Poseidon's Gift

Then word came that King Minos was returning.

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It was months before his ship landed in the bay. As soon as he stepped ashore, he sent for messengers from the palace. Word was his queen was secluded and would see no one but a few dedicated handmaidens. He hurried towards the queen's chamber.

He found the doors barred. Still wearing armor and fully armed, he demanded the doors be opened. When they opened, two handmaidens looked downcast.

"The queen is ill, my lord." they explained.

"Leave us," he commanded.

He entered her bed chamber, she was in bed, lying on her side behind a curtain of sheer fabric. He approached her, gently laying his hand on her shoulder. She turned her head to face him, tears springing out of her eyes. As she turned, he saw her swollen belly, several months pregnant.

He fought back the anger and shame, and asked her, "How?"

She told him about the dreams, and the bull. She pleaded with him that she was mesmerized by it, and she had visions. She couldn't control herself around the bull.

"This is Poseidon's punishment for my failure to sacrifice the bull." he cried. "I had a vision at the war, it was Poseidon's voice when he gifted me the bull, ...sacrifice it to me, and you will have peace"

"I came back because, no matter how brilliant my strategies, the enemy hounded us. No matter the tactical advantage, they seemed prepared and countered us. That's when I realized the gods were toying with us. That's when I remembered his words that day. I have come to slay the beast, to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon!"

She let out a heartrending cry, pulled from the bottom of her soul. Her godly bull would be undone, never to ravage her again. When her crying subsided, she heard Minos soothing her.

"We are but pawns to the gods. I believe Poseidon seduced you with the bull, to make me suffer. To strike at all I love and hold dear. This must be done." he said sadly, too late to avert the tragedy that befell his life. He could only keep his promise, even if belatedly.

The next morning, she guided the bull out of the garden and towards the shore. She was the only one that could handle the bull now. It reared with anger at the approach of any person, even King Minos. She stood at the shore, holding the bull's reins around its neck and mouth, looking out to the ocean. Behind her King Minos approached from behind the bull.

"I sacrifice your gift to you, Poseidon, god of oceans and seas! I beg you to keep your promise and bring my kingdom peace!" he reached the bull as he finished. His battle hardened arm quickly sliced the bulls throat, toppling the gigantic animal to its knees. The blood flowed into the ocean, a calming sea breeze floated off the ocean.

"It is done!"

In the months that followed, missives came from the battlefields. The adversary had surrendered, and sued for peace.

***************

A messenger arrived seeking Daedalus, it was from King Minos of Crete. He took his hands to his temples, and started to cry. He knew what he had done would be his undoing. Nevertheless, he prepared for the voyage to Crete and departed the next day.

When he arrived at the Palace of Knossos, he was greeted as a guest. Taken directly to the King's chamber, he was advised to wait. When the King called for him, he attended him. Beside the king was the queen, pregnant and almost ready to burst.

"I believe you had something to do with this?" the king pointed to her belly.

"Forgive me sire, I but built a harness..."

"And now you see the result of that harness. I called you to solve our problem. Your harness was ingenious, now I ask for an ingenious solution of you. You will be paid very well for your labors. I want you to craft a labyrinth to hide this child. No one can know how to enter or exit, especially the child. Will you do this for me?"

"Of course your highness, immediately!" Daedalus was glad this would not cost him his life.

Over the next month he built the labyrinth where the stables and secret garden had been. Daedalus guided Queen Pasiphae and her handmaidens to the center of the labyrinth blindfolded. There she gave birth to the Minotaur. A handmaiden was sacrificed to remain behind and care for the babe. Daedalus devised a chute that delivered food and water to feed the both of them. When the minotaur grew of age, he ate the poor handmaiden who had raised him. Daedalus returned to his home, never to return to Crete.

Before he left, in the wee hours of the night, Pasiphae snuck into his sleeping quarters. She bedded him and paid him with gold for a copy of the labyrinth's design. Thereafter, she would visit her child in the middle of the night. Like the bull, his father, the Minotaur would not harm her. In fact, once he was grown to his full stature, he bedded his mother, just as his father had.

She had no need for a harness now. She took his gigantic phallus like any other lover. He was only slightly more gentle than his father was with her. She embraced him as a lover time and time again, but she would not become impregnated again. Using the bitter water to rinse his seed from her, she never bore another child, not even for King Minos. As she returned again and again to be ravaged by her beastly child, it eventually came back to King Minos.

King Minos wrote far and wide, asking the kings of all Greece if they knew a champion, a hero that might rid him of this monster. To rid him of Poseidon's Gift.

But that is a tale for another to tell.