The Minotaur was the result of his mother Pasiphae’s mating with a rather handsome white bull. (Her desire seems to have been difficult to contain, according to myth, since she had sex frequently with this  bull.) The other problem was that the bull was meant to be sacrificed to the gods as a thanksgiving for his father Minos’ support from Poseidon. The end result of this was that the Minotaur was born. Half bull, half human. (Wikipedia has this poignant comment about him “… he has no natural source of nourishment and thus devours men for sustenance”) To protect both the Minotaur and society his father has a giant labyrinth built to hold him. Eventually the Minotaur is killed by Theseus. (But in typical Greek myth style this is not a simple act of triumph.His father kills himself because Theseus forgets to send him  the proper signal to tell him that he is alive.)

There are enough themes in this story to write a library of commentaries. We could wonder about not keeping promises-particularly to our gods, whatever they might be. We could wonder about the cost of beauty. About the price of power and how one gains it and keeps it. (At some cost to oneself and others seems to be the message from this story.) We could wonder about the power of sexual desire-and how women may and may not express  their desire. The list of topics is long. But for this piece I wanted to think about the Minotaur himself.

 I find myself feeling very sorry for the Minotaur. The vision of him being trapped in a labyrinth with no means of escape I find a lonely one. (I have always had a fear of solitary confinement. My hope is that I would sink into a benign psychosis and hide there until I died.) His isolation- imprisonment- leaves him as much a victim as the seven young men and women who were sacrificed to him every seven years. He is punished for his parents mistakes. (His seven yearly victims are chosen by lots, which is both more and less kind.) 

As a psychiatric nurse and a counsellor I often see patients who are trapped in their own labyrinth. Sometimes it is a labyrinth of their own making, sometimes of others’ making. Invariably my patients are not the only ones who are in pain. Parents, husbands, wives are all affected. Sometimes it seems that the only way out of the labyrinth is through death. Sometimes a literal death.Sometimes a psychic death. Sometimes  physical death is seen as an answer to psychic death.

I remember one patient whom I looked after. He was in his mid twenties and had had two or three serious psychotic episodes. I used to visit him in his home, whee he lived with his mother. I saw him weekly for about six months before discharging him from my caseload. He was both too ill and too well. His delusional material was utterly entrenched but made limited impact on his day to day living. Thus I could “do” nothing for him. Eventually i discharged him- or, possibly- discharged myself from him. Not too long after I discharged him he killed himself at home. (I cried a great deal over his death. But many fewer tears than his mother.) For him physical death was preferable to life in a labyrinth from which he saw no escape.

I recently assessed another young man who was still at school. He was having behavioural problems at school as well as having a number of problems in his family. (In many ways he represented the conflicting wants and demands of his parents who found in him a convenient “problem” that had to be solved. I enjoyed meeting him and offered to work with him. Sadly he did not return. I presume he is still wandering in his and his family’s labyrinth.

The Milton Keynes Labyrinth was easy to  navigate. The route was clearly laid out. It was not possible to get lost in it. (And if all else failed one only had to follow the light of Milton Keynes to get home.) For so many of the people whom I have seen over the years, their labyrinth is not as easy to leave. They have no one to help them find a way out. Or they feel that they only meet Theseus’ who want to kill them. (I do wonder if, in the end, the Minotaur was grateful to Theseus?)