The Minotaur (opera) Theseus tells Ariadne about his departure from Athens with the Innocents. Ariadne believes that Theseus offers her a means of escape from Crete. She plays a game of chance with him using a stone: if he chooses the hand in which she holds the stone he will enter the labyrinth to confront the Minotaur, but if he chooses her empty hand he must remain a bystander to the bloodshed. Ariadne cheats so that Theseus chooses the empty hand. "Scene 3: The Labyrinth" The Innocents enter the labyrinth, praying to the gods to bring them out safely. "Scene 4: Ariadne" Ariadne
Minotaur the main political and cultural potency in the Aegean Sea. As the fledgling Athens (and probably other continental Greek cities) was under tribute to Crete, it can be assumed that such tribute included young men and women for sacrifice. This ceremony was performed by a priest disguised with a bull head or mask, thus explaining the imagery of the Minotaur. Once continental Greece was free from Crete's dominance, the myth of the Minotaur worked to distance the forming religious consciousness of the Hellene "poleis" from Minoan beliefs. The Minotaur ("infamia di Creti", Italian for "infamy of Crete"), appears briefly in