Theseus and the Minotaur A long time ago, on an island called Crete, there lived a monster. It was called the Minotaur. It had the body of a man and the head of a bull. The Minotaur ate children. King Minos of Crete ordered a special home to be built for the Minotaur. It was a labyrinth (a type of maze). Now, King Minos had defeated the King of Athens in a war. To avoid the threat of his country being destroyed, every nine years the King of Athens would send seven boys and seven girls to King Minos as a sacrifice. King Minos would then send the fourteen young people from Athens into the labyrinth. No one ever came out of the labyrinth alive.
The King of Athens had a son called Theseus. Theseus was horrified when he learnt why the boys and girls were being sent to Crete. He decided to go to Crete as one of the prisoners and kill the Minotaur.
Now, King Minos had a daughter named Ariadne. When she saw Theseus, she fell in love with him and decided she would help him to defeat the Minotaur. Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of string and told him to tie it to the entrance of thelabyrinth. He unwound it as he went through the passages, so that he could follow it back out again.
When Theseus found the Minotaur, he killed it with one blow of his sword. Then he quickly wound up the string and led all the young people out of the labyrinth. They sailed back to Athens. They were the first people to have survived going into the Minotaur's labyrinth!
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