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Dear Loxias:

I am looking for interpretations of meaning in the story of Theseus and the
Minotaur.  It's true that I'm a little slow; however, there does not seem to
be any greater moral implication in the story (the way there seems to be,
say, with Icarus or Oedipus).

I would also be interested in any references to Theseus in literature, plays,
films, etc. 

Thanks for any help you can give.

And thank you for your wonderful website.


We all have a labyrinth inside our heads - a complex structure, but rational. The Cretan labyrinth was designed by a man, Daedalus, who alone really understood it.   Every labyrinth, alas, also contains its own irrational horror, its own Minotaurs - which it is our life's mission to seek and destroy, before they destroy us.  Within the order of the atom there exists an unknowable and mysterious world of sub-atomic particles. Labyrinths are everywhere! New York is one. Your school, your company, your family are all examples of rational structures containg the unfathomable elements of chaos and unreason.  

On a less profound level the bull is the ultimate symbol of male power (it has two horns on its head to advertise the one beneath its belly) - which human males haave always regarded as a threat and a challenge. Most other animals are less well-endowed for their size than the human male - but the bull flaunts his superiority. It is something they must seek to confront and destroy (as the Spanish literally do in a bullfight). How many men  spend their lives fighting and competing, hustling and dealing to prove to the world that they too have a viable endowment? In an age of plummeting sperm-counts, this is a very serious problem indeed!  

Further study? Look at Picasso's amazing series of Minotaur pictures. Read the Bull from the Sea by Mary Renault. Read Hemingway.  

Andrew