"Theseus and the Minotaur"

Theseus and the Minotaur

Retold by Florencia, Lautaro and Paula

Many, many years ago, in ancient Greece, there lived a young boy called Theseus. He was king Aegeus and Aethra's son and he was born in Troezen where Aethra lived. King Aegeus was the king of Athens. King Aegeus didn’t want to take Theseus to Athens with him because it was dangerous. Before he went back to Athens, he buried his sword and sandals under a rock and told Aethra to show them to Theseus when he was 16. On Theseus’s 16th birthday, the young boy moved the rock, found his father’s sword and sandals and travelled to Athens to meet his father.
During the journey, he saved many people from robbers; so the Athenians welcomed him like a hero. After that, he went to meet his father. At first, King Aegeus was not sure about his son, but when he saw his sword and sandals, he recognized Theseus as his child. The following day, King Aegeus and Theseus went for a walk in Athens. There, Theseus noticed that the people weren’t happy. His father explained to him that every year fourteen young Athenians had to go to Crete. The teenagers were a tribute to King Minos, for his son’s death in Athens. Every year when the young Athenians arrived in Crete, the guards took the Athenians into a labyrinth. There lived the Minotaur, a creature with a bull’s head and a man’s body. The young Athenians could never escape from the labyrinth. When Theseus heard this terrible story, he wanted to kill the Minotaur and set Athens’s free. So he decided to go with the young Athenians to Crete. King Aegeus was very sad because Theseus was his only son, but he had to accept his son’s brave decision. Before setting sail for Athens, King Aegeus gave Theseus a pair of sails in the harbour. He told Theseus to put the sails up when they returned to Athens to show that he was safe.