The Minotaur, the Cretan monster with the head of a bull and the body of a human, who for nine years devoured seven young men and seven maidens from Athens. In fact, in his eternal imprisonment in the bizarre labyrinth built by Cretan King Minos for this offspring of his wife’s dalliance with a magical white bull, he didn’t really desire to eat them. And even if he did, he probably couldn’t communicate it — as no one really talked to the Minotaur about anything.
This hostage of Minos was a symbol of his power over defeated Athens. Every time Athens sent another ship of victims to Crete, they acknowledged this power in the crudest way possible.
In Athens, political debates were ongoing all these years. Some said they should get rid of King Aegeus and his entire dynasty. It was King Aegeus who was blamed for the death of the Cretan king’s son Androgeus — and the infuriated father was avenging the death of his heir on Athens. Without Aegeus, there would be no one to blame for Androgeus’s death and no motives for revenge.
Others tried to influence the personnel policy. Some called for sending the most beautiful girls and boys to Crete — so that they would be desired not for consumption, but to share a bed. Others, on the contrary, thought to send monsters — thus Crete wouldn’t derive moral satisfaction from the sacrifice and would eventually abandon their claims.
Only Theseus, when he appeared in his father’s Athens, decided to kill the Minotaur. And he did. By the way, the myth does not say that Theseus sought the death of Minos, even though the problem lay with the Cretan king. But Theseus, the great hero, understood that neutralizing the symbol of aggression would deprive the hostile regime of the very opportunity to continue it. The classic myth mainly focuses on the death of the Minotaur and the love between Theseus and the Cretan king’s daughter Ariadne. But mythology clearly explains the future of Minos. The Cretan king died when he violated the peace agreement with Theseus, as he was punished by Poseidon, one of the chief gods of the Greek pantheon, the sea brother of Zeus.
The author of the myth realized back then that an aggressor without a symbol of aggression, without its power (what we would now call the resource of war), cannot last long. And this is a lesson for millennia.
Therefore, there is no point in debating what Putin needs to end the war against Ukraine — the Russian language, the Church, the Donetsk region, or the refusal of NATO.
He needs nothing but us. Until 2014, Ukraine was a non-aligned state with the Russian language in regions, a Russian Church, and opposition from most of the population to Euro-Atlantic integration. This did not prevent the Russian parliament from adopting a resolution on the Russian status of Sevastopol, the Russian leadership from supporting the pro-Russian Crimean president separatist Yuriy Meshkov, and preparing the annexation of the peninsula. It did not stop the events around Tuzla and the energy blackmail of Ukraine (not only during Yushchenko’s time). Ukraine became as it is not even after the 2014 attack, but only after the 2022 attack. Even after 2014, a huge number of our compatriots continued to insist “not everything is so straightforward,” voting for pro-Russian and populist forces and claiming “it’s all politics.” Why did Russia, with its enormous influence on Ukraine, need to attack us?
Maybe because Russia needed to absorb Ukraine, not coexist with it?
Therefore, trying to find something to satisfy the Minotaur, if the main goal is your own submission and death, is a futile endeavor. You can find yourself a king ready for compromises (apparently found in 2019), and throw the previous one off the cliff amid happy laughter. You can send ten young men and maidens to Crete instead of seven. You can stop speaking like in Athens and try to speak like in Crete. You can abandon sacrifices to Athena in favor of Zeus or Poseidon — maybe they will protect you. And you can just dream that when Minos dies, everything will immediately change.
But nothing will help you until you destroy the Minotaur.
