Heroic and Athletic Contest in Bacchylides

Abstract

The traditional myth of Theseus, Minos, and the Minotaur is the story of a heroic conflict ending with physical defeat. The conflict of Minos and Theseus, too, as it is told in Bacch. 17, starts like a heroic contest suggesting a physical fight with deadly consequences, but ends like an athletic contest when Theseus achieves the winner's prize. So the poem may be understood as a substitute for the traditional story of Theseus and the Minotaur.