Theseus Slays the Minotaur is the decisive event in Daedalus’s embedded tale: Theseus kills the monster held in the labyrinth and finds a way out with Ariadne’s help. The episode links Daedalus’s ingenious design to the escape that provokes Minos’s anger and leads to Daedalus and his son being imprisoned.

Background

Minos summons Daedalus, an inventor, to build a complex labyrinth in which to imprison a monster born to the king’s wife. Men and women from Athens are sent into the maze to be eaten by it. The account presents Theseus as one of those sent into the labyrinth, making the monster’s defeat a reversal of the maze’s intended purpose.

The Slaying and Escape

Theseus kills the monster and escapes the labyrinth. Ariadne, Minos’s daughter, has provided him with a means of escape after receiving advice from Daedalus. The outcome depends on more than Theseus’s victory over the monster: Daedalus’s knowledge and Ariadne’s intervention make escape possible.

Aftermath and Narrative Role

Theseus elopes with Ariadne but later abandons her. Minos, already angered by his wife’s attachment to an animal, is furious when his daughter runs away. He imprisons Daedalus and Icarus in a tower. Daedalus recounts the episode to Ellie as part of his story of confinement; in this embedded telling, the slaying sets in motion the events that bring him from inventive freedom to imprisonment.