Before the curse, there was a promise.
And before the promise, there was a crown.
Minos wanted to rule Crete.
But wanting to be king and proving you had the right to be king were two different things.
So Minos turned toward the sea.
He called upon Poseidon and asked the god for a sign—something undeniable, something that would prove the gods themselves favored his claim to the throne.
Poseidon answered.
From the sea came a magnificent white bull.
The Cretan Bull.
For Minos, it was everything he had asked for.
The people had their sign.
The gods had spoken.
And Minos had his crown.
There was only one condition.
The bull belonged to Poseidon.
Minos was expected to sacrifice the animal back to the god who had sent it.
That should have been the end of the story.
But Minos looked at the bull.
And Minos wanted to keep it.
Perhaps that's the trouble with getting exactly what we ask for.
Sometimes receiving it only gives us something else to want.
Minos chose another bull for the sacrifice and kept Poseidon's magnificent animal for himself.
Maybe he thought the substitution would be enough.
Maybe he thought a god wouldn't notice.
Poseidon noticed.
The promise had been broken.
And in Greek mythology, broken promises to the gods have a way of becoming everybody else's problem.
Poseidon did not simply take the bull back.
The punishment found Queen Pasiphaë.
Minos had desired a crown.
Then he desired the bull that helped him win it.
Now his wife would be given a desire of her own.
For the bull.
It was unnatural.
Impossible.
And that was precisely the problem.
Because impossible desires sometimes require impossible solutions.
Somewhere in Crete, one of the greatest craftsmen of the ancient world was about to be handed a very strange assignment.
Daedalus.
He would later wonder:
“Why do we build these wonders for a king who forgets the cost of his own desires?”
Perhaps because the gods demand, we create.
And so Daedalus began to build.
The cost of Minos's crown was only beginning to come due.
The SCREW 🪛
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The Screw 🪛 And Poseidon's Curse 🔱
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dduh-1spwdP/?stkn=YXc0Yno0Z2Nkc3Fj
THE CRETAN BULL & THE CURSE 🐂💨👑🔱
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THE CRETAN BULL & THE CURSE 🐂💨👑🔱
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdusWOgpRNB/?stkn=MXAzZnp6c3V1enFpeg==
