The Minotaur (opera) of the labyrinth should he survive his encounter with the Minotaur. She believes she can persuade Theseus to take her back with him to Athens. Both see the Minotaur as scapegoat and deliverance. The last scene of "The Minotaur" echoes the death scene of Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov". "Scene 1: Arrival" Ariadne watches as a Greek ship arrives on the island of Crete, carrying the Innocents who will be sacrificed to the Minotaur: a monstrous creature, half-man, half-bull. Ariadne greets the Innocents and notices Theseus in the crowd. He has come to Crete to defeat the Minotaur. "Scene 2: The Choice"
Greek hero cult Greek hero cult Hero cults were one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. In Homeric Greek, "hero" (, ) refers to a man who fought (on either side) during the Trojan War. By the historical period, however, the word came to mean specifically a "dead" man, venerated and propitiated at his tomb or at a designated shrine, because his fame during life or his unusual manner of death gave him power to support and protect the living. A hero was more than human but less than a god, and various kinds of supernatural figures came to be