From the beginning of time there have always been monsters and beasts in every culture. In Egypt they had the spynx, the Irish had banshees and fairy folklore, werewolves and vampires from Transylvania. All of these stories have been made up and told for several reasons. To create a sense of fear and tension amongst the native people, because now people would think twice about going down dark allies in fear of being attacked by whatever culture they are a part of etc. Also to teach youth’s bravery and the difference between rights and wrong as many heroes in these stories including Theseus know that the monsters are bad and he has to do everything in his power to stop them. Also people back then where not as fortunate as we are today. They could not play games on the iphone to pass the time. They could not watch TV. So writing these stories was a form of entertainment, as was listening to them.
In the pre history of the story, Queen Pasiphae was believed to have slept with a bull sent down by Zeus and gave birth to Minataur, which was a monster- half bull half human. King Minos was so embarrassed