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to 40%. That's

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bluenile.com. The

1:41

island of Crete sits amid

1:44

a turquoise blue ocean. Its

1:46

vast mountains tumbling to sun-bleached

1:48

beaches and rocky inlets. Today,

1:51

it's a favorite of holidaymakers.

1:53

A calm paradise away from

1:55

the stresses of everyday life.

2:00

set foot on this island thousands of

2:03

years ago, and a very different scene

2:05

would rise up to meet you. For

2:08

in the ancient world, Crete was the

2:10

kingdom of a powerful king, Minos, half

2:13

man, half god, the son

2:15

of Zeus and Europa, and

2:17

a formidable overlord. His

2:20

palace at Nossos was famed throughout

2:22

the Greek island, sprouting from the

2:24

earth as an imposing reminder for

2:26

his enemies never to cross

2:29

him. But Minos had

2:31

a dark secret. Bolstered by

2:33

his own arrogance, he failed to

2:35

sacrifice a bull to the god

2:38

of the sea, Poseidon, and so

2:40

fell out of divine favour. So

2:43

angry was Poseidon at this... snub,

2:47

that he cursed Minos' wife,

2:50

Pasiphae, causing her to forsake

2:52

her husband's bed, and

2:54

instead fall in love with the bull.

2:57

The result of this unusual

3:00

union, born months later, was

3:02

a monster, birthed with the body of

3:04

a man and the head

3:06

and horns of a beast. Minos

3:09

knew that he had to hide the

3:11

evidence of his wife's infidelity, the result

3:14

after all of his own hubris against

3:16

the gods, and so

3:18

he commissioned the famed architect

3:20

Daedalus to build a labyrinth

3:23

beneath his palace, somewhere so

3:25

intricate that even the most

3:27

cunning of men would not be able to

3:30

escape its winding passages. But

3:33

imprisoning the Minotaur, as the creature came

3:35

to be called, was one

3:37

thing. Keeping it quiet

3:40

was quite another. Minos

3:42

came up with the solution. In

3:45

order to keep the peace, he told his

3:47

enemies in Athens that he

3:49

required seven young men and seven

3:51

young women as

3:54

sacrifices. Every nine years,

3:56

he demanded they make the journey across

3:58

the water to Crete. and

4:00

meet their fates in the dank underworld

4:02

of the monster. And

4:04

for several years Minos' plan worked.

4:08

That is, until the son of

4:10

Aegis, king of Athens, was selected

4:12

as tribute. Aegis

4:14

begged Minos to take another, but

4:17

it was no use. In fact,

4:19

his son, Theseus, was determined to

4:21

go. He would, he

4:23

argued, rather die than inherit a kingdom

4:25

that paid its debts in the lives

4:28

of children. And so Aegis

4:30

watched, heartbroken and outraged, as

4:32

his son stepped aboard the

4:34

vessel bound for Nossos and

4:37

death. What he didn't

4:39

know was that Theseus

4:42

himself, like all good heroes,

4:45

had a plan. Hello

4:58

and welcome to After Dark, Summer

5:01

Sun edition with me, Antony. And

5:16

me, Maddie. And this week we are

5:18

matching 10 sexy singles to a half

5:20

man, half beast, and then sacrificing them

5:22

in some kind of underworld. We're not.

5:25

But we are taking a little bit

5:27

of a break from the kind of

5:29

Victorian landscape and from that kind of

5:31

dirty Georgian grimy London streets that we're

5:33

really used to. And now

5:36

we have beaches. I don't like it. I don't endorse

5:38

this at all. We're on holiday. We're on holiday, which

5:40

I will not be ever going to a beach. We're

5:43

on holiday. There's sand and there

5:45

is minotaurs. There

5:48

are. And we're going to get into what a minotaurs is. But

5:50

first of all, I have to ask, why will you not go

5:52

on a beach? Oh, God, have you seen the color of

5:54

me? Look, I'm transparent. I can't go on beaches. And

5:56

if I do go on a beach, it has to

5:59

be very, very. covered. I have to

6:01

be very, very covered. So it's fear of the sun,

6:03

it's not like the sand or the monsters in the sea.

6:05

Ah god, no, no, no, no. I actually really like swimming in

6:07

the sea. No, see, I will go up to my

6:10

ankles and that is it. And even then I'm worried

6:12

I'm treading on stuff. I'm worried there's stuff in

6:14

the sand that's going to come up and like, get me and drag me down

6:16

to hell. Listen, this isn't

6:19

about what this episode is about. Let's get

6:21

into it. But hold on.

6:23

Now, let's take ourselves away from the beach

6:25

for a moment. It's so interesting

6:27

to me that these stories, these

6:29

myths from ancient Greece endure. Like you see

6:31

them even in like the Marvel movies, you

6:34

see elements of them coming in there. So

6:36

they're really part of pop culture now. Why

6:38

is it, do you

6:40

think, that they endure? Especially because I

6:43

find it really difficult to connect with them. I'm

6:46

not surprised they say that, but that's because

6:48

I know you, I think. Yeah. But

6:51

I think when it comes to stories from the ancient

6:53

world, particularly ancient Greece, they're so,

6:55

I mean, literally epic. You know, think

6:58

of Homer's Odyssey, the Iliad. We've got

7:00

these great adventure stories

7:02

that span hundreds, if not thousands of

7:04

miles. And there's these quests, there's this

7:06

encountering of a challenge. There's always a

7:09

hero who has to come. Everything we

7:11

have, this great pantheon

7:13

of gods and these complicated

7:15

relationships, these complicated betrayals and ally ships

7:18

and everything's constantly shifting. And I think

7:20

you're right that you can see that

7:22

in Marvel films. You can see it

7:24

in Game of Thrones and House

7:26

of the Dragon, right? This kind of recalibrating

7:29

of these worlds. And I think you

7:31

can trace that back to the ancient

7:33

world. I think they endure because they're

7:36

so universal. Their stories, even though

7:38

they are on the surface outlandish to

7:40

us today, I think there is something

7:42

of human nature in them. Their stories

7:44

about jealousy, about passion, about fear, about

7:46

anger. And they

7:49

endure because of that. The other thing that I will

7:51

say, and I'm interested in the fact that you say that

7:53

you don't really connect to them, because I think for me,

7:56

stories from the ancient world are remarkably

7:58

tangible. And I don't mean because they're

8:00

true and there's archaeological evidence. And we will

8:02

go on to talk about that. But I

8:04

think these stories

8:07

have informed all of Western

8:09

art from sculpture

8:11

to pottery to painting. We

8:14

see the same characters, the same stories

8:16

being told again and again and again,

8:19

right through the centuries to our own

8:21

moment. And I'm thinking of the Hollywood

8:23

film, Troy, right? Like there's

8:25

still being, I mean, that's not exactly a topical

8:27

reference. That's what, like a decade old, maybe. I

8:30

bet you it's more than a decade, I bet you. Oh, God.

8:32

Nobody looked that up because that's really given

8:34

away. No, that's aging us. That

8:36

was a formative experience for multiple reasons. Not for

8:38

me, it wasn't that weak. Couldn't concentrate on anything

8:40

else. But yeah, go on. I know what you're

8:42

saying though. I was not looking at the way. But

8:45

I think, you know, we're constantly

8:47

reinventing, retelling these stories and they

8:50

still have appeal to us. Yeah. No,

8:52

no, no, they absolutely do. I like, I don't know.

8:54

I think that vastness is one of the reasons why

8:56

I find them a little bit impenetrable. It's just like,

8:59

where am I now? Who am I with? What's going on? Nonetheless,

9:02

the visual of them really does impact

9:04

me in a very positive way. It's

9:06

just, I love, especially the actual images

9:08

from the time, well, there is no

9:10

time for this, but you know what

9:12

I mean, from ancient Greece,

9:14

they are stunning and colorful and

9:16

really playful. And again, we'll talk

9:18

about some of these finds later

9:20

on, but they're definitely still a touchstone.

9:22

Like look at Stephen Fry's books that have

9:24

come out. They've been hugely successful. There's three

9:26

of them, I think. And like, you know,

9:29

publishing phenomenon. We're not being sponsored for

9:31

this content, but they really are. Maybe I

9:33

should listen to those. That might be a

9:35

way. And again, he's such a great storyteller.

9:38

And it comes down to, these are, in

9:40

their essence, they're oral traditions that Homer's Odyssey,

9:42

Homer's Iliad were originally not written down. They

9:44

were spoken aloud. They were told, and it's

9:47

all about storytelling. It's about, that's why they're

9:49

retold so many times. It's about the process

9:51

of telling that story. And of course we

9:53

are replicating that in this episode. Right,

9:56

let's get to the Minotaur

9:58

specifically now. Here's

10:00

what I think I know. Tell me what's in your head. So

10:03

the bottom half of a man. The

10:07

body of a man. The entire body of a man. Just the

10:09

head. The head, yeah. And always

10:11

quite a buff body, right? Yeah, I would

10:13

say so. I mean, I would say everyone in

10:15

the ancient Greek world has a buff body, right?

10:18

True, true, true. Even the Minotaur.

10:20

Even the people with bull heads. My controls are buff people too,

10:22

I think. Sorry, Minotaur. Wait, is it a

10:24

bull? Is it a bull's head? It's a

10:26

bull's head, yeah, with horns and everything. So

10:29

the Minotaur is supposedly the

10:31

offspring of King Minos. He's

10:34

the king on Crete, Nossos, the

10:36

center where his palace is. And

10:39

it's the offspring of his wife, Pasiphae,

10:41

and a bull. And the bull's name,

10:43

the bull has a name, interestingly, is

10:46

Asterius. Ooh, nice name. I know, yeah, Asterius. Somebody

10:49

tell us what that means. So yeah,

10:51

write in and tell us what that translate. Probably means

10:53

bull, let's be honest. I

10:55

hope so. So Pasiphae

10:57

falls in love with the bull. And

11:00

this is a classic thing that we

11:02

see in the ancient world right where

11:04

the gods intervene in human lives. And

11:06

because Minos hasn't paid his dues to

11:08

the gods, they magic Pasiphae

11:10

into falling in love with the bull

11:13

and wanted to be with him. And

11:15

she's so passionate about being with this

11:17

bull that she asks the famed architect

11:19

Daedalus, who exists in the court of

11:21

her husband, the king, to build

11:23

her a wooden bull

11:26

that she and the real life bull can go

11:28

inside to consummate

11:30

their love. Ah, here. And

11:32

it's kind of like Echoes of the Trojan Horse. Did

11:34

Daedalus do that as well? I don't think he's the

11:36

same time. And I'm not someone I'd scream. I

11:39

know that's a donkey, but it's very, like, here's

11:41

a spell to make you fall in love with.

11:43

I mean, Shakespeare absolutely borrows from the ancient world,

11:46

right, in terms of his story. So

11:48

it's an odd start to the story. It's not

11:50

unusual for myths. It's a buildable to

11:52

go inside. And now she

11:54

is having a bit of the old sex with a

11:56

bull. A bit of the old sex. But like, that's

11:58

what's happening, right? We

20:00

know that there is at least by 200 BCE

20:03

there is reference on the coins

20:05

there to Elaborate And

20:07

we know from the palace that

20:09

survives that bulls are absolutely at

20:11

the center of this community of

20:13

this culture that bull

20:16

jumping bull Worship

20:18

the iconography of bulls the

20:20

actual animals themselves are absolutely

20:23

everywhere here You

20:38

Have you ever wondered if the hanging gardens

20:40

of Babylon were actually real or

20:43

what made Alexander so great Join

20:46

me Tristan Hughes twice a week

20:48

every week on the ancients from

20:50

history hit where I'm joined by

20:52

leading academics best-selling authors and world-class

20:55

Archaeologists to shine a light on

20:57

some of ancient history's most fascinating

20:59

questions like who

21:01

built Stonehenge and why? What

21:04

are the Dead Sea scrops and why are they

21:06

so valuable and were the

21:08

Spartan warriors really as formidable as the

21:10

history books say Join

21:12

me Tristan Hughes twice a week every

21:14

week on the ancients from history hit

21:16

wherever you get your podcasts I Hey,

21:21

I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint

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Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies

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out! Right,

23:00

let's move on then to you

23:02

mentioned sacrifices being placed within the the

23:04

labyrinth. And you mentioned what that symbolizes

23:06

for the king and for power and

23:08

for power structures. Let's hear a little

23:11

bit more about that. When

23:18

Theseus arrived at Crete with the

23:20

other Athenian sacrifices, he was determined

23:23

to survive. When

23:25

the group were brought before King

23:27

Minos, the others afraid lowered their

23:29

gaze to the floor, cowering their

23:31

heads in anticipation of what they

23:33

knew was coming. But

23:36

Theseus, a prince of Athens, looked

23:39

into Minos' eyes with defiance.

23:42

Minos was amused at first

23:44

by Theseus' boldness and his

23:47

resolve to live. But

23:49

he soon tired of the young man

23:51

and ordered that the Athenians be taken

23:53

to the dungeons to await their fate.

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