The centaur serves as an eminent example of how human-animal hybrid monsters combine the

familiar and the foreign, the Self and the Other into a single complex being.

The nature of this monster is examined with special reference to the ways in which the centaur, as
proponent of chaos and wilderness, stands in juxtaposition to the ideals of Greek civilisation: vida
civil, urbana, ordenada.

The second section consists of an enquiry into the purpose of the hybrid monster and considers the
Minotaur’s role as a facilitator of transformation. The focus is directed towards the ritual function of
monsters and the ways in which monsters aid change and renewal both in individuals and in
communities. By considering the Theseus-myth and the role of the Minotaur in the coming-of-age of
the Attic hero as well as the city of Athens itself, the ritual theory is given application in ancient
Greece.

The conclusion of this thesis is that hybrid monsters, as manifestations of the internal dichotomy of
man and the tenuous relationship between order and chaos, played a critical role in the personal and
communal definition of man in ancient Greece.

SURGIMENTO, PROCRIAÇÃO

The unnatural appearance of the Minotaur is made all

the more shocking by the fact that it enters the human sphere in a “normal” manner: the
monster is born like a human child. There is no version of the myth that hints at a dramatic
birth such as erupting from a severed neck or growing from the earth. The eruption of the
monster right in the midst of the civilisation, from the queen’s body and into the very essence
of order – the palace – is a dramatic intrusion from the liminal sphere into the heart of
civilised society. The Minotaur is placed in juxtaposition to the kingdom of Minos – the
civiliser, the custodian of order on Crete.

DIETA:

The threat of the Minotaur is given expression in his taste for human flesh.

It is not clear whether the monster chooses to eat humans, or whether it is the choice of monstrous
Minos
to feed it human meat. For the Athenians the result was the same: the sacrifice of their
young men and women to the Minotaur, with the knowledge that they were going to be eaten
by the monster, presented more than a social tragedy: it was a cultural catastrophe. By
having the Minotaur devour the cream of Athenian society33 every nine years, the cultural
identity of Athens was eroded. It was gradually being incorporated into the chaos of the
Minotaur and the labyrinth. The tribute to Crete was paramount to cultural dissipation into
wildness – the ultimate failure of civilisation.

APRESENTAÇÃO:

Typically, for instance, the Minotaur is not depicted wearing clothing while Theseus is traditionally
shown in dressed in fine clothes

Ponto de honra p os Ultores: a nudez. Por conta do primeiro animal sacrificado p vestir Adão e Eva.

FUNÇÕES:

Sacrifício de animais: p roupa, p alimento (criação industrial moderna...); provação do herói.

Seres apotropaicos: guardiões: it is striking what a large percentage of composite monsters are
associated with the entrances and doorways of public buildings like palaces and temples. Images
such as the monumental bull-demons and lion-demons
Cerberus guards the gates of
Liminalidade tb: Hades, serving as a one-way valve into the Underworld, meekly allowing the dead
to enter but
ferociously resisting any soul from exiting. The Lernean Hydra similarly guards an entrance into
the Underworld, while Pegasos prevents the unauthorised crossing of Bellerophon – hero though
he is – to the realm of the gods

“vehicles of prohibition”: “[the] monster of prohibition polices the borders of the

possible… exists to demarcate the bonds that hold together that system of relations we call
culture, to call horrid attention to the borders that cannot – must not – be crossed." The
monster is a kind of herdsman. This patrolling of the borders is what the monster does while he
“waits” for the hero. It is in the confrontation between monster and hero that the purposes of
both these mythological roles are brought into sharp focus: The monster is meant to guard the
boundary. The hero is destined to cross it. The typical outcome of the ensuing confrontation is
that the monster is slain and the hero is able to pass. ----------------NÃO EM BESTIARIUM

interactions humans had with them as

sacrificial offerings,
as quarry for hunting,
as financial assets
as pets.

Animals, as representations of the flipside of what is human,

confronts us with the opposite of man and with
man’s innate potentiality: the animal can represent nature and chaos, all that has to be tamed or
suppressed in order to ensure the survival of civilised man, and at the same time the animal
can serve as a warning to man of the seeds of chaos that lie within himself.

LIMINALIDADE (Localidade e Liminalidade)

Ordem e Caos
Natureza e Cidade
Homem e Animal
Animal e Animal (Mais Fera do que a Fera)
Noite e Dia
Térreo e Subtérreo
Morto e Vivo
Transgressão e Inversão
Animais Domésticos e Selvagens
Sexualidade e Gênero: o eunuco, o hermafrodita, o assexuado... o metamorfo....

FEROCIDADE

VORACIDADE

SENSUALIDADE, LASCÍVIA

INSTINTO
Reflexo, Reação (Ação)

ASTÚCIA

PERCEPÇÃO E INTUIÇÃO
Sentidos]
LEALDADE E TRAIÇÃO