All language subtitles for Clash of the Gods - S01E04 - Minotaur

A half-man, half-bull monster.

Locked in a giant maze.

Waiting for its next meal
of human flesh.

This is the bizarre myth
of the Minotaur.

An angry, savage freak
of nature,

that endures as a timeless symbol
of the beast inside all men.

But beneath its story lurks
a stunning reality.

A real world of human
sacrifice, bestiality, war

and the remains of
an actual labyrinth.

This is the myth of the Minotaur...

and the truth behind it.

A heavy door clanks
shut behind you.

A dimly lit maze of
corridors lies ahead.

The stench of death
hangs heavy in the air.

You are trapped in the
labyrinth of the Minotaur.

And there is no way out.

The story of the Minotaur was
a horror story for the ancient Greeks.

The labyrinth was a chamber of death.

Those that got locked inside of it
knew that there was only one fate

and that's to be devoured by
a horrible, ravenous, man-eating beast.

This half-man, half-animal
would rip you piece to piece

and consume your flesh.

The Minotaur is the mutant child
of a human mother

and a bull father.

He has the body of an
enormously strong, powerful man.

But the head of a bull with horns.

On the one hand, it's part beast.

And this beast is ravenous and hungry

and kills and even eats the flesh
of people that it has killed.

On the other hand,
the Minotaur is half-human

and it has a kind of
vulnerability from that

in which its humanity it's trapped
inside of its bestiality.

At its core, this myth represents
the battle between reason and savagery,

between order and chaos.

The ancient Greeks who told the story
prided themselves on being civilised.

One of the things that the
Greeks really did believe in

was that human reason could do a lot.

But the Minotaur was
the enemy of reason.

A symbol of the animal instincts
trapped inside all men.

The Minotaur, the monster,
was the untamable part of nature

that the Greeks were trying
to get a hold of.

This was the one thing that
they could not control.

According to the myth,
this is where the Minotaur lives.

On the island of Crete.

At the time when the story takes place,

Crete dominates the Greek world the way
the Minotaur dominates the labyrinth.

In the late Bronze Age, Crete
was the most important power

in that part of the Mediterranean.

Places like Athens and Sparta which,
in the classical period,

would really become
the most significant powers,

weren't anything
very important at all.

In fact, they had to
pay tribute to Crete

because it was the major
power in the region.

In the myth, the Minotaur was created
to punish the king of Crete, Minos,

after he tried to outwit a god.

Every year it was customary that
King Minos sacrifice his most prized bull

as an offering to
the Sea God, Poseidon.

But one year his herd produced
a calf so beautiful, so perfect,

that Minos couldn't bear
to part with it.

He sacrificed a lesser
bull in its place.

But Poseidon was watching.

Any time you try, in Greek mythology,
to outsmart a god,

you're gonna lose.

When Poseidon saw this,
he said,

"Ok. You like your bull so much?

"I'm going to make your
woman like your bull. "

And so he made Minos' wife
lust for the bull.

Minos' wife, Pasipha�,
falls in love with the bull.

Pasipha�'s desire for the bull,

I think, symbolises a kind
of animalistic lust.

All of us like to think of ourselves
as very rational creatures

but in reality all of us know at
out core there's some piece of us

that's driven by pure
animalistic desire.

The Queen hatches an elaborate
plan to seduce the bull.

She climbs into a cow costume and
lingers in the pasture where it grazes,

waiting for the beast
to approach.

It's a very strange myth, this one,
because Pasipha� essentially

engages in an act of bestiality.

She's in love with this bull.

She wants to have sex with this bull.

It seemed to be a preoccupation
of ancient Greeks and Romans

as to what the proper mode
of sexual behaviour was.

And having sex with animals
was one of those taboos

that got kind of richly
worked out in their mythology.

In the real world, we see
these mythic scenes,

famous scenes of ancient bestiality
are performed in the Colosseum.

You have women slaves who would
be forced to copulate with bulls

in order to entertain.

Often in these real life spectacles,
the ancients were acting out

Queen Pasipha�'s mythical
encounter with a bull.

In the story, it isn't long before
her strategy succeeds.

The bull spies her, is overcome
with amorous desire,

mounts her...
Nine months later,

you've got yourself a Minotaur.

The birth of monsters is very often
associated with sinfulness,

or similar kind of wrongdoing.

Certainly this is both of those things.

Because Minos didn't keep
his end of the bargain,

because Pasipha� indulged
in an unnatural desire,

the child is born
monstrous and deformed.

A half-human, half-bull baby boy.

Destined to become a horror.

He's a monster.
That's how we know him.

But at the same time, he seems
to be a victim of his fate,

and that's why I have mixed
feelings about the Minotaur.

I cannot really condemn him.

The Minotaur has a strange name.

His father isn't Minos,
but the first half of his name

comes from the name Minos.

The second half, "tauros",
is the Greek word for a bull.

So Minotaur means the bull of Minos.

To the ancients,

this man-bull hybrid was a
powerful and frightening concept.

Bulls were a central part
of Greek civilisation.

In fact, they were
even worshipped as gods.

There were a lot of sacrifices
and rituals around bull cults

all across the Eastern Mediterranean.

A bull represents male
virility and strength

and that's exactly what
the bull was religiously,

an icon representing male
potency and fertility,

great strength and power as well.

The memory of the power of the bull

carried through into
Judeo-Christian times,

and we see in pictures of the Nativity

the bull breathing in to the Baby Jesus

with its life force.

According to the myth, the
tyrannical King Minos is furious

when the Minotaur is born.

And decides to use it as a weapon

against anyone who dares
to challenge his power.

He devises a sinister plan to build
the world's most terrifying prison,

and makes his beastly stepson
its man-eating warden.

To build it, Minos turns to his
resident engineering genius, Daedalus.

Daedalus is the world's
most famous ancient builder.

He's like Thomas Edison and
Frank Lloyd Wright rolled into one.

He's able to construct
beautiful monuments

and he's also able to
construct flying machines,

wonders of ancient technology.

Daedalus makes plans for a
prison with no barred cells,

just a massive, winding maze.

It would be so vast,
so impossible to navigate,

that even he could
barely make it out alive.

And in its heart
would lie the Minotaur

waiting for its prey.

It was a series of
passages and stairways,

there is some sort of mystical
or strange effect inside the labyrinth

that so confuses those
who walk through it

that they don't know where
they are in short time.

Dark, disorienting, deadly.

This mythical labyrinth
would be terrifying.

But is it more than just a myth?

Today there is an underground
maze on the island of Crete

with an eerie resemblance
to the labyrinth of the Minotaur.

The cave of Mesara.

It's an ancient underground quarry

that according to local lore
may have inspired the myth.

Winding passageways stretch for
over two miles in no particular order.

In fact, most people who dare
to enter run a cable with them

to make sure that they don't get lost.

The same tactic will prove crucial for
the Minotaur's victims later in the myth.

Chisel marks found along these tunnel
walls prove the caves are man-made.

That they were dug with ancient tools.

For centuries, visitors who
came to explore this place

were convinced they had found
the home of the Minotaur,

and many of them left their mark.

Today, explorers still take on the
challenge of navigating the labyrinth.

Their objective is to reach
this central room

where it is said the
Minotaur once dwelled.

They come here to beat their fears,

and if they win, they
accomplished the mission.

They write their names on it
and go out happy.

It would be very nice
if it were the labyrinth.

Everybody wants to know where
the idea of the labyrinth came from

and when you see caves like this,

right away the idea must
have come to the people

that this might have been
the lair of the Minotaur.

An ancient man-made maze
on the same island

where the myth is said
to have taken place.

It's the perfect candidate for
the Minotaur's labyrinth

in every way but one.

Most experts think the myth
is older than the cave.

It was worked very late
in Greek-Roman times

and there are recorded visits
by many pilgrims during this period.

But the actual myth of the
labyrinth and the Minotaur

came much, much earlier.

If Mesara isn't the place that
inspired the myth of the labyrinth,

what is?

The hunt for clues
leads back to the myth.

With his horrifying maze complete,
Crete's King Minos shifts his focus

and hunts for its first victims.

It's meal time for the Minotaur.

According to an ancient myth,

the island of Crete is home to
a half-man, half-bull monster

who hungrily patrols
a dark labyrinth.

The labyrinth itself is so confusing,

even its builder can
barely find the way out.

Inside, the Minotaur
awaits its first victims,

hungry for human flesh.

Meanwhile, 200 miles north in a
small city-state called Athens,

athletes have gathered from all
over the Mediterranean to compete

in a series of sporting challenges.

It's an early precursor
to the Olympic Games.

Among the competitors
is Prince Androgeus,

the son of Crete's King Minos,

and the half brother
of the Minotaur.

Minos' son, Androgeus,
won every contest -

running, throwing, singing.
He was a star.

And it so upset a number
of the Athenian youth

that they got into a drunken brawl
and went and killed him.

The son of a King
murdered in cold blood.

This means war.

Once the news reaches Minos,
of course, his grief is overwhelming

and his rage and thirst
for revenge is enormous.

King Minos decides to punish the
Athenians in the worst possible way.

He will feed them to the Minotaur.

The Cretan navy drops anchor at
Athens and delivers an ultimatum.

Minos demanded that they send

seven male and female virgins

to be sacrificed to the Minotaur.

Virgins were a priced commodity
in the ancient world

because it was believed their
purity made them closer to the gods.

They would be put on a ship

and the ship would take them,

in very degrading
circumstances, to Crete.

They would be led
crying and in great tears...

into the labyrinth where they
would be consumed by the monster.

So goes the myth,
but what is the connection to reality?

Here, the story symbolises
an actual historical conflict.

An epic struggle between an aging
super-power and an up-and-coming state.

Early in Greek history, Athens and Crete
were real life enemies,

but Crete's massive navy gave it
a decided advantage.

In both myth and reality,
it was David versus Goliath.

In the Minotaur myth is pretty clearly
a symbolic overlay of real history.

Crete was a very powerful civilisation
and they kind of lorded it over

the city-states on mainland Greece.

When Minos made this outrageous
demand, what it was

was a reflection of the Cretan
dominance of that entire area.

The Athenians told the Minotaur
story as political propaganda.

The Minotaur represented
the tyranny of Crete.

The labyrinth was Crete's nearly
inescapable power.

And the victims symbolised
the suffering of Athens.

The myth's purpose was to make
the Cretans seem barbaric and evil.

And it worked.

For the Greeks themselves who
embellished the story over the centuries,

it was a very important proof

that they and their gods
and their rational thinking

were superior to the Cretans
and their bulls and their monsters.

In the myth, Athens is forced to send
human sacrifices to the Minotaur

every nine years...

or face all-out war with Crete.

But why nine years?

It seems from their records
they had an understanding

of the movement of the Moon
through various constellations

that go through about
a nine-year cycle.

And that would be then the basis
of the nine-year sacrifice.

Whenever a full moon falls
on the Equinox,

it'll be time to send fresh
sacrifices to the beast.

As the first victims are being
locked inside the labyrinth,

a pivotal event is unfolding
across the sea.

In a small kingdom
50 miles from Athens

a baby boy is being born.
His name is Theseus.

He's one of the first
great heroes of Greek myth.

The one who is destined
to challenge the Minotaur.

The birth of Theseus is
of pre-eminent importance

in terms of Athenian national identity.

Theseus belongs to an
older order of heroes.

They are characterized by
tremendous strength,

tremendous bravery
and also great brain power.

Theseus is the son of a
beautiful Greek princess,

and not one, but two,
powerful fathers.

On the night he was conceived

his mother had sex with
both Aegeus, King of Athens,

and Poseidon, god of the sea.

What usually happens is that the mother
will sleep with the human father

and also sleep, in the same timeframe,
with the divine father.

So that the child is fertilised
by two people simultaneously.

Having dual paternity allows him to
both inherit the throne from Aegeus,

as well as have access to things
like Poseidon's special favours.

This two father scenario was
a common plotline in ancient myths.

It's even something real life
rulers often claimed for themselves.

One of the, perhaps best known,
is Alexander the Great,

who celebrates himself
as being partially divine.

Later on, in the Roman period, the Roman
emperors, starting with Augustus,

claimed that.
They became gods.

It gives you a kind of authority
if you can say,

I'm actually the child of a god.

According to the myth,
when Theseus is born

King Aegeus buries his sandals
and a sword beneath a huge rock.

He tells Theseus' mother

that when the boy is strong
enough to lift that rock

he should have to claim his rightful
place as Prince of Athens.

Nine years later, Crete again
demands that seven men and seven women

be sent as tribute to die
in the Minotaur's labyrinth.

The kingdom needs a hero.

The third time Crete demands
its tribute, Theseus is ready.

He is finally strong
enough to lift the rock

that hides his father's
sword and sandals.

He vows to enter the labyrinth,
battle the Minotaur,

and free Athens from
the tyranny of Crete.

It's the classic face-off
between monster and hero.

And modern evidence has revealed
some shocking truth behind it.

The city of Athens is in mourning.

Once again it is time to send
human sacrifices to the Minotaur.

The innocent victims demanded
by King Minos, the tyrant of Crete.

Those chosen are sure to die.

But there is one who vows
to challenge fate.

The Prince of Athens, Theseus.

He is anxious to prove his bravery

and to free his kingdom.

All heroes have to commit great acts
in order to gain their status.

So he needs to go out
and do something great.

And that is gonna be to stop the
Athenians from having to submit to Minos

and submit their children
to the Minotaur.

The stage is set.

It's Theseus, heroic symbol
of man at his best

against the Minotaur, the savage
reflection of man at his worst.

Before Theseus departs for Crete,

his father gives him an important order.

When, and if he returns to Athens,

he must hoist the white
sail instead of the black.

That way, when the ship
appears on the horizon,

the king will know his son is safe.

According to the myth,
this is where Theseus was headed.

Knossos, the capital city of
King Minos and the Cretans.

The ancient Greeks believed
this was the home of the Minotaur.

A scene of horrific crimes
against humanity.

Today its ruins still hold clues

about the reality behind the myth.

At the height of Crete's power,
between 700 and 450 BC,

this city was home to 100.000 people.

At its centre was a vast palace
with a complex layout.

In fact, some experts believe
it was the original inspiration

for the labyrinth.

It must have been extremely difficult

for anyone to find their way
all around that huge palace,

which had something like
a thousand rooms in it,

and five storeys in some places.

There were many passageways
and there were no halls.

The passageways went from
one little room to another,

so you could not find
a direct line anywhere.

My guess is that when
the Greeks first saw this

they couldn't make sense of it

so that's where the notion
of the labyrinth came from.

They would have imagined
it as a dungeony,

dark, series of corridors

that violated the
Greek sense of symmetry.

Greeks like symmetry.

Modern excavations inside the palace

have only strengthened its
connexion to the Minotaur myth.

Throughout the site, signs
of bull worship can be found.

One fresco found in the palace even
depicts a young man battling a bull.

It's a scene that seems torn
almost directly from the myth.

The depiction from the Knossos palace
shows a naked young man

somersaulting over the top
of a bull of large horns

that seems to be enraged
and chasing him.

An ancient palace
that looks like a maze,

filled with artefacts related to bulls.

It's easy to see how this place
might have inspired the myth.

But the connexions do not end there.

Archaeologists have unearthed
evidence suggesting

the existence of a real King Minos.

A throne room with its seat
still perfectly intact.

It's the oldest ever found in Europe
dating back 3,500 years.

Also found was an inscription
in an ancient language

that may even mention
the king by name.

In the archives of the temple of Crete,
there were stone tablets

which have inscribed on them
words which looked to be

like the name of King Minos.

So one word, "mi-nu-te",
a second word, "mwi-nu ro-ja",

which could mean "Minos the King" -
"ro-ja" is a title for royalty.

These clues suggest King Minos
may have actually lived.

But the most intriguing connexion
to the Minotaur myth

appears on another tablet
found at the site.

It depicts an offering to a so-called
Mistress of the Labyrinth.

Here, in writing, is a direct
reference to the maze of the Minotaur.

It's an unmistakable connexion
between the City of Knossos

and the myth.

But who was this
Mistress of the Labyrinth?

Her identity is an intriguing mystery.

Experts believe it was a woman
of great importance at the palace,

a high ranking priestess,
or even the daughter of the king.

In the myth, King Minos'
daughter is Ariadne,

and she plays an important role
in the rest of the story.

We don't know who's the Mistress
of the Labyrinth was,

but it could have been Ariadne inasmuch
as she was entitled to be the priestess

of the Temple, because she was
the first daughter of King Minos.

From the moment Theseus arrives
in Crete to be sacrificed

Princess Ariadne is drawn to him.

Ariadne notices Theseus' bearing,
his courage, his unblinking gaze

and is immediately smitten with him.

She's sort of overcome by the power
of her love for Theseus

and she immediately decides
that she's going to help him,

because she doesn�t' want him to die

in the labyrinth as all
the other figures do.

But Ariadne must act fast.

She seeks out Daedalus,
the designer of the labyrinth

and begs him to explain
how to escape it.

What he gives her is a clue.

In old English translations
of this myth,

the word "clue" means a ball of twine.

This is what Daedalus gives to Ariadne.

And it's how the modern
word "clue" originated.

And Daedalus said, "Why don't you
just use a ball of twine?

"Tie one end to the door and then
unravel it as you go into the labyrinth.

"Once you're in the centre,
you can find you way back out

"by following the twine. "

We have continued to use balls
of twine in underwater exploration.

The divers will tie the end of the twine
to an opening in a wreck or a cave,

go inside, explore and then follow
the twine back out again.

Reason, which is what the Greeks
honoured more than anything else,

is the thing that solves the problem.

A very simple answer to what seems
to be an impossible situation.

Ariadne secretly visits Theseus
in his holding cell

and offers him her clue
on one condition -

he must marry her...

if he survives.

When Theseus meets Ariadne
he's sort of in a bind.

He's going into the
middle of the labyrinth,

about to be eaten alive
by a Minotaur,

and when Ariadne volunteers to help him
he really doesn't have much of a choice.

It's either do what she asks
or take his chances,

and he's not going to take chances.

The next morning, 14 victims are
locked inside the labyrinth.

Lambs right for the slaughter.

With his ball of twine in hand,
Theseus leads the way into the maze.

Theseus ties off the
ball of twine at the door

and starts to walk step by step
through this dark, dank tunnel.

Theseus has been offered
as a human sacrifice.

It's a concept that is hard to
fathom today, but evidence suggests

that the real ancient Cretans
not only sacrificed humans,

they also may have eaten them.

Theseus, the Prince of Athens,

is leading his fellow victims
deeper into the labyrinth,

determined to confront
the Minotaur head-on.

He has a ball of twine, a clue,

so that he can find his way back out.

As the beastly growls of
the Minotaur grow louder,

Theseus is resolute,
but those trapped with him

are beginning to unravel.

As the victims walk
through the labyrinth

one can imagine how
terrified they must have been.

Just think about going
into that dark space,

and then as you wandered,
not being able to see anything...

They knew that somewhere
else in this maze,

there was this horrible man-eating
creature that would devour them.

You never know at what point you're
going to encounter the monster.

Deep inside the maze,
the Minotaur stirs.

He hears the screams of frightened
victims headed his way.

And he's ready for his
next feast of flesh.

This is the enemy Theseus must defeat

in order to free Athens
from the tyranny of Crete.

So goes the myth, but what
is the link to reality?

The tension between Athens
and Crete during the Bronze Age

is well documented.

But were the Cretans really
as savage as the myth suggests?

At Knossos palace, excavations have
turned up possible evidence

that suggests some truth
behind the story.

Inscriptions found at the site
have been interpreted by some

as offerings made to the gods.

Human offerings.

There are records of a female
servant being offered,

and also ten males being offered.

Real people killed in ritual sacrifice,

just like the victims of
the Minotaur in the myth.

The suggestion is that there
actually was human sacrifice

being practiced on Crete.

But the evidence extends
beyond inscriptions.

There are also bones that bear
the markers or cold-blooded murder.

In 1979, over 300 of them were
unearthed in Knossos.

Unbelievably all of them
belonged to children.

About 25% of them bore cut
marks made by a fine blade.

The type that would have been used
to remove flesh from bone.

The bones had the marks of knives,

they had cut marks on
the sides of the bones,

so it's hard to get around the fact

that there was butchery going on here,

perhaps even cannibalism.

I don't know how else one could
interpret this kind of evidence.

Sheep bones were also uncovered in
the same place as the human bones.

All were slashed in a similar manner.

These grate marks look a lot like the
kind of marks that result from butchery

of animals that are
being prepared to eat.

This suggests that the ancient Cretans
were not only sacrificing humans,

but eating them.

Is the Minotaur's thirst for human flesh

an encoded message about cannibalism?

It's the most repulsive and abhorrent
crime we can ever even imagine.

It's a perfect way to demonize
someone, so we can imagine that

the ancient Greeks would have told
the story about their great enemy, Crete,

that not only were they horrible people,
they were monsters and even still

they were cannibals.

The myth continues.

The labyrinth�s corridors
are cloaked in darkness.

It is impossible for Theseus
to find his way by sight.

But the grunts and growls of
the Minotaur are getting louder.

They are his compass.

His ball of twine, his clue,
is small now,

a quarter the size it was
when Theseus entered the maze.

The beast is near.

He smells the stench
of blood on the walls,

he sees the bones of the poor
beast's prior victims.

He rounds a corner and
sees a sleeping hulk.

Even the breath of the
Minotaur fills him with fear.

But this is the difference between
heroes and us ordinary folks,

the hero feels the fear, masters it
and pursues the great deed.

Theseus ambushes, catching
the beast half asleep.

Theseus approaches, the Minotaur
is startled, jumps up and attacks.

Axe meets sword as man battles beast.

The future of Athens and Crete
hangs in the balance.

In the pre-dawn hours,
the sounds of struggle pierce the night.

Inside the labyrinth, Theseus
has the Minotaur cornered.

He then pounces on it, attacks...

Before the beast even
knows what hit him,

Theseus has the upper hand.

The Minotaur struggles and gasps.

The hero goes in for the kill.

The Minotaur, this tortured,
trapped, terrible soul is dead.

Theseus, son of Poseidon
and Prince of Athens,

has destroyed the curse
of King Minos.

You can imagine that his heart
is pounding, his adrenaline is pumping,

he's covered with the muck
and blood of this dead beast

and all of the other human beings that
this beast has ingested over the years.

That the forces of reason
as embodied by Theseus

overcame the forces of irrationality

as embodied by the Minotaur.

But there's no time to
celebrate his victory.

Daybreak is approaching.

Theseus needs to move fast

if he's going to escape
the wrath of King Minos.

Once he's killed the Minotaur
it's not quite over because

Minos is not gonna be happy
about this, of course.

So he has to retrace his steps,
get out of the labyrinth,

and then get back on to the ship.

He follows his thread back out and
leads the still living youths of Athens

out of the labyrinth.

I can imagine the joy that must have
come over the kids when they saw

that their fate was
not what they expected,

that their fate was actually changed
by the deed of the hero.

Ariadne, the Princess of Crete,

has spent a restless night listening
for any sign of Theseus' survival.

He's promised to marry her if
he escapes the Minotaur alive

and she intends to hold him to it.

Just before dawn she joins him
and their ship sets sail for Athens.

It's a defining moment
in Greek mythology.

When Theseus slays the Minotaur
the action is really a symbolic act

in which we have a hero of Athens

who's finally overthrowing
the yoke of Crete.

It's a symbol of
Greece beating Crete.

It's a symbol of human
bravery and ingenuity.

So all these stories they
inspired the young citizens

to be faithful to their country

to be able to sacrifice themselves
for their city's glory

and ultimately to become
true citizens of a democratic city.

Theseus leaves Crete a hero,

but his voyage home will end in tragedy.

When he left to fight the Minotaur
Theseus promised his earthly father,

King Aegeus, that he would hoist
a white sail if he returned home alive

to signal his victory.

Every morning for months, Aegeus
would visit the same seaside cliff

looking for any sign of the ship.

But when it finally
appears on the horizon,

its sail is black.

The King is inconsolable

thinking his son has been
devoured by the Minotaur.

In his grief, Aegeus leaps
to his death in the sea below.

To this day, that sea
is called the Aegean,

after Theseus' father.

When Theseus fails to
raise the white sail,

the original ancient tale doesn't tell
us any motivations as to why he forgets,

but in the end, the original myth,

seems to suggest a kind
of carefreeness of youth.

That's the easiest explanation.

He was so excited by his victory,
he was on his way home,

and he simply just forgot to do it.

Aegeus' sudden death is
a shocking development.

Theseus comes ashore not only
as the liberator of Athens,

but as its new King.

The King who, according to the myth,

would transform the city
from a backwater outpost

into a regional super-power.

In this myth, Athens' rise to power
is definitely credited to Theseus.

In fact, the myth seems to have been
written, in part, to prove this.

In adopting Theseus as their
founding hero,

the Athenians were
really making a statement.

They were saying that this long-time
domination of Crete was now over

and that there was a new
top dog in town, and it was Athens.

Athens would go on to become
the Greek world's dominant city state.

While Crete would collapse
and be conquered.

But long after both kingdoms
have faded into history,

the myth of Theseus
and the Minotaur endures.

And like every good myth

it reveals insights into human nature

that are as relevant today
as they were 3,000 years ago.

There's a lot of things that one
can read into the Minotaur's story,

you can imagine the labyrinth
as being the human mind,

a dark place that we constantly
explore in a conscious state,

the animal nature, the nature
that compels us to kill.

These myths reveal to us
in a uniquely powerful way

parts of ourselves that
we otherwise keep hidden.

Hidden urges and desires,

hidden means by which
we deal with the world.

The most fundamental struggles
of human experience.