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GREEK

The Minotaur was a bull-headed monster trapped inside a maze.

According to Greek myth, a king built a giant labyrinth so confusing no one could escape it - and put a monster inside.

2 min read
The Minotaur was a bull-headed monster trapped inside a maze.
THE FULL STORY

The Minotaur was one of the strangest monsters in Greek mythology. According to the legend, it had the head of a bull and the body of a man. It lived deep inside an enormous maze called the Labyrinth on the island of Crete, designed by a clever inventor named Daedalus.

The myth says King Minos of Crete forced the city of Athens to send young people into the maze every few years as food for the Minotaur. A brave Athenian prince named Theseus volunteered to go in and try to kill it. A princess named Ariadne secretly handed him a sword and a ball of thread.

Theseus tied one end of the thread to the entrance and unspooled it as he walked. Deep inside, he fought and defeated the Minotaur. Then he followed the thread all the way back out. Archaeologists later found ruins of a real palace on Crete with a confusing layout of rooms - possibly the source of the legend.

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