Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The most central narrative entities, or circles of fables, are the narrative of the Trojan War, known especially from Homer's Iliage, with various framed narratives, including a narrative of the travels of Odysseus, known in turn from the Odyssey; and many fables related to Thebes, such as the narrative Oedipus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

These form the body of Greek lore, as much of the most central lore relates in some way to the subjects of the two fables.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Other key fables include accounts of the genesis of the gods and the heroics of various heeros (Heracles, Theseus); the fable of Iason and the Argonauts who, before the Trojan War, go out to retrieve the golden fleece aboard the ship Argo; and to Crete and its Minoan culture referring narratives.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] [2] Myths were used to try, among other things, to explain various phenomena, events, and ways that seemed to have no natural explanation.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Many Greek myths had connections to the myths of old cultures of the Middle East.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Some of the myths possibly have some sort of historical basis and may be considered as history told in oral form before historiography, but many myths have no connection to historical events.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[3] Figuring out the relationship between Greek mythology and reality is somewhat impossible, because true and fable are often intertwined in them.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Troy was long considered a fable until Heinrich Schliemann discovered the ruins of the city in 1870.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Alexander the Great was said to have been the son of Zeus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Mount Olympos was not first climbed until 1913.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Even the author Homer's existence or role in the genesis of works that go under his name is unanimous.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Mythology Sources Literary Sources Greek fables that lived as oral lineage have survived in ancient literature.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Greek mythology has been able to elucidate through a number of original sources.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

These include, above all, the poetry of the Archaic and Classical periods, compiled mostly from cult expenditures or the feasts of the superior, as the most notable: Homer's Iliad, Odyssey, and Homeric Hymns.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The Birth of the Gods of Hesiodus (Theogonia).


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Plays by Aeschhylos, Sophocles, Euripidee and Aristophane.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Choral anthems of Pindaros and Bakkhylide.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The writings of historians such as Herodotus and Diodoros the Sicilian, and by geographers such as Pausania and Strabon, who have travelled around the Greek world and noted stories.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The works of contemporaries of mythists who composed prose texts from myths with the intention of reconciling mutually contradictory narratives.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman period.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Although poetry of this period is already more literary than religious, it contains important details that would otherwise have been lost.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This includes, among others: Hellenistic poets Apollonios Rhodoslaine and Kallimakhos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Roman poets Hyginus, Ovidius, Statius, Valerius Flaccus and Vergilius.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Late Ancient Greek poets Nonnos and Quintus Smyrnaeus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The novels of Apuleius, Petronius, Lollianus and Heliodoros.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Epic poetry Greek literature originated in the 7th century BCE.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

of epic poetry, the most famous works of which are the epics Iliad and Odyssey put in the name of Homer.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Deity myths always had a central place in epic poetry, as they served as the core material of epics, but nevertheless epics were not primarily about myth poetry or religious poetry.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[4] [5] Not much is known about Homer himself, and those investigating are dissented about the role of this in the genesis of the epics.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Homer's works became, in any case, the most significant harmonizers of Greek lore over time.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[6] In addition to the works of Homer, a large number of other works were known, forming what is known as the Epic Cyclus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

It is divided into two fabled circles.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Of these, the first, the so-called Trojan kyclos, focuses on events related to the Trojan War.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Its body is precisely the epics of Homer; other epics tell either of the events that preceded or followed the war.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The second, the so-called Theban kyklos, focuses on events related to the city of Thebes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

These two circles of fables form the body of Greek fables, as much of the most central lore relates in some way to the subjects of the two fables.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Epic poetry flourished in Asia Minor.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In mainland Greece, a didactic branch of the epic is met, represented by the works of Hesiodos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In the Genesis of the Gods (Theogonia), Hesiodos sought to discover the genesis of the world and the gods, to form a system of gods, and to determine the interrelations between them.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The same topic was joined by the List of Women, which lists those women with whom the gods have received offspring, demigods and heroes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] In addition to the epics, another group of poems are the homeric anthems, which have also been put in the names of Homer.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

They emerged in a post-homeeric period when poetry moved from royal halls to religious banquets and in front of a larger audience.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

At the beginning of the festivities, anthems were sung to the god to whom the feast was dedicated.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This was followed by performances of epic poems sung by the poem singers.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Because of this, the hymns told about the own history of the god or goddess in question.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Thirty-four songs have been preserved of the anthems.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The oldest of them is the anthem to Apollon of Delos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Lyrical poetry of the 6th century BCE


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

in the early s, lyrical poetry emerged.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In it, too, a lot of influences derived from divine lore are noticeable.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This is especially true in choral play, where narratives from divine lore often form the core of the poems.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Choral songs also developed in conjunction with religious celebrations.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The pioneer of choral play was Stesikhoros, who rejected the poetry measure of epic poetry and introduced deity poems blazed into the lyrical poetry measure.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He also edited the narratives into new boldness.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Notable Stesikhoros' poems also include e.g.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

a poem about the destruction of Ilion, or Troy, which told of the expeditions of Aineia and thus had a significant impact on later Roman poetry.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The most famous of the choral genres was Pindaros, who reconciled divine fables to fit in with the moral concepts of his own and his own time.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He is known above all for his epinikion poems dedicated to those who won at the Games.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

They usually take a subject from one of the goddesses associated with either the winner or the domicile of the Games.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Tragedy and comedy Even more than the lyric, the Greek tragedy has played a greater role in the development of divine lore.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Tragedy writers often moulded fables into the final form in which they were later to be known.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The subjects of tragedies usually came from the epic cycle.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In addition, they were also influenced by lyrical poetry, folk fairy tales, as well as, naturally, the personal imagination of tragedy poets.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The greatest tragedy poets were Aiskhylos, Sophocles and Euripides.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Each of these dealt with myths in accordance with their own character and worldview.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The poetry of Aeschhylos shows his belief that the gods are righteous and intervene directively in world events, evident among other things in the unshakeable chains of punishment and curse formed by fate through the generations.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The tragedies of Sophocles also express his religiosity, but compared to Aeskhylos he was lighter and dealt with topics expressing mainly confidence that, despite everything, the gods ultimately steer the world towards the better.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In contrast, Euripidee's attitude towards gods and old lore is almost the opposite.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

As a result of the increasing demands of the time, he was also forced to draw on new, as yet unaddressed subjects and lesser-known myths.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In addition, he portrayed the heroes of stories familiar from his old age as human with all their weaknesses and brought these to the “modern age” otherwise.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Of the gods Euripides was critical and skeptical, often criticizing these through the mouths of his character characters.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Along with tragedy, Greek comedy developed.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

It generally took its subject from private life, and therefore its influence on the development of myths has been considerably less than tragedy.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, it also addresses some topics related to goddesses.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The most famous comedy writer Aristofanes, for example, makes Dionysus and Heracle comedic characters in his plays.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In the comedies of Epicharmos, which greatly influenced Plautus, the narratives of the divine lore were widely ridiculed.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Other literature Epic poetry resurfaced in the so-called Alexandrian era of Hellenistic literature.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Major examples include the poem Argonautika by Apollonios, who extensively described the previously unaddressed journey of the Argonauts and followed the taste of his time with his knowledge of mythology and descriptions of geography.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Aratos presented in his work Fainomena the astronomy of his time, also drawing on mythological descriptions and relating divine lore to constellations.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In his poetry Heracleia, Rhianos presented an extensive description of the stages of life in Heracles.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] The Romans inherited Greek fables as part of their own mythology.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In particular, Ovidius used subjects derived from Greek mythology in many of his poems, most famously his extensive poetry Metamorphosis.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

It presents the history of the world from its creation until Julius Caesar and depicts a large number of myths focusing on various metamorphosis.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Many of the fables of antiquity are known precisely in the form presented by Ovidius, or even through him alone, and the work has had a great influence on Renaissance era art.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In his epic, Vergilius presented the story of Aeneis Aineia combined with Roman history.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

It imitated the narratives of mostly Greek mythology and in the early part of the epic especially the Odyssey and towards the end of the Ilias.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Records of Greek mythology have also survived in prose literature.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Particularly older historiography often started with mythical subjects, as they were considered real history.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Among other things, the genealogies of rulers often revert to the heroes of mythology and further into deity lore.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The influence can still be seen on Herodotus, but no longer on Thukydide, who rejected myths as the basis of historical knowledge.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Pausania's work Description of Greece describes, in addition to places, numerous myths associated with them.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Notable sources also include grammatics, who focused on explaining old poems with their own annotations.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Some of the most notable works in the field include the Bibliotheke of the so-called Pseudo-Apollodoros.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] Archaeological sources The development of Greek mythology may also have been shed light on archaeology.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Notable here have been, above all, the discovery of the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures of Bronze Age Greece and Crete in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Mycenaean culture was discovered thanks to the work of Heinrich Schliemann in the 19th century.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In a straightforward style, he combined many of his findings directly with Greek mythology.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

His findings about Troy, he linked directly to the narrative of the Trojan War, and Mykene, in turn, to accounts of the Greeks who went to war.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Jewellery found in Troy he called “Priamos's treasures” and “Helena's jewellery”.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

A golden death mask found in Mycenae he referred to as the “death mask of Agamemnon” and the goddess statues found there as preforms of Hera and Aphrodite.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In reality, many of the findings were related to earlier times than the supposed Trojan War timing, and naturally cannot otherwise be linked to descriptions of mythology in a similarly straightforward manner.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Arthur Evans, who discovered Minoan culture, steered research in a more modern direction, interpreting the discoveries in a broader historical, cultural and geographical context.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[2] [7] In any case, the findings have explained many features of Homer's works and have provided evidence for many details of mythology.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Although so-called Linear B inscriptions have also survived from Mycenaean culture, which have been capable of deciphering to a large extent, knowledge of Bronze Age myths and rituals is still mostly based on the interpretation of monumental buildings and other finds.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This is due to the fact that known texts are mainly different inventories of goods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, many names of gods and heeros appear in them, some of which have also been able to be associated with names found in Greek mythology (see: Mycenaean religion).


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[8] Notable have also been pottery finds, particularly from the geometric period, but also from the Classical and Hellenistic periods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In the decoration of earthenware, mythological or other religious subjects, such as those related to rituals and cults, are most often depicted.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

They are significant in two ways: Firstly, some of them date to a time before the myths were brought into written form in the works of Homer and Hesiodos, and are thus the earliest evidence for myths, in some cases dating back hundreds of years earlier.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Secondly, there are also myths in the decoration and their details, which are not known from any literary source.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Thus illustration from a later period also complements the written evidence.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Pottery also extends knowledge of myths in the sense that it often tells of myths circulating among common folk, not just literary myths.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[9] [10] [11] Mythology and Chronology The field of Greek mythology is extremely extensive.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

It stretches from the deeds of the early gods and giants through the Trojan War and the seven war expeditions against Thebes all the way to Herme's childhood pranks.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The narratives of mythology were often mutually contradictory and local.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Several different, mutually contradictory myths could be told about the same god or heeros; for example, two completely different stories were told about the genesis of both Aphrodite and Dionysus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

On the other hand, again, the same myth might be associated with several characters; for example, corybants danced around both the newborn Zeus and Dionysus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[6] Due to contradictions, an accurate setting of Greek mythology on the timeline is impossible, but a large-scale chronology can be constructed.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The narratives are roughly divided into three parts: The Time of the Gods A time when gods and people were freely interacting with each other and the Time of Heroes, where the role of gods was smaller.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The chronology involves the myth of the age periods of the world.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

During the rule of Kronos, a golden age existed in the world, when gods and men lived blissfully without sorrow and trouble.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The country gave a living without hassle.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The gods of this generation again created an inferior silver age generation.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

It started wars with each other and abandoned the worship of the gods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

That's why Zeus disposed of it.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

There followed the brass or bronze age, when there were strong and warlike people.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This generation, too, was destroyed.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus created a fourth generation that was better and more righteous.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

It was a generation of heeros, or heroes, whose heroes fought in the Trojan and Theban wars.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After being killed, they made their way to the Blessed Islands.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The generation of heroes was followed by an iron age, when life was full of care and trouble, and no one cared about justice.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The Greeks who told the myths considered themselves to live this time.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[12] The Greeks of the Archaic and Classical periods clearly preferred the time of heroes in narratives.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

For example, the Iliad and the Odyssey depicting the period in question were clearly favoured by the genesis of the Gods and the Homeric hymns focused on the gods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Later mythscholars, on the other hand, have often found a more interesting section on the birth dates of gods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Time of the Gods The Greek gods Herodotus held that Homer and Hesiodos had created a Greek view of gods, given the gods their names, positions and functions, and described the appearance of them.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This is true insofar as Homer and Hesiodos did not invent gods, but took their subject from earlier oral lineage and old cults, these nevertheless gave the Greeks a pantheon of gods, the totality of gods, that is, the world of gods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

As a result, older local deities were gradually sidelined and replaced by a pan-Greek view of the totality of gods and key events in mythology.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, old beliefs were left to live on as side-plots of narratives and local variations of gods and events.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] The core of the Homeric god world were the so-called Olympian gods: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Apollon, Artemis, Athene, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Hestia.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

These inhabited Mount Olympos, with the exception of Haade, who inhabited the underworld, of which his name was also used.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Alongside the Homeric gods, however, a small group of primitive, pre-Homeric gods survived, who were never incorporated into the homeric god world, but who still attained a central place in pan-Greek beliefs and cults.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The most central of these gods were Demeter, Dionysus, and Asclepios.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[1] First Gods The stories of the first generation of Gods include birth myths and the war between the Olympian gods and the Titans.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

An important source for these narratives is the Genesis of the Gods of Hesiodus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

According to the Greeks, the beginning of time was Chaos (Khaos), a bottomless, mindless abyss from which emerged Gaia, the Mother Earth, hovering in the abyss.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Eros was also born, love.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Chaos also gave rise to the darkness of Nyx, the night, and Erebos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Gaia gave birth to Uranos, heaven and afterwards Pontos, the sea.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Uranos lay on Gaia and sired it with his rain.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Gaia and Uranos had children: six Titans, the oldest of whom was Okeanos, a belt orbiting the earth, and Kronos, the youngest, as well as three Cyclops, Brontes, Steropes and Arges, who were devoted to thunder and lightning (they later manufactured the lightning used by Zeus) and three hundred-handed monsters ( hekatonkheires), Kottos, Briareos and Gyges, who later settled the War of the Gods and Titans.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Uranos would not let his children out of Gaia's womb, that is, the bosom of the earth.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Gaia was outraged at the tyranny of Uranos and lured her son into a revolt against his father.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The youngest, Kronos, agreed and Gaia prepared him a sickle with which Kronos cut off Uranos' genital and threw it over his shoulder.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Uranos became detached from Gaia, thus creating a space between heaven and earth where future beings could reside.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Uranos cursed his children and named them Titans, the first generation of gods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Blood drops oozed from the genitals, from which erinyi, the vengeance gods responsible for overseeing crimes against blood relatives, were formed.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Gigants, ash tree nymphs and cretan curetes, or corybants, were also born from this blood.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

From the semen of the genital organ, in turn, emerged under the influence of Eros Aphrodite, the goddess of love.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

With his sister Rhea, Kronos had many children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hadee, and Poseidon.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Kronos swallowed his child immediately after birth because he had been told that one of his own children would come to plunge him from power.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, Zeus, the youngest son of Kronos and Rhea, avoided being eaten because Rhea hid him in a cave and instead allowed Kronos to swallow the stone.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After growing up, Zeus fed his father a vomiting substance and thus rescued his sibling from his stomach.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Around Zeus on Mount Olympos gathered a group of gods of the younger generation who fought the Titans for ten “long years”, that is, practically thousands of years.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Of the descendants of the Titans, Prometheus took the side of Zeus, but betrayed this later.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus, at his mother's urging, freed the hundred-handers and Cyclops from Tartarus, and the latter forged him his destructive lightning.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In the final battle, the mountains succumbed and the world was again mired in chaos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After the victorious war, the Titans were taken underground and Atlas, the leader of these, was forced as punishment to support heaven.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Three brothers decided to divide the world: Zeus gained control of the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, Gaia gave birth to one more child, this time with Tartarus, namely the terrifying Typhon.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The battle of Zeus and Typhon caused a catastrophe similar to the battle of the Titans and the gods: the mountains caved in, and the seas and lands changed shape.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In the end, however, Tyfon lost and was passported to Tartarus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Next, Zeus was challenged by gigants, warrior figures born from the blood of Uranos's penis.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The battle was bloody and the Olymposans outnumbered until the gigants were repelled by Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alkmene.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Gaia sought to help the gigants by preparing them an immortality-producing herb, but Zeus foiled this plan as well.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After the defeat of the gigants, Zeus' position was definitively secured and the world in a kind of order.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In the Exalted Battle Tyfon was embittered that the gods had killed the other Titans and attacked Olympus in revenge.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The overgod Zeus almost faced his victor in battle against him.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus gathered courage for a long time before his attack, and eventually when his daughter Athene accused her father of being a coward, Zeus attacked Typhon.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Initial success was good, and Tyfon was wounded by lightning strikes and fled to Mount Kassio, where they reunited.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Tyfon wrapped his snake compartment around Zeus and disarmed him.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Unarmed Zeus was unable to defend himself, and Tyfon shattered his tendons, leaving her lying around crippled.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus' son Hermes heard his father's complaint and, with the help of the god Pan, located Zeus with the sinews he had taken from Typhon's sister Delphyne.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus improved and was ready to continue.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus re-attacked Typhon, who defended himself by whisking mountains towards him.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus returned them back towards Typhon, who had been weakened by the magic of rabies.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The badly wounded Tyfon fled to Sicily, where Zeus elevated Etna into the air and dropped it on Typhon.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Typhon's wrath is reported to be caused by Etna's outbursts.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Typhon's hiding consort Ekhidna escaped destruction.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He sheltered himself in a cave, protecting Typhon's descendants, and Zeus allowed the descendants to live so they could provide challenges for future heroes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Ekhidna and Typhon's descendants included Cerberos, Orthos, Chimera, Hydra, Sphinx, Harpys and, according to some lore, also the Nemean lion.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Later gods to the second generation of Gods include Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Hermes, Athene, Ares, etc., who lived on Olympus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Some of the oldest sources of narratives related to these are the so-called Homeric anthems.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The overgod Zeus was also the god of earth, wind, clouds, rain and thunder.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus had a half-brother, the centaur Kheiron, whose mother was Okeanos' daughter Filyra.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus' spouse was his sister Hera.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus had numerous children not only with Hera but also with numerous other companions, such as nymphs and mortal women, whom he often seduced in an animal character.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Hera, who was also the patron of motherhood, bore Zeus Eileithyia, the helper of the birthers.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Also, the god of war Ares was born as a child of Zeus and Hera.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

With Metis, the goddess of wisdom, Zeus received Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Also, most of the other chief deities were descendants of various companions of Zeus, except Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmiths, who was possibly born from Hera alone in retaliation for Athena's birth.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Leto bore Zeus twins; Apollon, the god of the sun and music, and Artem, the goddess of hunting.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Dionysus, the god of wine, was the son of Zeus and Semele.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The goddess of beauty Aphrodite was born, according to another version of the birth story, as a child of Zeus and Dione.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

According to the most common view, in addition to Zeus and Hera, the brother of Zeus, Poseidon, the deities Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athene, Apollo and Artemis, most central among the children, and Apollon's son, the god of medical skill Asclepios, lived on Olympus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Dionysus and the siblings Demeter, Hestia and Hades of Zeus, Hera and Poseidon appear among them in some myths.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Hestia left Olympus to live among the people.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Olympus was also originally inhabited by mortals like Ganymedes, the drinker of the gods, as well as Heracles, the greatest of the heroes whom Zeus called among the gods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Mythology contains numerous accounts of relationships and disputes between gods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Hades kidnapped Demeter's daughter Persephone to marry him in the underworld.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

As Demeter grieved, nature withered.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

As a solution, Persephone was given permission to spend part of the year on earth.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This explains the variation of the seasons.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[13] Athene and Poseidon competed for the ownership of the city of Athens, and Athene won the city for herself.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[14] Time of men and gods The time of men and gods forms a bridge between the jumal and heroine.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

One typical myth set in the era is the story of a human woman raped by a male god (most often Zeus) who gives birth to a heroic offspring.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In some cases, the goddess copulates with a human male, as in Aphrodite's homeeric hymn, in which the goddess lies in Ankhise and gives birth to her Asiea.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The fables also include other kinds of encounters between gods and humans.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In the lore of Artemi and Aktaion, Aktaion saw the goddess of hunting naked bathing on his hunting expedition.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

As revenge, the goddess transformed Aktaion into a moose, which was then eaten by her own dogs.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[15] Another type case is the creation or theft of some important item.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Prometheus (“exactly/pre-deliberate”) probed to deceive Zeus in the division of sacrificial flesh.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus retaliated by depriving the people of fire.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Prometheus stole it back and gave it to people.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Prometheus received punishment, but later became a patron of human culture.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[16] Tantalos, in turn, took ambrosia and nectar from the table of Zeus, and tried to deceive the gods by feeding them his son Pelops.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[17] Later, when people had no longer cared about the gods after receiving fire, the gods created a great calamity for men: Hephaestus fashioned out of the earth and water the image of a woman to whom the other gods gave feminine skills.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The woman's name was Pandora (“all-talented”).


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This was given to Prometheus' brother Epimetheus (“retrospective”).


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Prometheus had warned his brother against taking a gift from the gods, but Pandora brought a box with her as a dowry.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After a woman cracked her lid, all evil in the world escaped from there.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Only hope remained.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[16] As the sinfulness of men increased, Zeus decided to destroy mankind in the deluge.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Only Prometheus' son Deukalion and Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, were without sin.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

On the advice of Prometheus, Deukalion had built a small ship that allowed them to survive as the only people to survive, ending up on Mount Parnassos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus saw their sinlessness and allowed them to live.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

On the advice of the god Themis, who served as the oracle of Delphi, Deukalion and Pyrrha made the new people by tapping stones behind them: one became men and others became women.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Zeus recreated the other living beings.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[18] Love Stories and Metamorphosis Myths also include a large number of different love narratives, either between man and god or two people, as well as accounts of various metamorphosis.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The subjects are intertwined in several fables so that the death of one or both parties leads to some form of metamorphosis into an example plant, animal, or river.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Some of the best-known love narratives in Greek mythology include the fables of Orpheus and Eurydike, Eros and Psyche, Narcissus and Ekho, and the god Apollon and Dafne.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Such narratives have been specially compiled in Ovidius' work Metamorphosis.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Orpheus was a poetry singer who, with his singing and lyric playing, made nature stop and listen.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

While Orpheus was spending the wedding with the Eurydike nymph, the snake bit the bride and she died.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The grieving Orpheus went to the underworld to reclaim this.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

With his song and lament, he made the gods flinch, and so he was exceptionally allowed to take his bride back to life on earth, but on one condition: on his journey back up, he should not glance behind him.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

On the way, however, Orpheus forgot the condition and glanced at his bride, only to see how she had to sink back into the underworld, this time for good.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[19] Psychhe was a beautiful maiden who, by virtue of the oracle phrase, ended up being the spouse of an unknown man.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

She was never allowed to see his face, for he visited her only in the darkness of night.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Incited by his sisters, however, Psyche lit the lamp one night, and discovered his spouse to be the beautiful and sweet God Eros.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, Eros awoke and escaped Psychhe.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Subsequently, Psychhe also had to suffer the wrath of Aphrodite.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Eventually, however, Psykhke made it to Olympus as the spouse of Eros.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[20] Narcissus was a beautiful young man with whom everyone fell in love, but who himself weaned love.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The Ekho nymph (“Echo”) fell in love with her, and whenever Narcissus was screaming in the forest responded in the same way.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Narcissus, however, rebuffed the maiden's love.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Aphrodite was angered by this and allowed Narcissus to fall in love with his own image when he saw it reflected from the source.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Tired by the eternal cataract, he eventually turned into a daffodil.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[21] After Apollon fell in love with Dafne, the only way the maiden escaped by becoming a laurel tree.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[22] In the triangle drama of Cyclops Polyphemos, Achii and Galateia, Galateia turned Akii killed by Cyclops into a river.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[23] Prokne, Philomela and Tereus, in turn, became birds.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[24] The metamorphosis narratives also include, among others, a fable about Philemon and Bauki.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

They were an elderly couple whom Zeus wanted to reward for their piety.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

They asked to be allowed to die together after their time was up.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

When they died, they turned into two old trees.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[25] Hero Age Myths about the hero age most often describe the adventures of heroic people, heeros.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Gods are still present in myths and often influence the course of events, but the co-operation of gods and humans is no longer as equal as still in myths describing the time between humans and gods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Heracles and other early heeros The earliest and more famous heroes counted 12 Herakles who completed their careers.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[26] Other representatives of the oldest generation of heroes, such as Perseus [27] and Bellerofon, [28] shared many qualities with Heracles.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Their adventures were solitary, powerfully imaginative and fairy-tale, incorporating surreal monsters like Medusa and Chimera.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The early generation of heroes was not as popular among poets as the later ones and is known mostly for the works of mythwriters and the side notes of prose writers.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, they were popular in the visual arts.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Heracles was the greatest of the Greek heroes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

His father was Zeus and his mother Alkmene.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Hera hated him for this and sent two snakes to slay the newborn and his brother Ificle.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Heracles, however, was killed by the snakes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After defeating Orkhomenos, he received Megara as his consort.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Having killed his own children in a flurry of madness sent by Hera, he was forced, as punishment, to serve Eurystheus for 12 years and perform all the duties he gave him.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

These are known as Heracle feats.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Some of the most famous feats include the killing of the Nemean lion and Lerna's Hydra, cleaning the stables at Augeia, catching the Crete bull, and robbing Hadee's watchdog, Cerberos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After this, Heracles received his freedom.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[26] Later, Herakles performed numerous other feats.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After Ifitos was killed, he became a slave to Queen Omphale and had to perform women's jobs dressed in women's clothing.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After Alkesti died, he demanded her back from death.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He later assembled an army and made war against Troy and its king Laomedon.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Deianeira he defeated as his consort in battle with Akheloos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After he died, he became a god and was admitted to Olympus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[26] Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danae.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Danae and the child were sealed in a coffin, which was thrown into the sea and drifted to Serifos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

King Polydektes of the island fell in love with Danae and tasked Perseus with the slaying of Medusa in order to get rid of the boy.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, Perseus succeeded and put Medusa's head in a sack, as the monster petrified anyone who looked this in the eye.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Later, Perseus rescued Andromeda from a sea monster.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He then petrified Andromeda's racing suitors, as well as Polydecteen with the help of Medusa's head.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[27] Bellerofon, for his part, had to fight the Khimaira Monster because they also tried to bring him to death in this way.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Aided by him, he had a Pegasos horse.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[28] Also set in the era is the narrative of Meleagros, Atalante and the run of the Kalydon forest boar.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[29] Argonauts, Theseus and other later heeros The next generation of heroes included the Argonauts who pursued the golden fleece primarily.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[30] This generation also includes Theseus, who among others struck the Minotaur in Crete, [31] and Daidalos and Icaros who fled Crete.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[32] The Argonauts were a band of heroes led by Iason who travelled on the ship Argo to Colchis to retrieve a winged ram golden fleece guarded by a sleepless dragon.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In addition to Iason, the Argonauts included, among others, Heracles, Asclepios, Kastor, Polydeukes, Theseus, Laokoon, Nestor, and Achilleus' father Peleus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The golden ram had previously been taken to Colchise from Orkhomenos by Friksos, and its fleece was consecrated to Are.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

On the way, the Argonauts encountered many adventures.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In Colchii, Medeia, the king's daughter, fell in love with Iason and helped him with his magical powers.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

And Iason got the fleece, and sailed away from Medeia and his little brother Absyrtos with him.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

As the king pursued them, Medeia slew her little brother and chopped his body into the sea.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Thus the pursuers were left with parts to collect and the Argonauts got away.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Later, however, Iason rejected Medeia.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[30] Theseus was the son of Aigeus or Poseidon, king of Athens, who later became king of Athens himself.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He performed feats like Heracles, and killed Sinis, Skiron, and Procrust, among others.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Theseus' most famous adventure is a visit to Crete, where he slew the bull-headed Minotauros monster who lived in the labyrinth.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The Minotaur had been born as a result of the forbidden love of King Minos' consort Pasiphae and the bull.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

To hide the mixed fetus, Minos had built a labyrinth.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Theseus survived the labyrinth with the assistance of Minos' daughter Ariadne and was killed by the monster.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He took Ariadne with him, but abandoned this to Naxus, whence Dionysus, the god of wine, took her as his consort.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

On Theseus's return home, Aigeus committed suicide due to a confusion in the colour of his sails.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[31] Later Theseus helped Heracle in taking Hippolyte's belt, thus falling in love with Antiope, resulting in the birth of a son Hippolytos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, as his wife, he took Faidra, who later fell in love with Hippolytus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

After the boy's rejection of love, Faidra committed suicide and deceived Theseus into slaying Hippolytus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Later, Theseus robbed Helena and got into Hades with Peirithoos, from where Heracles rescued her.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[31] Daidalos was an accomplished architect who had designed the Labyrinth of Knossos for Minos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, he had been imprisoned there with his son Ikaros in order to preserve the secret of the labyrinth.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

They escaped from there by flying on wings manufactured by Daidalos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, Ikaros flew too close to the sun, causing his wings to melt and he fell into the sea.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[32] The lineage of Atreus, between the Argonauts and the Trojan Wars, was a generation of heroes committed by heavy crimes, often against close relatives, including Tantalos, Pelops, Atreus and Thyestes, and Oedipus with his children.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The narratives associated with this generation provided much material for Greek tragedies.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

King Tantalos of Lydia was in the favour of the gods, whence he became arrogant.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Not only did he steal nectar and ambrosia from the gods, he also probed these by slaughtering his own son Pelops for food for these.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

At the feast, the other gods noticed the betrayal, but Demeter ate a piece of the boy's stage in his thoughts.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The gods resurrected Pelops and replaced the missing piece with ivory.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Tantalos, as punishment, went through immense pain in the underworld.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[17] Pelops went to Greece, where the Peloponnese took its name from him.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He encountered King Oinomaos, who tried to prevent his daughter Hippodameia from marrying after receiving a prophecy that he would be put to death by his own son-in-law.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Hippodameian suitors he staggered away from days racing.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Hippodameia fell in love with Pelops and arranged for Myrtilos, the driver of Oinomaos, to betray his father.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Oinomaos was killed while racing.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Later, Pelops massacred Myrtilos, who cursed the entire Pelops lineage.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The sons of Pelopsi, Atreus and Thyestes, slain the third brother Khrysippos, and then ended up in quarrels with each other.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

At the meal he prepared, Atreus fed Thyeste her sons.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Thyestes cursed the entire genus again.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[17] The sons of Atreus were Agamemnon and Menelaus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Agamemnon was king of Mycenae and married Tyndareus' daughter Klytaimnestra, Menelaus in turn became king of Sparta and married Tyndareus' second daughter, Helena, belonging to her beauty.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Later in the Trojan War, Agamemnon and Menelaus served as warlords for the Greeks.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[17] After Zeus plundered Europe, Agenor sent three of his sons to find him.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Of the boys, Kadmos ended up in central Greece and founded the city of Thebes there.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He slain a dragon whose teeth were born by sowing the progenitors of the Thebes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Kadmos received from heaven to consort Aphrodite and Aree's daughter Harmony.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[33] Later, Laios was king of Thebes, and Iokaste as his queen.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Laios receives a prophecy from the oracle of Delphi that he would come to be killed by the hand of his own son.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

When Laios and Iokaste had a son, this was given to a slave to be left in the mountains.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, the slave took pity on the boy, who eventually ended up in the court of the King of Corinth and was given the name Oedipus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

As an adult, Oedipus received a prophecy from the oracle that he would come to slay his father and marry his mother.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Horrified, he left Corinth because he considered its king pair to be his parents.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

On the way, he got into an argument on the highway with a man and killed him.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He eventually ended up in Thebes, where the king's office was vacant after the king died.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He became king and married a dowager queen.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

It was later discovered to her that the man she had killed on the highway had been the King of Thebes and her real father, at which point she had therefore married her mother.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Oedipus blinded himself and eventually died in Kolonos near Athens.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[34] Polyneikes and Etheocles, the sons of Oedipus, showed exuberance towards their father.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Oedipus cursed his sons and predicted that they would live in constant quarrel.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Eteocles ended up ruling Thebes, while Polyneikes relocated to Argos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Eventually, Argos was embarked on a war expedition led by the Seven Heeros to Thebes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This fable is known as the Seven Expeditions against Thebes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Both Polyneikes and Eteokles fell in battle.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

King Creon, under threat of death, forbade anyone to bury Polyneike, who had been warring against his hometown.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The brother's sister Antigone thus came into conflict between divine law (relatives must be buried) and the king's edict.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He eventually buried his brother, as a result of which Creon ordered him to die.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Antigone hanged himself, and his fiancée Haimon, Creon's own son, also committed suicide.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Creon's wife Eurydike also killed herself.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[35] Later the Epigons, or the sons of the seven who rose up against Thebes, destroyed Thebes in a successful war.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Trojan War The Trojan War was, in the view of the Greeks, a culmination point between myth and real history.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The war-related lore is divided into five phases, the first dealing with the events leading up to the war; the second with the course of the war, including the events of Homer's Iliah; the third with the end of the war and the destruction of Troy; the fourth with the return of heroes from the war, including the Odyssey and Aeneis events; and the fifth Trojan generation descendant stages.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In addition to Iliah and the Odyssey, these events were the subject especially in other epics of the so-called epic Cyclus, as well as Greek tragedy.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The war was the result of the so-called Judgment of Paris.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The Trojan Paris was commissioned from Hera, Athena and Aphrodite to act as judge in terms of which of these goddesses was the most beautiful.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Paris chose Aphrodite.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

As a reward, Aphrodite promised her spouse the most beautiful woman in the world.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This happened to be Helena of Sparta, who was already married to Menelaus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

With Aphrodite's assistance, Paris travelled to Sparta and, on her return, took Helena with her.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In retaliation, Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon assembled a large army which set out to take revenge on Troy and retrieve Helena.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Since the winds were not favorable for sailing, Agamemnon first had to sacrifice his daughter Ifigenei.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[36] The war lasted ten years.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The Greeks besieged Troy for a long time.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The events described by Ilias and Aeneis, central to the war, are set towards the end of the war.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

These include the feud between Achilleus, the most advanced soldier of the Greeks, and Agamemnon, the commander-in-chief of the troops, and the deaths of Achilleus' comrade Patroclus and Prince Hektor of Troy in battle.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The gods also participate in the battle.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Of course, Aphrodite, as well as Apollon and Ares, among others, were on the Trojans' side, Hera and Athene, who were insulted in the beauty pageant, and Poseidon, among others.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Eventually, Troy was overrun with the help of the Trojan wooden horse built as the invention of the resourceful Odysseus.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

During the takeover, Achilleus died from an arrow hit his heel.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Troy was destroyed, men were slain and many Trojan women were taken as slaves to Greece.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[36] After a decade-long war expedition, the war heroes returned to their homes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Odysseus was forced to stray in the Mediterranean for ten years before he managed to return back to his home at Ithaka, where his loyal consort Penelope waited for him, besieged by racing suitors.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

On a harharic expedition, Odysseus experienced a wide variety of adventures and encountered lotophages, cyclops, laistrygons and sirens, sailed between Scylla and Charybdis, stayed for a long time with Kirke and Kalypso, and visited Nausika after meeting Alkinoos at court.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Poseidon did everything he could to prevent Odysseus from getting home, while Athene helped him.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Upon returning home, Odysseus slew Penelope's suitors.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[37] Aineias, who fled Troy, also experienced similar delusions before ending up in Italy and becoming part of Rome's mythical history.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[38] The darkest fate was with Agamemnon, who in turn suffered the curse of the House of Pelops.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

While he was at war, his wife Klytaimnestra cheated on him with Thyeste's son Aigisthos.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

When Agamemnon returned to Mycenae, he was slain by Klytaimnestra.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Agamemon's son Orestes was forced to avenge his father's slaying by slaying his own mother.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[39] Interpretations and Theories of Origin Myth can today be defined, for example, as a set of traditional narratives in which imaginative combinations of situations of human significance are formed into diverse semantic entities used in many different ways to illustrate reality.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[6] Myths were used to try, among other things, to explain various phenomena, events, and ways that seemed to have no natural explanation.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Some of the myths clearly seek to explain, for example, various natural phenomena or the emergence of different social institutions.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[3] [40] The meaning and use of myths in antiquity The Greek word mythos referred to the Archaic period all the way to the 4th century BCE.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

up to authoritative speech, discussion and narratives.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

It still had about the same meaning at the time as the word logos, which still at that time meant account, discussion and speech in general (rather than “sense”, which meaning is associated with the word nowadays).


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[41] For example, Homer used mythos simply in the sense of speech, and did not refer to the untruth of spoken; it was possible for a person to mythesthai (speak) the truth.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[42] A juxtaposition of the words logos and mythos later developed, with the former referring more generally to speech and the latter to various narratives and fables.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The latter meaning was inherited by the Latin language phrase fabula.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[42] Herodotus, in his work on History, used the word mythos to describe explanations not based on any observations or evidence (for example, numerous theories of that time about the cause of the flooding of the Nile), as well as various, in his opinion, aimless narratives (such as the account of how Busiris wanted to sacrifice Heracles).


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Empedokles used the word from his own poetic world explanations.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Thukydides referred as “mythical” (mythōdes) to anything that circulated from mouth to mouth, whether it was common perceptions or fanciful stuff.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[41] The actual mythology in the modern sense of the word, that is, the totality of the traditional lore concerning gods and heeros, emerged from the 5th century BCE.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

since when so-called logographers began writing narratives, lineages reverting to gods, and other mythical material up.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Such include Akusilaos, Ferekydes Leroslainen (also an Athenian), Hellanikos and Herodoros, among others.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[41] [43] In ancient Greece, myths were part of everyday life.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Today, myth is usually conceived as a commonly known idea, which is nonetheless untrue.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The Greeks rather conceived myths as commonly known narratives expressing some deeper truth that could not be presented in any other way, such as scientifically.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

For example, myths were used to explain the birth of the world, various natural phenomena, as well as the origin of evil occurring in the world.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

For example, the myth of Persephone's abduction explained the cycle of seasons.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Myths also explained psychology in such a way that different gods reflected human natures, and different desires and character traits were controlled by different gods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

For example, Helena explained that she left for Troy because she was taken over by Aphrodite.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Myths also explained historical events, such as why Troy was overthrown as a result of various human and divine actions.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[44] Myths also explained, among other things, cultural differences and the origins of peoples” friendships and hostilities.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Especially the exalted lineages wanted to be attributed to the gods and thus incorporated into mythology.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In antiquity, many myths were considered educational narratives, and teaching them was a central part of Greek civilization (paideia).


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The narratives were listened to, read and memorized.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Through them, among other things, virtues were taught.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Various sages and philosophers presented different views on the subject and what kind of poetry came to be taught.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The problem was central to Solon, Theognis, Socrates, and the Sophists, among others.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[41] In addition, myths also had an entertaining function in the style of folk tales.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Later, they served as the standard material of Greek literature.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[42] While Greek mythology in the 5th century BCE.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

became established, many early philosophers such as Xenophanes, as well as historians such as Hekataios, began to distance themselves from mythology or abandoned it altogether.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Thus, both philosophy and historiography gradually began to separate themselves from myths.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[41] [43] Myth and Philosophy Greek mythology and Greek philosophy are often set as opposing approaches to explaining the world.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

During the early stages of Greek philosophy under so-called pre-socratic philosophy, the distinction was not yet apparent.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Many early philosophers, such as Ferekydes (Heptamykhos), Empedocles (From Nature), and Parmenides (From Nature), presented their philosophy in myth form or very myth-like language, some of them even in the hexameter form used by epic poetry.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

On the other hand, the mythological descriptions of the genesis of the Gods in Hesiodos, for example, responded in a way to the same problem as the contemplations of the first pre-socratics.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Aristotle, however, considered philosophy to have originated precisely from the abandonment of mythological world explanations and beginning to look for natural causes of things: instead of theological explanations, natural explanations were sought, which were meant to convince others other than just the person presenting them.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[45] Xenophanes rejected the myths because he regarded them as obscene and falsified narratives in which gods and heeros were put in to do all the things that people generally consider shameful, including all forms of theft, adultery, and other treachery.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He wanted a ban on performing such things at banquets and poetry competitions.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Xenophanes also criticized the notion that gods are born, as well as the way to portray gods as human characters.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[43] [41] Theagenes, who was an early Homers critic, interpreted myths as among the first allegories, or metaphors.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He saw, for example, the various gods as elements and forces of nature; Poseidon was water, Hera the air, Artemis the moon, etc. Empedocles continued the metaphorical interpretation of Theagenee by combining classical elementals with various gods.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Anaxagoras is reported to have interpreted the myths as moral allegories.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Metrodoros Lampsacosan, in turn, interpreted the persons of the Trojan War metaphorically: Agamemnon was the ether, Achilleus the sun, Helena the earth, Paris the air, etc. [43] According to Plato, myths came to be judged by their educational value.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

He therefore criticized the mythology and oral tradition of his time (mythology and archhaiology) in several ways.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Good and bad myths existed about him, and much of the myths were of the latter: they consisted of rumours, oracle recitations, neverending and changing family trees, narratives of the founding of cities, and all sorts of fables and sayings.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Myths sought to please the lowest part of the soul, which was susceptible to all kinds of passions, and were, out of control, harmful and downright dangerous.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In the ideal state depicted by the state, myths had been censored by driving the poets out of town.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The farm was to produce a new “mythology” which was a “useful and beautiful lie”.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Its purpose was to keep society together through shared narratives and opinions, and to encourage people to act fairly.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[41] Plato himself presented many of his ideas in the form of myths and thus used them to illustrate his doctrine of ideas; some examples are the ER myth of the State and the Atlantis myth of Timaios and Critiaa.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Some of his myths Plato created himself purely as instruments of his philosophy.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[46] [47] Myths and History Some of the myths possibly have some sort of historical basis and may be considered as history told in oral form before historiography.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

On the other hand, many myths have no connection at all to historical events.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[3] However, historicist interpretations must be careful and often errors and excesses occur when myths are supposed to speak more directly than they do.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[48] Greek mythology largely tells of the Mycenaean period, namely the Greek Bronze Age.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Narratives about the persons and events of the Hero Age are likely based at least in part on the ages of Mycenaean culture, as well as actual events in the so-called dark centuries following its destruction.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Significant cities often play a central role in the narratives.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Someone's city's role in mythology seems to have a direct connection to how significant a centre it has been in the Mycenaean period.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Likewise, many key circles of lore seem to revert to the Mycenaean period, so that they have been told unbroken through the so-called dark centuries.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The myths often feature kings, which can tell of the Mycenaean kingage; on the other hand, kings may simply be appropriate person characters when strong, independent actors are needed.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[49] Some of the myths may have arisen on the basis of actual events, with increasingly fabled material coming into detail, as events have been narrated mouth-to-mouth and the actual time of events in history has gradually been obscured or forgotten altogether.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

An example is the story of the Trojan War.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Several scholars are of the opinion that the war has at least some sort of historical basis, although the war, with certainty, has not been as it appears in narratives.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

It might tell of a real war or wars, a general conflict between the regions, or mainly the establishment of Greek settlements in the Trojan region.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Many smaller war expeditions may have turned into one major war in myth, and similarly narratives of several different individuals may have eventually become part of the narrative of one great hero.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The story of the Trojan War seems to have acted as a kind of “magnet”, drawing upon itself several local depictions of battle and heroes from across the Greek world.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[50] [51] Similarly, for example, the myths of the Seven and Epigons war expeditions against Thebes might be related to the wars between Thebes and Argos around 1300—1200 BCE, in which Thebes was possibly first spared and then destroyed.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The narratives, however, contain so many mythical and possibly borrowed ingredients that they do not connect with history except through the fact that Thebes was truly destroyed around that time.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[52] [53] Many myths seem to tell about the movements of the Greek tribes and which region is inhabited from which place.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

These might inform historical events in some form.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[49] For example, in the lore of the maiden of Europe, Zeus plundered her from Phoenicia, after which the brothers of Europe went looking for this.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Of the brothers, Kadmos wandered on Thasos, among others, as well as several more southerly Aegean islands.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This is possibly about which islands have had links to Phoenicia, such as Phoenician settlements; Greek historians cite as Phoenician trading posts, among others, precisely Thasos and Thera and Rhodes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[54] In addition to events in the Mycenaean period, the myths also seem to have preserved reminders of the earlier, poorly known pre-Hellenic communities of Greece, such as the Minoans and Pelags.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In particular, the narrative of Theseus, the Minotaur and the Labyrinth seems to be based on a distant memory of the palace of Knossos, as well as Minoan culture with some sort of bull cults.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[2] The title of King Minos must have been originally a Cretan monarch title (cf.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

pharaoh), not a personal name.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

The narrative has been put forward to describe, for example, some liberation of the Mycenaean Greeks of mainland Greece from the Minoans around the 13th century BCE.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[54] Some scholars also believe that the three main genera of gods (Uranos, Gaia, etc., Titans and the Gods of Mount Olympos) also mirror the ancient struggle between the three groups, Minoans, Mycenaeans and Hellenes.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

However, information about the history of this era is so scarce that it cannot be further clarified.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

In the early stages of Greek historiography, myth and history were often intertwined so that historiography began with myths and then progressed to the historical period.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Herodotus told myths as part of his historiography, although he distinguished them from known events.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Even Thukydides seems to have regarded at least Deukalion, Hellen, and the Trojan War as historical.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[55] Euhemeros saw all myths as historical in origin even to the extent that he considered Zeus and the other gods to have originally been kings, later converted into gods in narratives.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

This is called euhemerism.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

[56] Other theories of origin Even in antiquity, among others, Herodotus speculated that the Greeks borrowed their goddess from the Egyptians.


Question: Have people believed that minotaurs were real in antiquity?

Greek mythology

Early Christian authors saw Hellenistic paganism as a degeneration of Biblical narratives.