As Theseus travels across the land, he hears stories about a minotaur who was feasting upon human flesh and eating people. Tales of terror told in hushed tones.  The minotaur was son of a human Queen  and a bull. Like Theseus , Asterion the minotaur, was born with one foot in each world.  The head of a horned bull on the torso of a human. A shame to the family and hidden away within a large stone labyrinth under the King’s castle.

The King had started to order 7 men from each city to be fed to the minotaur every year.  This labyrinth that confined the monster was so enormous, with its dark winding tunnels and passageways, that every person who entered was either eaten by the beast or lost within the winding darkness and died from starvation. No one that entered the labyrinth was ever seen again.  A yearly human blood sacrifice of seven. Yet the unloved monster,  became even more hungry and  bloodthirsty in neglect and abuse.  Theseus is going up against a 100% failure rate. Yet, he is compelled. Compelled to fight, to risk it all, to stop the shedding of innocent blood. He makes sure he is chosen to be one of the seven men sent to fight/feed the bull-man.

Theseus is not impulsive. He takes time, consideration, and he uses the tools and help he is given along the way. He and six other men are taken to the King’s castle, and here Theseus attracts the affections of the princess (and sister of the minotaur- things often get wild and complicated quickly in Greek mythology). She is  stunning and beautiful woman, who wears a crown that ignites into fire when stone is struck against iron. For seven days, the men feast in the morning and each night one man is sent into the labyrinth. Every morning there is one less man at the breakfast table … sometimes at night the surviving hear muffled screams from the dark maze. Night after night, the Princess falls deeper in love with Theseus. On the last night, the princess sneaks into Theseus bedroom, giving him the news that she has hidden three items just inside the darkness of the labyrinth: 1) her crown of fire 2) a spool of golden thread so that he can find his way back to the entrance and, 3) a bronze sword to kill her brother. In return he promises to take her away from the island with him.

Our hero enters the darkness of the labyrinth and finds the objects in the shadows. He strikes stone to iron, and the crown flickers to life with fire and light. Follow the sounds of his breathing and you will find him.  With bronze sword in hand, he ties one end of the spool of golden thread to an anchor and walks deeper and deeper into the winding darkness of the labyrinth. Turning a corner, and. suddenly, he is face to face with the beast. The minotaur, who lives in constant darkness, is blinded by the bright flaming fire in the darkness, and Theseus quickly and easily kills the beast by cutting his head off.  He follows the golden thread back to the entrance, never getting lost, where the princess waits for him. He leaves the head on a spike for the King to find and sails away with the princess into a series of further adventures.

Who knows where a thread can take you? Sometimes the most complex, powerful, and well guarded things in the labyrinth of the psyche can be addressed by following a simple thread.