The truth behind the Legend of the Minotaur

L M Leteane | Friday June 26, 2015 17:00

The collated story strikes right at the heart of our religiosity and resolves the enigma of why the God of Israel appeared so cruel to his Chosen, the Israelites, yet, at the same time, was lovingly called “the Merciful One”.

Actually, these were two different beings later and unfortunately merged into one for reasons we will explain. The god “El”, Ugaritic texts inform us, was called “the Merciful One” and we can conclusively link him with a god called Su-en (Sin) in Sumer (now Iraq), At-en in Egypt, Ad-on-ai/Sin-ai in Canaan, Ad-on-is in Greece, and Al-At in Arabia – all meaning “Multiplying (i.e. fertile) God” – because their common insignia was the crescent-moon. The other god was Ishkur. Esh-kur means “fiery mountain”. He is thus also Vulcan: a volatile Nordic god who gave “volcano” its name. His Hittite name “Teshub”, Setswana unravels, means “he who burns”, and his Assyrian name “Ashur” is made up of Esh and hur: “fiery mountain”! Their main commonality was that they were both sons of the god Enlil, whose name means “Lord of the Illi (gods)”.

 Indeed, the role of their father Enlil is crucial to our story. His symbol, his insignia, was the Bull – and this is how he and Su-en, the one who eventually took over from him, were cryptically referred to. Where did his insignia emanate from? As recounted in greater detail in my recent articles, his ruling Enlilite clan had agreed to continue ruling from Virgo to Taurus, six astrological ages of 2160 years each, spanning 12960 to 2160 BC (I had, in any case, explained how the “gods” attained their extraordinary longevity, their apparent “immortality”). The Enlilite’s rival clan, the Enkiites, was to then take over the next six ages, from Aries (which began 2160 BC) to Scorpio, before handing Virgo back to the Enlilites – and so forth in cycles. But Enlil himself wanted charge of Taurus to ensure that the next age, Aries, did not go to Marduk (Baal), an Enkiite, as agreed.

When Enlil’s reign duly ended in Taurus, he handed Aries to his kindly son Su-en. So how did Su-en and Ashur, two different personalities, become one personality in recorded legend? It all began in Minoan Island of Crete. During the often uneasy time in which Suen/Aten/Adonai reigned as Leader of the Gods (“god above all gods”), control of Egypt often swung back and forth between the two mighty clans. Why the tussle for Egypt? It was located too near to the all-important shems (rocket-launched spaceships) hidden in mountain silos in the “sacred” area of Canaan. So, the Enlilites wanted Egypt to become a buffer zone that kept curious Africans away from these contraptions.

Minoa was a good lookout post for the Enlilites to keep an eye on Egypt – especially whenever the Enkiites succeeded in taking over the land (as they had when the Israelites left it for Canaan). Indeed, Minoan palaces betrayed the Enlilites’ love of underground labyrinths – as in Yahweh’s Temple in Jerusalem and Ninurta’s Lagash Temple built by King Gudea centuries earlier. It was in Minoa that a most fateful event took place. Legend says that a White Bull at one point raped the wife of the Minoan king, who then gave birth to a Minotaur (literally: “Minoan Bull”). This “creature” remained trapped inside the labyrinth of one of the palaces but was treated to a regular supply of virgins.

It is easy to calculate that “White Bull” refers to Su-en: he had inherited the title of ‘Bull’ from his father Enlil. As for the young man who roamed the labyrinths, he must have been a spitting image of his father. The young ‘Bull’ was thus kept hidden away from the people but given every luxury – including women who, once inside, never emerged to betray the secret…hence the rumour that they were “sacrificed”…

Rape was a serious and impeachable offence if it happened between gods, or between a god and a “demi-god”, as the queen might have been. There is much circumstantial evidence that suggests that Ashur must have somehow learnt of this misdemeanour and took advantage of it to blackmail Su-en. One of the telling clues is the unexplained rise of Ashur to become the de facto Leader of the Gods – with Aten/Adonai as a mere figurehead. Naturally, in the Old Testament (OT), there will be nothing to tie Ashur with Adonai, the God of Israel: we have to pick our collating clues from elsewhere.

First let us admit that, in the OT, utter cruelty begins to surface during and after the period where the Israelites leave Egypt for the Promised Land. Historically, this is about the same period in which the Legend of the Minotaur emerged. Evidently, Ishkur/Ashur had taken over effective control of the Pantheon and was enforcing “monotheism” in a particularly ruthless fashion; a fashion Adonai would certainly not have approved of. Exodus onward read like a horror story as the hapless Israelites feel the brunt of their Lord’s complete antipathy towards disobedience. Thousands would be massacred in one night for what seemed like minor and forgivable offences.

But the reason for the utter strictness, the total ruthlessness of their Lord, was that the Israelites were to be a shining example of this experiment with “monotheism”. It was not to fail under any circumstances. And any nation they encountered in Canaan that could “contaminate” them was exterminated even to the nursing infant and its mother. When Israel wavered (see Leviticus 26:27ff; Isaiah10:5-7), Assyria, the “whip” of the Lord’s anger towards Israel itself, looked to him as to how to effectively chastise the Jews. And Assyrian legend innocently reveals his name: no Assyrian king dared attack anyone unless “on the trustworthy orders of Ashur, my Lord”…

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