Recently
working on a concept project for a client I have been exploring the art
and the myth of the Minotaur. At first glance we are all familiar with
the fantasy monster of half man half bull that lurks in the bowels of
ancient labyrinths. This has been a staple of gaming and stories for
decades and I myself have faced innumerable minotaurs in cavernous
hallways, dispatching them with sword and magic in everything from
Dungeons & Dragons to World of Warcraft.
My
research into the mythos of the minotaur uncovered a great deal more.
When doing a simple Google search for “Minotaur” I was confronted with
what seemed a vastly divergent representation of the monster. Everything
from classical urns to contemporary game concept art and an unsettling
number of erotic hentai depictions of the beast. I came to realize
however that all of these are intimately related, and what I thought was
a straight forward two-dimensional monster, has revealed centuries of
psyco-sexual development.
The
original version of the Minotaur story begins in ancient Greece. The
monster that is half man half bull is also the half son of King Minos of
Crete, born to queen Pasiphae who indulged in bestiality with a bull.
Minos imprisoned the monster in an elaborate labyrinth designed by
Daedelus. Every year seven youths are sent into the labyrinth to be
sacrificed to the Minotaur. The hero Theseus famously brings a spool of
thread which he unwinds behind him, and once slaying the monster,
follows the thread backward to escape the labyrinth.
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| The Minotaur GF Watts 1885 |
But, I’m more
interested in the character of the Minotaur himself as an archetypal
figure. He has the intellect of a man and the violent virility of a
beast. In classical philosophy this was known as the
Dionysian/Apollonian Dialectic. The discourse among philosophers such as
Socrates as to whether Man was an intellectual creature or a physical
creature. Dionysus being the god of hedonism and physical pleasure while
Apollo was the God of the arts and science. The Minotaur was a physical
manifestation that Man had aspects of both. The cannibalistic devourer
of human flesh (figuratively and literally) and conceived by the lustful
infidelity of the queen with a bull. This hideous offspring is unwanted
and unloved by both his parents and locked away as an embarrassment,
while his sister Ariadne is beautiful and adored by everyone. The motif
of the labyrinth or maze is universal throughout many cultures as
representing the twisting and turning of the path of life, adding to the
complex symbolisms of the Minotaur myth.
By the time
of The Age of Reason in the 18th century philosophers such as Descartes
and Hobbes began to further explore the Duality of Man, later explored
by Freidrich Nietzsche in Birth of Tragedy (1891). Was Man an animal
with the mind of a god? or a god trapped in the body of an animal? and
in what combination did these two aspects of the human condition
struggle with each other?
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| Minotautomachy Pablo Picasso 1934 |
In the 20th century
the advent of psychoanalysis began to codify this duality into a
science. Freud’s theory of the Id versus the Ego and Yung’s development
of the concept of Archetypes became the leading theories of the day. The
classic Oedipus Complex that every man wishes to kill his father and
sleep with his mother is deeply represented in the Minotaur myth. The
most notorious of artists to explore this theme of the Minotaur was
Pablo Picasso. Having spent much of his adult life in dramatic and
destructive relationships with a series of women Picasso explored the
theme of the Minotaur in a series of drawings and engravings to try to
better understand his own subconscious, that of the lecherous,
adulterous man who devoured women, in conflict with the intellectual
artist who created paintings.
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| Alien Concept Design. H.R. Giger |
Today as I explore
the infinite realms of the internet I find that depictions of the
Minotaur are more common than perhaps anytime in history. In 1979 Ridley
Scott produced a sci-fi reimagining of the Minotaur story with Alien,
where a group of sacrificial space-miners are hunted in a warren of
hallways and access tubes to either be devoured or impregnated by a
horrific monster. When concepting the Alien, artist H.R. Giger was noted
to have said that he gave the Alien a decisively phallic shape, because
that people are equally terrified of sex and death. Most recently, I
think the character of Tyrian Lannister in the story The Game of
Thrones, is a literate metaphor of the Minotaur Complex. Finally, there
are the crude and pornographic illustrations made by young artists in
the form of what is called “hentai”. (I will not display any of these
images or link to any sites), but what I at first found disturbing I
realized was the same conflict within the minds of young “artists” to
try to come to terms with their developing sexualities and intellects.
The same dramatic dichotomy that has faced generations of people
regarding nascent sexual urges in stark conflict with their intellectual
understanding of gender roles, sexuality and societal standards. Viewed
from a purely clinical point of view, these outwardly disturbing images
are an interesting insight of what originally intrigued the ancient
classical poets and artists. Man as sexual and violent animal, versus
Man as intellectual and thoughtful citizen. This duality still rages
today, and the Minotaur is there uncomfortably in our subconscious
thrashing in the labyrinth of our minds threatening to escape.
Enjoy: Go Forth and Learn.
WOC
for more interpretations on the Minotaur Myth read:
Psychology Today: Why Myths Still Matter: Facing Your Inner Minotaur and Following Your Ariadnean Thread
By
Stephen Diamond. Phd
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evil-deeds/200912/why-myths-still-matter-part-four-facing-your-inner-minotaur-and-following-you
A Gallery of Minotaur Art:
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| Theseus Slaying Minotaur Bayre 1845 |
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| Pablo Picasso |
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| Minotaur Greek Urn |
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| Karn the Minotaur |
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| Minotaur D&D 1st ed. 1976 |
©text William O'Connor 2014. All images used for educational and editorial purposes as per the Copyright Code of Fair Use.
