous pregnancy, producing a monstrous hybrid 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.480 part human part bull. This is the Bull of Minos 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:15.320 or the minotaur, also known as a stereon yes um. 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:17.800 And certainly that that gets back to the title of 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.640 that Bores story the House of Asteria. Now, the exact 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.760 form of the minotaur was not always well to find, uh. 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:28.120 The the A. S. Klein translation of The Metamorphosis describes 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.359 a quote strange hybrid creature, a twin form of bull 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.560 and man, and Bores is actually in that passage that 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:37.879 I read, he's alluding to this a little bit, uh, 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.320 the idea that sometimes there is this idea that maybe 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:42.959 the minotaur is more like the face of a man 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.680 on the body of a bull rather than the reverse. 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:48.679 So now we have the minotaur, and it's easy to 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.080 sort of overlook how strange this creature is and exactly 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.320 like what it's mixed lineage means, because this is a 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.439 monster of two worlds yet none. It's the It's a 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:03.919 product of Minos's blast from me Poseidon's wrath, specifics lust. 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.920 It was an unnatural being, and yet it also was sacred. 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.720 Minos could not simply just kill it and swatter it 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.119 or cast it out back into the sea. You know 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.359 where it's It's it's father, the bull came from. So 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:20.080 instead he chooses to hide it away, and luckily he 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.440 had in his employ just the right man to design 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.920 a most elegant hiding place. I want to read here 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.600 from the Metamorphoses, the Garthen Dryden translation that talks about 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:36.560 this part. So of it writes, when Minos, willing to 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:40.560 conceal the shame that sprung from the reports of tattling fame, 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.760 resolves a dark enclosure to provide, and far from sight, 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.359 the two formed creature hide. Great. Dadalus of Athens was 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.680 the man that made the draft and formed the wondrous plan, 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:58.040 where rooms within themselves encircled, lie with various windings to 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.920 deceive the eye. As offt meanders, wanton current plays when 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:08.000 through the Phrygian fields, it loosely strays backward and forward rolls, 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.480 the dimpled tide, seeming at once two different ways to 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:16.680 glide when circling streams their former banks survey and waters 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:20.639 past succeeding waters sea now floating to the sea, with 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:25.040 downward course now pointing upward to its ancient source. Such 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.480 was the work, so intricate, the place that scarce the 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:32.320 workman all its turns could trace. And Dadalus was puzzled 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.119 how to find the secret ways of what himself designed 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.280 that wonderful. Oh yeah, So he's describing this thing that's 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:44.240 these galleries, this place that's often described as a maze 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:48.679 or a labyrinth, as as being as confusing as waters 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:53.280 that churned back and forth without apparent rhyme or reason. Yeah, 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:56.000 I love this. So he makes some comparisons to the 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:59.440 natural world here. But but it is the ultimate unnatural 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:03.280 environment to house the ultimate unnatural creature. But maybe I 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:05.560 should read the next two lines because that sets up 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:09.440 what we're getting into now, these private walls the minotaur 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:14.520 include who twice was glutted with Athenian blood. That's not 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:16.640 a good rhyme, is it. I guess that reflects how 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.240 English pronunciation has changed over time. This is a very 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:23.800 old translation. I think it's ultimately perfect too, that that 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.920 Minos has this constructed, you know, because ultimately, again, think 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:32.119 of the of the minotaur as a creature representing the 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.000 shaming of Minos. You know, it is the revenge of 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.399 of Poseidon. But a king doesn't really suffer shame like 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:42.080 you or I. His awfulness is common knowledge, right, he 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:46.640 he can't just change the central vileness upon which everything spends. 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:52.840 But he can alter the surrounding reality. He can foster confusion, misinformation. 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:55.879 He can care apart your faith in the ordered structure 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:59.679 of cosmos, of society, of law or order. In short, 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.199 a king builds a maze, or certainly he pays a 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:05.640 great inventor who is, by the way, in the case 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:08.560 of datal Ists, fleeing his own shame to build it 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:10.959 for him. Yeah, and so it's kind of hard to 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:16.320 understand exactly what it means that Dadalust, like the great craftsman, 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:19.560 builds this maze. The other things we know of Dadalust 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:22.119 for creating are, for example, the wings that he uses 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:26.879 ultimately to escape the realm of King Minos or Minos. 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:28.520 I know, we keep saying it both ways, and we're 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:30.440 probably just gonna keep saying it both ways. I hope 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:32.439 you're all right with that. But yeah, he makes the 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:34.600 wings of the wax and the feathers that he and 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:37.919 Icarus used to to escape the island that doesn't go 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.800 so well for for Icarus. We all know that story. 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:43.399 But he, you know, and he's also renowned to be, 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:47.159 you know, the great master craftsman who makes statues that 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:49.879 are so lifelike. It seems as if they will, they 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:54.520 will become quickened and walk away. But here he has 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:58.160 made this, this sort of like palace of Confusion, which 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:03.000 is ultimately some combination of prison and weapon, and it 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:06.720 is his ultimate creation, and as as Ovid points out, 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:12.440 a creation so well designed that Datalus himself barely escapes it. Uh. 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.360 And that of course plays more into the myth of Icrius. 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:17.639 But you're right, Yes, the maze of the King becomes 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:20.679 not only a defensive ploy but a weapon. And indeed, 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:25.199 the Minoan maze came to feature into Minos's destructive policies. 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:29.800 He required tributes sent each year by other lands, including Athens, 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:33.200 and these individuals were thrown into the labyrinth, where they 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:36.880 were then hunted through the twisted halls amid the echoing screams, 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:40.240 until they too confronted the minotaur and were torn to 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:44.800 bloody shreds and and presumably consumed as well. Yes, so 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:48.800 they demand tribute from Athens or is it just from 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:51.160 Athens or is it from other city states as well? 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:53.280 I believe other city states as well. But of course 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:56.320 this is the Athens is most central to the telling 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:58.440