Theseus And The Minotaur Essay

A frequent role for mythological women to be characterized as from various myths is to be the assistant to the male hero. Rarely do we ever see a myth with a standalone female character who plays a similar that male heroes typically do? It is more common to find that females are called when heroes are in a time of crisis to aid them. They do what they can to make the hero look like a god, whether that requires them to betray their kingdom, provide them with weapons or satisfy physically and emotionally. In “Theseus and the Minotaur”, both the film adaptation and the written version describe Ariadne rather not as a person but as the assistant of Theseus. She provided Theseus with “a sword, wrought with patterns and designs on the blade and …show more content…
He would have been weaponless, lost within the cave, making him vulnerable to the beast. Even if Theseus was to kill the Minotaur with his bare hands, how would he navigate back through labyrinth? This all proves that Ariadne, a woman was an essential part of the success of the murder of the Minotaur completed by Theseus. An additional, after Theseus and Ariadne escape Crete, the two spend the night on the island of Naxos. In the film adaptation, it shows a series of events that lead to Theseus and Ariadne sleeping together. Furthermore, the film leaves the viewer to assume that sleeping was not the only activity they were doing. The viewer was left to assume that Ariadne was pleasing Theseus sexually. Another myth to further prove that women are assistants to the hero is “Orpheus and Eurydice”. This myth has Eurydice being nothing more than the lover to Orpheus. Even though they were both deeply in love, it is clear to see that Eurydice was loved more for her appearance over her personality, who she really was. Orpheus had only just “met the beautiful dryad Eurydice and brought her back to the palace, to be his wife” in the forest, without having to personally get to know her (Gibson