Who Controls The Story?

Transcript.

Download • 138KB

Vocab Trainers.

Download • 50KB

Extended Vocab List.

Download • 7KB

Flashcards: Available here

[00:00:00.000] - Oliver (Host)

Today, I want to tell you a story. You might know parts of it already, or at least a sanitised, a cleaned-up version of the story. It's a very old one, one that has been passed down from generation to generation for more than 2,000 years. It's usually told, I suppose, as an adventure. The story takes place on the Greek island of Crete, where a terrible monster, half man, half bull, has been hidden for years inside a dark maze, a labyrinth. The King of Crete is said to be cruel. He demands that the city of Athens send a yearly sacrifice, seven boys and seven girls, young people who are locked inside the maze, hunted down and killed by the monster, killed by the Minotaur. You may already know what happens next. As these stories often do, it involves a brave prince, a beautiful princess, and a terrifying fight to the death. I'll tell you the details in a moment. But before we get there, I want you to know something important. This story is propaganda. Of course, it's actually also a myth. It never really happened. But what we often forget is that even myths are shaped and manipulated, told in ways that make some people look heroic and others look cruel.

[00:01:26.300] - Oliver (Host)

Myths tell us something very important about the society that creates them. And it's easy for us to forget that nothing, not even a children's story, is ever quite as simple as it seems.

[00:01:40.140] - Oliver (Host)

Welcome back to English and Beyond with me, Oliver. If you find this episode a hard to understand, read my transcript and learn the hardest words for free on morethanalanguage.com. Now, settle down, children. It's time for a story. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

[00:01:57.660] - Oliver (Host)

For many years, the city of Athens lived under a shadow. Every year, a ship sailed from its harbour, carrying a terrible tribute. Seven boys and seven girls, chosen by lot, chosen at random, sent across the sea to the island of Crete. They were young, frightened, and innocent, and everyone knew they would never return. On Crete, these children were taken to a vast stone maze, a labyrinth so complex that no one who entered it could ever find their way out again. Deep inside this maze lived the Minotaur, a monstrous creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull. It was said to be savage, unstoppable, and endlessly hungry. Once the children were locked inside the labyrinth, they were hunted down one by one and killed by the Minotaur.

[00:02:53.380] - Oliver (Host)

The labyrinth itself was a marvel of engineering. The passages of the maze twisted and turned back themselves, designed to confuse the mind and trap anyone who entered. Year after year, the people of Athens dreaded the approach of the lottery when their children could be selected at random. They'd then have to watch their children sail away, knowing that they were being sent to their deaths, and a terrible death at that. Fear turned into anger, and anger slowly turned into a desperate need for change. And that is when Theseus stepped forward. Theseus was the young Prince of Athens, known for his strength, intelligence, and sense of duty. When the time came to choose the next group of victims, he made a shocking decision. Instead of sending another child to die, he volunteered to go himself. His plan was simple, but incredibly dangerous. He would enter the labyrinth, he would face the Minotaur, and he would kill it. If he succeeded, the tribute would end forever. When Theseus arrived in Crete, he was taken to the palace of King Minos. There, among the crowds and ceremonies, he was spotted by Ariadne, the King's daughter. Ariadne watched Theseus closely.

[00:04:14.980] - Oliver (Host)

She saw his calm, his courage, and his determination. These characteristics stood out amongst the other children who were all terrified. She understood what he was planning to do and how unlikely it was that he would survive. Moved by his bravery, Ariadne made a dangerous choice. She decided to help him, even though it meant betraying her father and risking everything she had ever known. Before Theseus entered the labyrinth, she gave him two simple but important gifts. First, a ball of thread, a ball of string. Second, a weapon, a sword for him to use against the monster, against the beast. Her advice was clear. He should tie one end of the thread to the entrance of the maze, unwind it as he walked through the labyrinth, and follow it back once the Minotaur was dead. That night, Theseus stepped into the labyrinth. The darkness was complete. The air was heavy and silent, broken only by distant sounds echoing through the stone corridors. Slow, carefully, Theseus moved forward, letting the thread slip through his fingers as he walked deeper and deeper into the maze. At last, in the heart of the labyrinth, he came face to face with the Minotaur.

[00:05:37.260] - Oliver (Host)

The fight was brutal. The monster was stronger and faster than any other human. But Theseus was determined, and he did not retreat. He didn't take any step back. After a long and violent struggle, he killed the Minotaur and stood victorious in the darkness. Using Ariadne's thread, Theseus found his way back through the maze and out into the open air. The nightmare was over. That same night, he escaped Crete by sea, taking Ariadne with him. Behind them, the labyrinth fell silent, and the long years of sacrifice finally came to an end.

[00:06:14.360] - Oliver (Host)

On their journey home, however, the ship stopped on the island of Naxos so that the crew, the sailors, could rest. During the night, events beyond Theseus's control forced him to leave the island suddenly, and by the time he later realised that Ariadne was no longer with him, the ship was already far from shore, and there was no safe way to return. Ariadne, who had sacrificed everything back home in Crete, had been tragically lost on the island. Theseus, devastated, continued on to Athens, carrying news that would change the city forever. He had defeated the Minotaur, he had ended the tribute, he had freed Athens from fear.

[00:07:00.660] - Oliver (Host)

When he arrived, he was welcomed as a hero. His story was told and retold, a story of courage, intelligence, and self-sacrifice. And for generations to come, the people of Athens remembered Theseus as the boy who faced the monster and won.

[00:07:20.820] - Oliver (Host)

So what did you think of the story? If you heard it as a child, you might have found it exciting and scary. But as an adult, perhaps you begin to question it, because there are quite a few things that don't add up, right? Well, to begin with, there's Ariadne. We're asked to believe that a princess would betray her father, her city, in fact, her entire world, really, for a good looking young man she has just met, and that this decision needs no explanation beyond love. It's neat and it's convenient, but it's also remarkably simple. Human beings rarely make choices that dramatic without fear, pressure, or something to gain. Then there's the tribute itself. We're told that Athens sends seven boys and seven girls every year, chosen at random, and that this has gone on for a long time. And yet, the moment Theseus kills the Minotaur, the system simply stops. No negotiations, no retaliation, no political consequences.

[00:08:22.800] - Oliver (Host)

An incredibly cruel long-standing punishment disappears overnight. Why? Again, it makes for a satisfying ending to this little story, but not a very realistic one. Perhaps, most strangely of all, the story never really explains why King Minos demands these sacrifices in the first place. He is presented as cruel, almost monstrous himself, but without clear motivation. We're not told what Athens did to deserve this punishment, or what Minos gains from continuing it year after year. His role is simple. He exists to be the villain.

[00:09:01.200] - Oliver (Host)

This simplicity is important. Stories like this are designed to be remembered, and often to celebrate heroes. For example, when Theseus became king, he was said to have laid the foundations for that is, to have begun the process towards, the radical democracy that Athens invented later. This story of the Minotaur, then, is almost like an origin story for Theseus, explaining how heroic he is and therefore, it's an origin story for Athens, too, and its democracy. The ancient Athenians will have told this story because it made them proud of Athens, proud of their hero, Theseus. This story, and others like it, gives us heroes and monsters, victims and villains, and it moves quickly past anything that might complicate the picture.

[00:09:54.420] - Oliver (Host)

For example, a frightened or intimidated princess, a complex political relationship between cities or a ruler with understandable motives. Because once you start asking these simple questions - why now? Why Theseus? Why does everyone simply accept this result? - the story begins to look less like a clear moral tale, and more like something shaped by the people who benefited most from telling it in this form. In this case, the people of Athens, the Athenians. First, the punishment itself. Later sources suggest that King Minos may not have been demanding sacrifices simply because he was cruel. One common explanation is political. Athens had previously killed Minos's son and/or rebelled against Cretan power. The tribute then looks less like madness and more like domination or revenge, a way of reminding Athens who was in control. In other words, this may have been a story about empire, rewritten as a story about monsters. That version may not have appealed to later generations of Athenians, however, since they went on to be pretty cruel leaders of an empire themselves. Then there is Ariadne. In the version that makes Theseus look best, she is not painfully abandoned by him. Fate intervenes. The gods step in. Circumstances prevent his return.

[00:11:23.200] - Oliver (Host)

But other versions are much less kind. In some, Theseus leaves her deliberately while she's asleep. He sails away because she has simply outlived her usefulness. And when we take a step back, Theseus starts to look less heroic in general. Outside this myth, he is remembered as violent, impulsive, and often selfish. He abducts women and even young girls, literally children. He breaks promises. He leaves destruction behind him wherever he goes. Ancient writers struggled to present him as morally consistent, acknowledging that the Athenian hero does not entirely deserve a heroic reputation. From this angle, his achievements alongside his cruelty, the story I told you begins to look very convenient. Athens gets a noble hero. Crete gets a monster and a cruel king. The political background disappears. Ariadne fades from view. And Theseus sails on, remembered not as he was, but as his city needed him to be. That is not an accident. It is actually how national stories work. Myths are not just stories about the past. They're stories about how the past wanted us to see them. The myth of Theseus works very well for Athens. It turns political domination into victimhood, violence into heroism, and a deeply flawed man into a symbol of civic virtue.

[00:12:51.860] - Oliver (Host)

Crete becomes cruel, Ariadne becomes disposable, and everything that might complicate the picture of the Athenian hero quietly disappears. So perhaps the most important question isn't whether the story is true or false. We know it's a myth, but it's this, the question: if this myth had been told by Crete instead of Athens, how do you think Theseus would have been remembered?

[00:13:14.500] - Oliver (Host)

I've always liked this story because it's deceptively complex. On the surface, it looks like a clear adventure: a hero, a monster, a victory. But the more you look at it, the more interesting and perhaps the more uncomfortable it becomes. It's clear that the version that survives is the one that serves power at best. It's a reminder that even the stories we grow up with are shaped by perspective, and that who tells a story often matters more than what actually happened. We do the same thing today. We tell stories about ourselves that are neat and flattering, and we repeat them until they sound like the truth. We highlight bravery, we downplay cruelty, and we explain our own violence as necessary and describe other people's actions as irrational or evil. Over time, those stories stop feeling like opinions and start feeling almost like facts. And just like with Theseus, what gets remembered often has less to do with the truth and more to do with who gets to tell the story.

[00:14:15.720] - Oliver (Host)

I hope you enjoyed this myth and this slightly bizarre episode, and that the discussion afterwards made you think a little. If you enjoyed the episode, please listen to another, and please share it with anyone that you know who's learning English. But before we go, do you have any national myths about your own country's heroes? What did they say about your country now? Has your perspective changed because of Theseus and the Minotaur? Let me know. I'll see you next time. Thank you for listening.