In this ACE and Creativity series blog post, Ajanta Deibel talks us through how she discovered "Theseus and the Minotaur", her interpretation of the characters, and an introduction and link to Ajanta's poem in full, "Asterion’s Monster: The Minotaur Myth Retold."
“The scandal of his family had grown
past all concealment; now the mother’s foul
adultery was proven by the strange
form of the Minotaur, half man, half bull.
Minos determined to remove the cause
of this opprobrium from his abode,
enclosing it within a labyrinth …”
(Ovid, Metamorphoses, 8.212-18)
When I was 8 years old my school put on a play, “Theseus and the Minotaur.” I played the role of one of the Graeae. The three of us wore grey togas and shared one rubber eyeball between us which we velcroed to soft headbands. One of the older kids played the role of Theseus, as it was the biggest part in the play. A much younger kid played the Minotaur, who wore a paper mâché bull’s head and wobbled under its weight. The Minotaur’s character had maybe one line at most and a mere 4 minutes of stage time. Even at 8 years old, this made an impression on me, and I asked myself why “and the Minotaur” was such a large part of the title if he plays such an insignificant role in the story? Why does he show up only to die at Theseus’ hand? Why do we learn nothing about the Minotaur’s perspective?
While taking a course on Heroes in Classical Myth, I finally got the opportunity to read the primary sources regarding the myth of the Minotaur. I was shocked to find extremely minimal mention of the Minotaur’s character. We learn nothing of his personality. The only characteristics attributed to him are his half man, half bull physical form and that he eats human flesh. The Minotaur, Asterion as he is named in one source (Pausanias, Description of Greece), exists purely as a monster for Theseus to slaughter. I wanted to flip this narrative on its head. I wanted to bring the Minotaur to life as a full and complex character. Inspired by the tragic first-person narratives of Ovid’s Heroides, I set out to retell the famous Theseus-Minotaur encounter through the Minotaur’s eyes. (A huge thank you to Dr. Natalie Swain for creating this assignment and leading such an engaging class. I would not have successfully turned my imaginings into words without Dr. Swain’s inspiring lectures and the pressure of a due date.)
The Minotaur’s legacy is that of a monster and an outcast. Asterion was rejected by society from birth. His half beast form disgusted anyone who laid eyes upon him, and he was never allowed to be a part of human life despite that he was also half human. He was then imprisoned in the labyrinth and lived a terribly lonely life. A character could respond in a myriad of ways to this, but the complete lack of information about Asterion’s personality made me wonder if he was in fact gentle and kind, despite the hardships he was put through. It would not bode well for Theseus if he had admitted to killing an innocent creature. It would be especially sinful if Theseus had killed someone who was hospitable to him. I imagined that Asterion would consider the labyrinth his home and would thus consider Theseus and the other young Athenians his guests. The rules of hospitality in ancient Greece were strict and held in high importance. According to these rules, killing one’s host is the worst thing a guest could do. It was no wonder to me that Theseus would then lie about his encounter with Asterion.
In class we learned about Theseus’ labors, which he completed before encountering the Minotaur. I was shocked by how sadistically Theseus fulfilled these labors. His task was to protect the countryside by getting rid of some horrific murderers who were torturing and killing the townspeople. Each murderer had their own signature method. One example is that of the innkeeper who only provided beds that were too short or too long for his guests. He would then torture them by “making” them fit. Theseus was certainly providing an important service by ridding the countryside of these monsters. However, instead of simply killing them, Theseus gives them a taste of their own medicine. He tortures and kills each one using their own signature method. Perhaps he thought this is what they deserved, and the townsfolk may have agreed with him, as they labeled him a hero for completing this “good deed.” But for me, all I could envision was Theseus gleefully completing these sadistic killings one after another. And the conclusion I came to was, “He’s a psychopath!”
This interpretation was the foundation to my own version of the Theseus character. In my story, I was sure that he would be charming and charismatic, he would be sadistically curious of Asterion, and he would express narcissistic tendencies during their interaction. Most importantly, he would not want to simply “get the job over with” without first entertaining his curiosity.
In the Greek myths, the toxically masculine heroes are often paired with female counterparts who they manipulate and abandon. Theseus famously does this to Ariadne (Asterion’s sister), “forgetting” her on an island and sailing away. In these repeated archetypes, these women become victims of these broken men. I wanted to play with this archetype and transform Asterion into more than just a victim of Theseus, but also a potential love (i.e. lust) interest. I could imagine lonely, outcast Asterion to easily fall in love with charismatic Theseus, who is the first person to show any form of interest in him. I wanted Asterion’s first person narrative to read as both a testimony of an ex-lover and as a villain’s untold perspective. However, I warp these common tropes to include my own understanding of Asterion as the victim rather than the villain and the adversary rather than the lover. The title, Asterion’s Monster (which is of course inspired by Mary Shelley’s famous “Frankenstein’s monster”), makes my opinion clear that Theseus is the true monster in this story. However, the relationship between monster and victim can be complicated. I use the possessive case and the allusion to Frankenstein to show this ambiguity.
In the primary sources, the Minotaur is nothing more than a symbol. He may have been created to represent the battle between “beast” and “man” inside each of us. Or perhaps he was Athenian propaganda to showcase Crete’s supposed barbarism. Or maybe he was simply an advisory for Theseus to enhance his glory. No matter the purpose he fulfilled in this myth, the one-dimensional shape to his character leaves a gaping hole in the story. Perhaps this was intended, so we could create our own imaginings.