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The Minotaur Trilogy #3
Day of the Minotaur
In DAY OF THE MINOTAUR, modern readers at last have an opportunity to rediscover the imaginative genius of Thomas Burnett Swann, a writer whose works have been compared with the marvel-packed sagas of J.R.R. Tolkien, the sweeping adventure-tales of Mary Renault, and the sheer story-telling magic of Jack Vance and Edgar Rice Burroughs. This is the novel of Eunostos, the last of an ancient and powerful race of bull-men; of the Achaean conqueror Ajax; and of the beautiful Thea, known as the Beast Princess. You will not soon forget these charactes, nor the unusual Bears of Artemis, the treacherous, bee-like creatures called Thriae, and the rest of the humans and non-humans who come to the final battle in the thunderous War of the Beasts. A world of wonder and excitement that will grip your imagination from the first page to the last!
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
7 people are currently reading
395 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Burnett Swann
60 books56 followersThomas Burnett Swann was best known as the author of numerous fantasies published in the 1960s and ’70s. Many of his bucolic tales were set in the Ancient World and populated by mythic creatures. His best-known works include the novel DAY OF THE MINOTAUR and the shorter works “Where Is the Bird of Fire?” and “The Manor of Roses,” all nominated for Hugo Awards. Swann was also a poet, professor, and literary critic.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
October 24, 2019
This is an early fantasy novel, which uses Greek mythology that was nominated for Hugo Award in 1967. I read as a part of Author’s birthday challenmge reads in Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group.
This is the earliest example I am aware of, where fantasy and Greek mythology were intertwined. Unlike modern long fantasy books, this one is quite short and while it later grew up to a trilogy, initially it was intended as a standalone.
Minos, king of Cretans has two children – a girl Thea and a boy Icarus. He brought them from the forest of Beasts and they are half-Man half-Beasts (which can be seen in their greenish hair and pointy ears. This clearly ‘elvish’ reference doesn’t bode well with either Greek or Minoan myth I know and more a nod to contemporary European fantasy). The kids are forbidden to go near the forest and when Ajax and the Achaeans bring war to the isle, the children (teenagers actually), prefer to be captured that to flight to Beasts. After Ajax thwarted rape attempt they are sent to the forest anyway. Enter the Minotaur.
The rest of the story goes from POV of the minotaur. The Beasts turn out not to be all the ‘bestial’ but peaceful farmers and crafters. But Achaeans bring the war to the forest.
The book is nothing special, it is a quick and sometimes funny read, with a bit of ‘flower power’ attitude of the times and the idea that the Man rules or is ruled, but never in a harmony with the nature.
This is the earliest example I am aware of, where fantasy and Greek mythology were intertwined. Unlike modern long fantasy books, this one is quite short and while it later grew up to a trilogy, initially it was intended as a standalone.
Minos, king of Cretans has two children – a girl Thea and a boy Icarus. He brought them from the forest of Beasts and they are half-Man half-Beasts (which can be seen in their greenish hair and pointy ears. This clearly ‘elvish’ reference doesn’t bode well with either Greek or Minoan myth I know and more a nod to contemporary European fantasy). The kids are forbidden to go near the forest and when Ajax and the Achaeans bring war to the isle, the children (teenagers actually), prefer to be captured that to flight to Beasts. After Ajax thwarted rape attempt they are sent to the forest anyway. Enter the Minotaur.
The rest of the story goes from POV of the minotaur. The Beasts turn out not to be all the ‘bestial’ but peaceful farmers and crafters. But Achaeans bring the war to the forest.
The book is nothing special, it is a quick and sometimes funny read, with a bit of ‘flower power’ attitude of the times and the idea that the Man rules or is ruled, but never in a harmony with the nature.
June 10, 2024
A beautifully written little fantasy from 1966 by Thomas Burnett Swann (1928-1976). It made for a very pleasant read and, actually, I first read it back in high school. Set in ancient Crete, the story features characters based on Greek mythological creatures. The main character is Eunostos, the bull-man or Minotaur. He is no monster, but a peaceable creature, who, along with other non-human creatures, wants only to be left in peace. But the warlike Achaeans under the great warrior Ajax are invading the island, and the Minotaur will have to fight to defend his world....
November 29, 2015
Thomas Burnett Swann was another writer recommended in a panel of "lost" writers. "Day of the Minotaur" tells a story of man's ancient past, when a half-dryad prince and princess flee into the darkest forest from the men who would pillage their country. There they discover the darker half of their heritage in the form of centaurs, fauns, dryads, talking bears, and the titular Minotaur. Of course, their enemies follow them, bringing trouble to the idyllic life of these semi-mythical beasts.
Told largely from the Minotaur's point of view, it is a beauty and the beast story of fantastical romance that could sit neatly on the shelf beside any teen fantasy these days (there are even a few slightly racy, if not explicit scenes and some nods to alternative sexual lifestyles). It's a short novel (as so many of the older ones are) and a quick and fun read.
I'm not sure if it's public domain yet, but if it is, someone should snatch up this and Swann's other novels in this setting and put out a tween/young adult series.
Told largely from the Minotaur's point of view, it is a beauty and the beast story of fantastical romance that could sit neatly on the shelf beside any teen fantasy these days (there are even a few slightly racy, if not explicit scenes and some nods to alternative sexual lifestyles). It's a short novel (as so many of the older ones are) and a quick and fun read.
I'm not sure if it's public domain yet, but if it is, someone should snatch up this and Swann's other novels in this setting and put out a tween/young adult series.
April 13, 2022
I think my favorite of the Minotaur trilogy. A bit flowery perhaps, but the Eunostos in this story is better, more adult. Three and a half stars.
March 19, 2012
Read this and Forest of Forever years ago, as a teenager. Quite excited to see that he wrote so many others. To Amazon!
December 19, 2019
DNF at 18%. I was very bored. I started reading the first sentences of paragraphs and skipping at about 10%
I suppose for what this is, it might be ok, but for me it is dated. It's all tell and no show. There's like no dialogue at all, hardly.
Just not for me. But if you like the old fashioned epic-type tales, you might try. It's cheap, anyway.
I suppose for what this is, it might be ok, but for me it is dated. It's all tell and no show. There's like no dialogue at all, hardly.
Just not for me. But if you like the old fashioned epic-type tales, you might try. It's cheap, anyway.
October 13, 2025
Un retelling e interpretación de la mitología griega muy entretenido. Desde luego, no te cambia la vida, pero la creatividad del autor y los giros que introduce en la leyenda del minotauro están bastante conseguidos.
October 26, 2021
review of
Thomas Burnett Swann's Day of the Minotaur
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 23-26, 2021
As a young'un, a wee lad, I probably started reading fantasy at the same time or slightly before science fiction, when I was around 9 & I read The Hobbit. It didn't take long before I felt like I'd outgrown fantasy & I moved on to a wide variety of other literatures, taking awhile to eventually return to SF but not really to return to fantasy except on rare occasions. It wd've been while I was browsing my former favorite used bkstore (somewhat ruined for me by the hypochondria of its manager) that I noticed bks by this author, someone I wasn't previously familiar w/. Always looking for new authors to read works by it seemed about time to reinvestigate fantasy.. although "fantasy" might not really be the best label for this, rewritten myth might be a better term. According to the bk's author bio:
"THOMAS BURNETT SWANN was born in Florida in 1928 and served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War."
Right off the bat I was in left field: I expected the author to be roughly of the generation of William Morris or William Hope Hodgson, not a solidly middle-of-the-20th-century guy. At least he cd've chosen the name "William", right?!
In fact, in my review of William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland from a distant past of 4 yrs ago before most people turned into sheeple before my very eyes & lost the ability to say anything that wasn't prefabricated for them by their masters, I called attn to:
"The protagonists find a manuscript at a ruin & decide to read it. Hence we enter the fantastic part of The House on the Borderland. As a literary device, the found text is about as bad as 'it-was-all-a-dream'." - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This literary device, the found-ms-that's-supposed-to-get-the-reader-to-imagine-that-this-is-a-true-story device really doesn't bother me as much as I imply above. &, yes, it's used in the "PREFACE" here:
"In 1952, when the young cryptographer, Michael Ventris, announced his partial decipherment of the clay tablets found in the ruins of Knossos, archeologists, linguists, and laymen greeted his announcement with enthusiasm and expectation. Since the excavations of Sir Arthur Evans at the turn of the century, the island of the fabulous Sea Kings had piqued the imagination with its snake-goddesses and bull games, labyrinths and man-killing Minotaurs. But instead of a Cretan Iliad, the tablets revealed a commonplace inventory of palace furniture and foodstuffs, with occasional names of a town, a god, or a goddess. In a word, they confirmed the already accepted facts that the ancient Cretans had lived comfortably, worshipped conscientiously, and kept elaborate records. Those who had hoped for an epic, a tragedy, or a history—in short, for a work of literature to rival the Cretan achievments in architecture and fresco painting—were severely disappointed.
"In 1960, however, an American expedition from Florida Midland University excavated a cave on the southern coast of Crete near the ancient town of Phaestus and discovered a long scroll of papyrus, sealed in a copper chest from the depredations of thieves and the weather. I myself commanded that expedition and wrote the article which announced our find to the public. At the time of my article, we had barely begun to decipher the scroll, which I prematurely announced to be the world's earliest novel, the fanciful story of a war between men and monsters. But as we progressed with our decipherment, we marveled at the accurate historical framework, the detailed descriptions of flora and fauna, the painstaking fidelity to fact in costume and custom. We began to ask ourselves: Were we dealing, after all, with a novel, a fabrication, a fantasy?" - pp 5-6
This is 'signed' on p 7 w/:
"T.J. Montasque, Ph. D., Sc.D., L.L.D.
Florida Midland University"
Cd Swann possibly be slyly complimenting himself w/ "we marveled at the accurate historical framework, the detailed descriptions of flora and fauna, the painstaking fidelity to fact in costume and custom"? Well, let's test this claim.
"My history belongs to the princes Thea, niece of the great king Minos, and to her brother Icarus, named for the ill-fated son of Daedalus who drowned in the sea when his glider lost its wings. I, the author, amd a poet and craftsman and not a historian, but at least I have studied the histories of Egypt and I will try to imitate their terse, objective style. You must forgive me, however, if now and then I digress and lose myself in the glittering adjectives which come so readily to my race. We have always been rustic poets, and I, the last of the line, retain an ear for the well-turned phrase, the elegant (yes, even the flowery) epithet." - p 9
"In Greek mythology, Minos (/ˈmaɪnɒs, -nəs/; Greek: Μίνως, Ancient: [mǐːnɔːs] Modern: [ˈminos]) was a King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa."
[..]
""Minos" is often interpreted as the Cretan word for "king", or, by a euhemerist interpretation, the name of a particular king that was subsequently used as a title."
[..]
"Minos appears in Greek literature as the king of Knossos as early as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minos
"The Iliad (/ˈɪliəd/; Ancient Greek: Ἰλιάς, romanized: Iliás, Attic Greek: [iː.li.ás]; sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song of Ilium ) is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Usually considered to have been written down circa the 8th century BC, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad
SO, it seems that the author isn't really trying to convince the reader that this is 'fact' b/c he's placing the narrative in myth. What about his use of the word "glider" to describe Icarus's wings?
"Glider is the agent noun form of the verb to glide. It derives from Middle English gliden, which in turn derived from Old English glīdan. The oldest meaning of glide may have denoted a precipitous running or jumping, as opposed to a smooth motion. Scholars are uncertain as to its original derivation, with possible connections to "slide", and "light" having been advanced." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glider_...
Given that Old English is the English from, at the earliest, the mid-5th century AD, that puts Swann's use of the word (albeit 'in translation') a minimum of 1,300 yrs later than the reputed time of this story. Of course, Swann is trying to redefine Icarus's flight away from mythology.
"The first heavier-than-air (i.e. non-balloon) man-carrying aircraft that were based on published scientific principles were Sir George Cayley's series of gliders which achieved brief wing-borne hops from around 1849." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glider_...
However, let's not be too hasty. As I wrote in my review of Howard V. Hendrix's Lightpaths:
""Eilmer of Malmesbury was the country’s first aviator c1005AD.
"William of Malmesbury wrote about 100 years after the event in his epic ‘Deeds of the English Kings’:
"‘He was a man of good learning for those times; of mature age and in his early youth had hazarded an attempt of singular temerity: he had by some contrivance fastened to his hands and feet in order that he might fly as Daedalus, and collecting the air, on the summit of a tower, had flown for a distance of a furlong (200m); but agitated by the violence of the wind and a current of air, as well as the consciousness of his rash attempt, he fell and broke both his legs, and was lame ever after. He used to relate as the cause of the failure that he had forgotten to provide himself with a tail.’
"The date of the flight can be judged fairly accurately as it is recorded that Eilmer saw Halley’s comet in 989 and again in 1066. Assuming he had to be at least six to remember the comet, to make the flight in early youth suggests a date between 995 and 1010. Celebration of the millennium of the flight was held in Malmesbury in July 2010." - https://www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk/ma..." - https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
So, who knows, right?
Okay, OK, I'm just having fun nit-picking. Obviously, the author is using the mythology as a springboard for his flights of fancy. I enjoyed it. The 2 main human protagonists of the bk used a glider to escape an invasion of up-to-no-good ruffians.
"To the west lay the hills, terraced with olive trees and vineyards, which climbed gradually into the Range of Ida and the Country of the Beasts, the forests which no one mentioned without a shudder, much less entered; the haunt, it was said by the cook, the gatekeeper, and the gardener, of the Minotaur, the Bull That Walks Like a Man. "Try not to land in the Country of the Beasts." She would not forget her father's warning.
"Myrrha, the handmaiden, exploded into the garden. At the same instant, Thea heard sounds beyond the walls. Marching feet, the clank of armor, the voices of men who march with such confidence that they want the whole countryside to hear their coming." - p 14
My method writing reviews generally involves my putting pencil markings indicating select parts of the bk while I'm reading it w/ notes at the beginning of the bk indicating the significance of the chosen section. When I'm 1st reading a bk, & haven't gotten much of a feel for it yet, I sometimes select a passage that seems like an odd choice to me when I've finished reading the bk & it's time to write the review. Now is such a time. While the above passage is fine, why didn't I pick a section where they're flying on the glider?! Instead, we next meet our heroes after they've crashed & been captured by the invaders. One of them has his eye on Thea as a juicy prize.
"Leaving Icarus to admire the fresco of dolphins, she climbed in the tub and turned a frog-shaped spigot to immerse her body with hot, steaming water. In the larger mansions, rain was trapped on the roof, heated by a brazier, and carried to the bathrooms through pipes of terracotta. Cretan plumbing was admired even in Egypt." - p 26
& to think that the word "Cretan" has turned into a slur meaning "idiot". Harumph. As Mike Heron sd: "Smiling Men with Bad Reputations".
"When I entered the cave, I was hungry as a bull. Once a week the farmers outside the forest bring me a skinned animal. Bellowing lustily to justify my reputation, I fetch the meat and take it home with me to cook in the garden. They call me the Minotaur, the Bull That Walks Like a Man. In spite of my seven feet, however, I am not a freak, but the last of an old and illustrious tribe who settled the island before the Cretans arrived from the East. Except for my pointed ears (which are common to all of the Beasts), my horns (which are short and almost hidden by my hair), and my unobtrusive tail, I am far more human than bovine, though my generous red hair, which has never submitted to the civilizing teeth of a comb, is sometimes mistaken for a mane." - p 35
Thea & Icarus escape to the Cave of the Minotaur, not wishing to be Beast-food, but also not wishing to be slaves to their captors. Hence, I & M 1st meet w/ I prepared to defend his life from the notorious appetite.
""Come down from there," I cried. "What do you think you are, a blue monkey? I won't hurt you."
""Oh," he said, surprised. You can talk, and in Cretan too."
""What did you expect me to do, moo or speak Hittite? As a matter of fact, your people learned their language from my people several hundred years ago."
""'Till now I have only heard you bellow." He was already climbing down from his ledge." - p 36
Our pal, the Minotaur, has giant ants working for him.
"It was, of course, her first meeting with a Telchin, a three-foot ant with almost human intelligence and with six skillful legs which make him the best lapidary in the world; he can carve and set gems more delicately than the surest human craftsman. But Thea saw only the great bulbous head, the many-facted eyes, the black, armored skin.
""It crawled down the ladder," she said in a whisper. "Then it came at me, waving its feelers."
""He didn't come at you, he came looking for me," I snapped emphasizing the he, for I saw that her scornful it had hurt his feelings." - p 46
I don't recall ever hearing tell of "Telchins" so I just had to look the word up online. No sense in taking it for granted that I can look it up any old time what w/ the New Normal threatening just about everything I hold sacred.
"This family of strange names belongs evidently to the Indo-European language, and
designated a class of demons of gigantic or dwarfish size, which were believed to possess great skill in all manner of arts and crafts. They were especially famous as blacksmiths. In antiquity several mythical works were ascribed to the Greek Telchins, such as the scythe of Cronos and the trident of Poseidon. They were mischievous, spiteful genii who from time immemorial became somewhat confused with the Cyclops. The Telchins were called children of the sea and were found only in a small number." - https://archive.org/stream/themytholo...
Perhaps their being giant ants is Swan's touch. Another of Swan's touches is to have Thea, the more-or-less human, start to order the Minotaur's world.
"In the glow of a freshly lit lamp, three dove-shaped vases nested among the roots and bristled with poppies out of my garden. The sad little heads of my flowers stared reproachfully from every corner of the room, five heads to a dove.
""You've killed them." I cried. "You've cut their throats."
""Housed, not killed. In the garden, nobody noticed them."
""I did. Every day. Here it's like putting them in jail."
""I shall try to be a kind jailer," she smiled, straightening a flower." - p 54
I'm solidly on the Minotaur's side on this one. Uprooting the plants obviously dramatically shortens their life & detaches them from a root network. & for what? Some stupid aesthetic reason. Pshaw!
The Minotaur has a party & Thea continues to try to 'civilize' him.
""My turn," I called.
"Restraining fingers caught at my belt. "Mine," said Thea.
""I'll step on your toes," I protested, edging toward Zoe.
""Not in my dance." Her fingers were irresistable. "We call if the Walk of the Cranes." We linked hands and she led me through stately, meandering steps like those of the young virgins when they dance beside the River Kairatos, though the music seemed more appropriate to the opium-drugged priestesses of the Great Mother, when they yield themselves to ecstasy, writhe on the ground, and tear the bark from a tree with their savage teeth." - p 60
Thea & Icarus didn't remember their mother. She had been w/ the 'beasts', their father had been 'human' & had taken them back to 'civilization'. The Minotaur tells them their history.
"A mile from the Field of Stones, in a small clearing green with moss and fern, I showed them a fire-blackened stump which had once been a royal oak. Through the gutted walls, you could see the ruined beginnings of a staircase, spiraling around the tree and ending abruptly in air.
""Your mother's tree," I said. And I told them about Aeacus, their father. . . ." - p 70
The Queen of the Thriae is treacherous & lures Icarus into her lair w/ seductiveness.
"There were wicker chairs suspended from the ceiling on tenuous chains of grass. There were hangings of spider-spun silk through which the walls revealed their ribs of reed. Most of all, it was a room of flowers, which glowed in mounds like the heaped treasures spilled in Egyptian tombs when thieves are caught at their theft. One of the walls was coated with polished wax which mirrored the room like a misty garden and Amber's face as the queenliest of the blossoms. Surely, thought Icarus, no evil can touch me akong so many flowers—there are even bees at work collecting nectar." - p 88
The Thriae sold out to human invaders but the Minotaur & his friends outwitted them.
"The Thriae could not account for the strange sleep of their hosts. Intoxicated? Drugged? Exhausted by the rigors of conquest? They fluttered above the prostrated bodies, their dulcet tones growing shrill; they shouted, prodded with jeweled fingers, clamored—the queens for attention, the drones for caresses. Quietly the three Dryads congregated around Thea and began to help her collect the Achaen daggers.
"Amber, kneeling to prod a recumbent body, lifted her head to confront an armed and determined Thea, who seized the gauzy membrane of her wing and delivered a slap which spun her head as if it had been struck by the boom of a sail." - p 144
The Minotaur, being the author of this history, reveals his expectations that the future will not be kind to his fellow beings.
""Beast" will become synonymous with "animal," and "bestial" will be an epithet applied to savages and murderers." - p 157
Isn't it odd how people who're brutal are often sd to be "animals"?! I generally find humans to be far more destructive than any animal ever is. It's rare for there to even be animals that hunt in packs & when they do it's just in search of food & no more. Humans commit genocide on a regular basis for things far abstracted from food & territory - often out of sheer malice. Calling a human an "animal" as an insult implying brutality is an insult to animals.
When I was a kid, I had a bk on Greek Mythology. It was one of my favorite bks. I grew out of it as I started to think that Ancient Greek culture had too much influence on the present. Still, I obviously retain some of my childhood affection b/c I enjoyed this & I have many more Swan bks apparently of a similar ilk that I plan to read.
Thomas Burnett Swann's Day of the Minotaur
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 23-26, 2021
As a young'un, a wee lad, I probably started reading fantasy at the same time or slightly before science fiction, when I was around 9 & I read The Hobbit. It didn't take long before I felt like I'd outgrown fantasy & I moved on to a wide variety of other literatures, taking awhile to eventually return to SF but not really to return to fantasy except on rare occasions. It wd've been while I was browsing my former favorite used bkstore (somewhat ruined for me by the hypochondria of its manager) that I noticed bks by this author, someone I wasn't previously familiar w/. Always looking for new authors to read works by it seemed about time to reinvestigate fantasy.. although "fantasy" might not really be the best label for this, rewritten myth might be a better term. According to the bk's author bio:
"THOMAS BURNETT SWANN was born in Florida in 1928 and served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War."
Right off the bat I was in left field: I expected the author to be roughly of the generation of William Morris or William Hope Hodgson, not a solidly middle-of-the-20th-century guy. At least he cd've chosen the name "William", right?!
In fact, in my review of William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland from a distant past of 4 yrs ago before most people turned into sheeple before my very eyes & lost the ability to say anything that wasn't prefabricated for them by their masters, I called attn to:
"The protagonists find a manuscript at a ruin & decide to read it. Hence we enter the fantastic part of The House on the Borderland. As a literary device, the found text is about as bad as 'it-was-all-a-dream'." - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This literary device, the found-ms-that's-supposed-to-get-the-reader-to-imagine-that-this-is-a-true-story device really doesn't bother me as much as I imply above. &, yes, it's used in the "PREFACE" here:
"In 1952, when the young cryptographer, Michael Ventris, announced his partial decipherment of the clay tablets found in the ruins of Knossos, archeologists, linguists, and laymen greeted his announcement with enthusiasm and expectation. Since the excavations of Sir Arthur Evans at the turn of the century, the island of the fabulous Sea Kings had piqued the imagination with its snake-goddesses and bull games, labyrinths and man-killing Minotaurs. But instead of a Cretan Iliad, the tablets revealed a commonplace inventory of palace furniture and foodstuffs, with occasional names of a town, a god, or a goddess. In a word, they confirmed the already accepted facts that the ancient Cretans had lived comfortably, worshipped conscientiously, and kept elaborate records. Those who had hoped for an epic, a tragedy, or a history—in short, for a work of literature to rival the Cretan achievments in architecture and fresco painting—were severely disappointed.
"In 1960, however, an American expedition from Florida Midland University excavated a cave on the southern coast of Crete near the ancient town of Phaestus and discovered a long scroll of papyrus, sealed in a copper chest from the depredations of thieves and the weather. I myself commanded that expedition and wrote the article which announced our find to the public. At the time of my article, we had barely begun to decipher the scroll, which I prematurely announced to be the world's earliest novel, the fanciful story of a war between men and monsters. But as we progressed with our decipherment, we marveled at the accurate historical framework, the detailed descriptions of flora and fauna, the painstaking fidelity to fact in costume and custom. We began to ask ourselves: Were we dealing, after all, with a novel, a fabrication, a fantasy?" - pp 5-6
This is 'signed' on p 7 w/:
"T.J. Montasque, Ph. D., Sc.D., L.L.D.
Florida Midland University"
Cd Swann possibly be slyly complimenting himself w/ "we marveled at the accurate historical framework, the detailed descriptions of flora and fauna, the painstaking fidelity to fact in costume and custom"? Well, let's test this claim.
"My history belongs to the princes Thea, niece of the great king Minos, and to her brother Icarus, named for the ill-fated son of Daedalus who drowned in the sea when his glider lost its wings. I, the author, amd a poet and craftsman and not a historian, but at least I have studied the histories of Egypt and I will try to imitate their terse, objective style. You must forgive me, however, if now and then I digress and lose myself in the glittering adjectives which come so readily to my race. We have always been rustic poets, and I, the last of the line, retain an ear for the well-turned phrase, the elegant (yes, even the flowery) epithet." - p 9
"In Greek mythology, Minos (/ˈmaɪnɒs, -nəs/; Greek: Μίνως, Ancient: [mǐːnɔːs] Modern: [ˈminos]) was a King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa."
[..]
""Minos" is often interpreted as the Cretan word for "king", or, by a euhemerist interpretation, the name of a particular king that was subsequently used as a title."
[..]
"Minos appears in Greek literature as the king of Knossos as early as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minos
"The Iliad (/ˈɪliəd/; Ancient Greek: Ἰλιάς, romanized: Iliás, Attic Greek: [iː.li.ás]; sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song of Ilium ) is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Usually considered to have been written down circa the 8th century BC, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad
SO, it seems that the author isn't really trying to convince the reader that this is 'fact' b/c he's placing the narrative in myth. What about his use of the word "glider" to describe Icarus's wings?
"Glider is the agent noun form of the verb to glide. It derives from Middle English gliden, which in turn derived from Old English glīdan. The oldest meaning of glide may have denoted a precipitous running or jumping, as opposed to a smooth motion. Scholars are uncertain as to its original derivation, with possible connections to "slide", and "light" having been advanced." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glider_...
Given that Old English is the English from, at the earliest, the mid-5th century AD, that puts Swann's use of the word (albeit 'in translation') a minimum of 1,300 yrs later than the reputed time of this story. Of course, Swann is trying to redefine Icarus's flight away from mythology.
"The first heavier-than-air (i.e. non-balloon) man-carrying aircraft that were based on published scientific principles were Sir George Cayley's series of gliders which achieved brief wing-borne hops from around 1849." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glider_...
However, let's not be too hasty. As I wrote in my review of Howard V. Hendrix's Lightpaths:
""Eilmer of Malmesbury was the country’s first aviator c1005AD.
"William of Malmesbury wrote about 100 years after the event in his epic ‘Deeds of the English Kings’:
"‘He was a man of good learning for those times; of mature age and in his early youth had hazarded an attempt of singular temerity: he had by some contrivance fastened to his hands and feet in order that he might fly as Daedalus, and collecting the air, on the summit of a tower, had flown for a distance of a furlong (200m); but agitated by the violence of the wind and a current of air, as well as the consciousness of his rash attempt, he fell and broke both his legs, and was lame ever after. He used to relate as the cause of the failure that he had forgotten to provide himself with a tail.’
"The date of the flight can be judged fairly accurately as it is recorded that Eilmer saw Halley’s comet in 989 and again in 1066. Assuming he had to be at least six to remember the comet, to make the flight in early youth suggests a date between 995 and 1010. Celebration of the millennium of the flight was held in Malmesbury in July 2010." - https://www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk/ma..." - https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
So, who knows, right?
Okay, OK, I'm just having fun nit-picking. Obviously, the author is using the mythology as a springboard for his flights of fancy. I enjoyed it. The 2 main human protagonists of the bk used a glider to escape an invasion of up-to-no-good ruffians.
"To the west lay the hills, terraced with olive trees and vineyards, which climbed gradually into the Range of Ida and the Country of the Beasts, the forests which no one mentioned without a shudder, much less entered; the haunt, it was said by the cook, the gatekeeper, and the gardener, of the Minotaur, the Bull That Walks Like a Man. "Try not to land in the Country of the Beasts." She would not forget her father's warning.
"Myrrha, the handmaiden, exploded into the garden. At the same instant, Thea heard sounds beyond the walls. Marching feet, the clank of armor, the voices of men who march with such confidence that they want the whole countryside to hear their coming." - p 14
My method writing reviews generally involves my putting pencil markings indicating select parts of the bk while I'm reading it w/ notes at the beginning of the bk indicating the significance of the chosen section. When I'm 1st reading a bk, & haven't gotten much of a feel for it yet, I sometimes select a passage that seems like an odd choice to me when I've finished reading the bk & it's time to write the review. Now is such a time. While the above passage is fine, why didn't I pick a section where they're flying on the glider?! Instead, we next meet our heroes after they've crashed & been captured by the invaders. One of them has his eye on Thea as a juicy prize.
"Leaving Icarus to admire the fresco of dolphins, she climbed in the tub and turned a frog-shaped spigot to immerse her body with hot, steaming water. In the larger mansions, rain was trapped on the roof, heated by a brazier, and carried to the bathrooms through pipes of terracotta. Cretan plumbing was admired even in Egypt." - p 26
& to think that the word "Cretan" has turned into a slur meaning "idiot". Harumph. As Mike Heron sd: "Smiling Men with Bad Reputations".
"When I entered the cave, I was hungry as a bull. Once a week the farmers outside the forest bring me a skinned animal. Bellowing lustily to justify my reputation, I fetch the meat and take it home with me to cook in the garden. They call me the Minotaur, the Bull That Walks Like a Man. In spite of my seven feet, however, I am not a freak, but the last of an old and illustrious tribe who settled the island before the Cretans arrived from the East. Except for my pointed ears (which are common to all of the Beasts), my horns (which are short and almost hidden by my hair), and my unobtrusive tail, I am far more human than bovine, though my generous red hair, which has never submitted to the civilizing teeth of a comb, is sometimes mistaken for a mane." - p 35
Thea & Icarus escape to the Cave of the Minotaur, not wishing to be Beast-food, but also not wishing to be slaves to their captors. Hence, I & M 1st meet w/ I prepared to defend his life from the notorious appetite.
""Come down from there," I cried. "What do you think you are, a blue monkey? I won't hurt you."
""Oh," he said, surprised. You can talk, and in Cretan too."
""What did you expect me to do, moo or speak Hittite? As a matter of fact, your people learned their language from my people several hundred years ago."
""'Till now I have only heard you bellow." He was already climbing down from his ledge." - p 36
Our pal, the Minotaur, has giant ants working for him.
"It was, of course, her first meeting with a Telchin, a three-foot ant with almost human intelligence and with six skillful legs which make him the best lapidary in the world; he can carve and set gems more delicately than the surest human craftsman. But Thea saw only the great bulbous head, the many-facted eyes, the black, armored skin.
""It crawled down the ladder," she said in a whisper. "Then it came at me, waving its feelers."
""He didn't come at you, he came looking for me," I snapped emphasizing the he, for I saw that her scornful it had hurt his feelings." - p 46
I don't recall ever hearing tell of "Telchins" so I just had to look the word up online. No sense in taking it for granted that I can look it up any old time what w/ the New Normal threatening just about everything I hold sacred.
"This family of strange names belongs evidently to the Indo-European language, and
designated a class of demons of gigantic or dwarfish size, which were believed to possess great skill in all manner of arts and crafts. They were especially famous as blacksmiths. In antiquity several mythical works were ascribed to the Greek Telchins, such as the scythe of Cronos and the trident of Poseidon. They were mischievous, spiteful genii who from time immemorial became somewhat confused with the Cyclops. The Telchins were called children of the sea and were found only in a small number." - https://archive.org/stream/themytholo...
Perhaps their being giant ants is Swan's touch. Another of Swan's touches is to have Thea, the more-or-less human, start to order the Minotaur's world.
"In the glow of a freshly lit lamp, three dove-shaped vases nested among the roots and bristled with poppies out of my garden. The sad little heads of my flowers stared reproachfully from every corner of the room, five heads to a dove.
""You've killed them." I cried. "You've cut their throats."
""Housed, not killed. In the garden, nobody noticed them."
""I did. Every day. Here it's like putting them in jail."
""I shall try to be a kind jailer," she smiled, straightening a flower." - p 54
I'm solidly on the Minotaur's side on this one. Uprooting the plants obviously dramatically shortens their life & detaches them from a root network. & for what? Some stupid aesthetic reason. Pshaw!
The Minotaur has a party & Thea continues to try to 'civilize' him.
""My turn," I called.
"Restraining fingers caught at my belt. "Mine," said Thea.
""I'll step on your toes," I protested, edging toward Zoe.
""Not in my dance." Her fingers were irresistable. "We call if the Walk of the Cranes." We linked hands and she led me through stately, meandering steps like those of the young virgins when they dance beside the River Kairatos, though the music seemed more appropriate to the opium-drugged priestesses of the Great Mother, when they yield themselves to ecstasy, writhe on the ground, and tear the bark from a tree with their savage teeth." - p 60
Thea & Icarus didn't remember their mother. She had been w/ the 'beasts', their father had been 'human' & had taken them back to 'civilization'. The Minotaur tells them their history.
"A mile from the Field of Stones, in a small clearing green with moss and fern, I showed them a fire-blackened stump which had once been a royal oak. Through the gutted walls, you could see the ruined beginnings of a staircase, spiraling around the tree and ending abruptly in air.
""Your mother's tree," I said. And I told them about Aeacus, their father. . . ." - p 70
The Queen of the Thriae is treacherous & lures Icarus into her lair w/ seductiveness.
"There were wicker chairs suspended from the ceiling on tenuous chains of grass. There were hangings of spider-spun silk through which the walls revealed their ribs of reed. Most of all, it was a room of flowers, which glowed in mounds like the heaped treasures spilled in Egyptian tombs when thieves are caught at their theft. One of the walls was coated with polished wax which mirrored the room like a misty garden and Amber's face as the queenliest of the blossoms. Surely, thought Icarus, no evil can touch me akong so many flowers—there are even bees at work collecting nectar." - p 88
The Thriae sold out to human invaders but the Minotaur & his friends outwitted them.
"The Thriae could not account for the strange sleep of their hosts. Intoxicated? Drugged? Exhausted by the rigors of conquest? They fluttered above the prostrated bodies, their dulcet tones growing shrill; they shouted, prodded with jeweled fingers, clamored—the queens for attention, the drones for caresses. Quietly the three Dryads congregated around Thea and began to help her collect the Achaen daggers.
"Amber, kneeling to prod a recumbent body, lifted her head to confront an armed and determined Thea, who seized the gauzy membrane of her wing and delivered a slap which spun her head as if it had been struck by the boom of a sail." - p 144
The Minotaur, being the author of this history, reveals his expectations that the future will not be kind to his fellow beings.
""Beast" will become synonymous with "animal," and "bestial" will be an epithet applied to savages and murderers." - p 157
Isn't it odd how people who're brutal are often sd to be "animals"?! I generally find humans to be far more destructive than any animal ever is. It's rare for there to even be animals that hunt in packs & when they do it's just in search of food & no more. Humans commit genocide on a regular basis for things far abstracted from food & territory - often out of sheer malice. Calling a human an "animal" as an insult implying brutality is an insult to animals.
When I was a kid, I had a bk on Greek Mythology. It was one of my favorite bks. I grew out of it as I started to think that Ancient Greek culture had too much influence on the present. Still, I obviously retain some of my childhood affection b/c I enjoyed this & I have many more Swan bks apparently of a similar ilk that I plan to read.
July 7, 2019
Thomas Burnett Swann was a prolific author of fantasy in the days before fantasy became dominated by 900 page sagas. Day of the Minotaur is only 164 pages long, yet it works as an imaginative, exiting, well-told fantasy novel.
Thea is the niece of King Minos of Crete. She and her brother, Icarus, were born in the forests in the interior of Crete, where their father had vanished for three years. The forests were said to the be the home of great beasts, including centaurs, dryads, and, most frightening of all, minotaurs. When the Achaeans attack, Thea and Icarus wind up in the forest, befriended by Eunostos, the minotaur, who narrates the rest of the novel.
Swann shows us the world of the forest and its inhabitants. It's mostly peaceful, as most of the races of the beasts are friends with one another. Eunostos lives in a home made from a tree, served by large ants who are not only intelligent but expert craftsmen. His two best friends are a centaur and a dryad, and a small bear like creature also plays a key role.
All this is the set up for a large tragic battle, when the Achaeans invade. The beasts eventually drive them off, but at great cost, and things can never be the same.
This is a touching, inventive novel. It deserves not to be forgotten.
Thea is the niece of King Minos of Crete. She and her brother, Icarus, were born in the forests in the interior of Crete, where their father had vanished for three years. The forests were said to the be the home of great beasts, including centaurs, dryads, and, most frightening of all, minotaurs. When the Achaeans attack, Thea and Icarus wind up in the forest, befriended by Eunostos, the minotaur, who narrates the rest of the novel.
Swann shows us the world of the forest and its inhabitants. It's mostly peaceful, as most of the races of the beasts are friends with one another. Eunostos lives in a home made from a tree, served by large ants who are not only intelligent but expert craftsmen. His two best friends are a centaur and a dryad, and a small bear like creature also plays a key role.
All this is the set up for a large tragic battle, when the Achaeans invade. The beasts eventually drive them off, but at great cost, and things can never be the same.
This is a touching, inventive novel. It deserves not to be forgotten.
July 12, 2016
Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 1/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 2/5
This new mythology adds little to the canon of ancient Greek lore. It preserved the hasty pacing and skeletal development of the classic tales while contemporizing the language and style, forsaking the better parts of the original tenor. At times the writing style did approach something lyrical, but this was eclipsed by the complete lack of an overall vision. It was a great relief to me that this was so short.
This might be more appreciated by fans of novellas, mythology more generally, or light reading without any pretense or ambition.
Characters: 1/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 2/5
This new mythology adds little to the canon of ancient Greek lore. It preserved the hasty pacing and skeletal development of the classic tales while contemporizing the language and style, forsaking the better parts of the original tenor. At times the writing style did approach something lyrical, but this was eclipsed by the complete lack of an overall vision. It was a great relief to me that this was so short.
This might be more appreciated by fans of novellas, mythology more generally, or light reading without any pretense or ambition.
April 9, 2015
I read as many of these as I could find back in college in the 80's, and I just adored them. He brings to life as real beings all those fantasy characters that made mythology so compelling.
February 14, 2020
I vaguely remember reading this book when I was young. It had infiltrated my dad’s stash of 1970s sci-fi in the attic, sitting ill-at-ease beside Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert and Robert Silverberg. When I stumbled over a copy some twenty years later in Hay-on-Wye, I decided to read it again. And was it worth it? Hmm. It was written in 1966 and hasn’t dated well, in ways that would have gone over my head as a young teen. More on that in a moment. The story itself means well, though. Stuffed full of Greek mythology, it seems to have been written under the influence of Mary Renault. It’s the tale of Thea and Icarus, two half-Cretan children who escape the destruction of the city of Knossos – in a glider, naturally. They hope to reach the Country of the Beasts, the region into which Greece’s mythological creatures have withdrawn to escape the advance of men. But their headlong flight leads instead to further danger, leaving them stranded in the cave of the Minotaur himself...
For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/02/06/d...
For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/02/06/d...
August 12, 2023
A poetic, lyrical tale, an early example of a "found tale" and a re-interpretation of the Minotaur legend. The writing is musical, poetical, it flows; yes, from a modern aesthetic it may appear dated, but it was written in 1966 if not earlier. It's a beautiful tale making something new of an old legend, and, as such, quite inspirational.
My own minotaur retelling has a viewpoint character called Theasus, and to find one of the POVs is called Thea is happy symmetry.
My own minotaur retelling has a viewpoint character called Theasus, and to find one of the POVs is called Thea is happy symmetry.
March 3, 2018
Such a boring book even though his interesting beginning.
Characters are nule and those who will to be developed are slashed by a nonsense plot which delivers into nothing. You may get over of everything because some fantasy (that thing about the Minotaur) or how the romance can be grown between battles and the obvious bed compatibility problems but nothing of it appears in the book.
Characters are nule and those who will to be developed are slashed by a nonsense plot which delivers into nothing. You may get over of everything because some fantasy (that thing about the Minotaur) or how the romance can be grown between battles and the obvious bed compatibility problems but nothing of it appears in the book.
February 25, 2023
A nice novelette and the first of Swann's Minotaur trilogy. This printing was, like the other I bought from this press, rife with typos and poor editing. They need to step up their game on this issue if they are going to reprint stuff.
May 26, 2020
Couldn't work out whether it was aimed at kids or adults - an uneasy mix of child-like woodland sff-fantasy and adult sexuality.
Read
December 30, 2020Pure merveille, le classique à redécouvrir !
January 2, 2021
Très surpris par la magnifique plume et l'humanisme de Thomas Burnett Swann
July 5, 2023
A fun and inoffensive little book. It is very simple and straightforward with enjoyable characters, not a lot of meat on the bone but it does not ask a lot from you.
January 29, 2025
One of my all-time faves. Amazing short read. It's basically a Minoan retelling of Beauty and the Beast. In the ranks of old SFF, it's an absolute classic.
September 10, 2025
2,5 Sterne
October 21, 2023
I read this in the original serialised version as published in Science Fantasy Magazine in the 60s (2023 edit: I found a copy of the novel version of it and it is just as lovely)
It’s just superb. The narrator is a Minotaur (who describes himself as a poet) who has set up house in the forests of ancient Crete along with a heap of other mythical creatures. Then, one day, two half-human children seek shelter from Achaean invaders and he becomes their protector and friend.
This is just lovely. There is not a word out of place and it describes an idyllic land, hidden from human eyes, on the verge of war. I couldn’t bear the fact that it was such a short novel yet peopled with such wonderful characters and settings. I have to read the other books in this series.
It’s just superb. The narrator is a Minotaur (who describes himself as a poet) who has set up house in the forests of ancient Crete along with a heap of other mythical creatures. Then, one day, two half-human children seek shelter from Achaean invaders and he becomes their protector and friend.
This is just lovely. There is not a word out of place and it describes an idyllic land, hidden from human eyes, on the verge of war. I couldn’t bear the fact that it was such a short novel yet peopled with such wonderful characters and settings. I have to read the other books in this series.
January 21, 2017
I lost interest in this book fairly quickly, deciding that there are better books to spend time on. I picked this up because I like stories that play around with mythology; this one doesn't really do anything particularly interesting with Greek mythology (as far as I got). Swann's writing style is adequate but not memorable. it's an adventure story about two teens who end up in the Land of the Beasts after their home is attacked by barbarians. They befriend a Minotaur. Teeney adventurey stuff happens - a teenager might find it enjoyable. I won't be buying another Swann book.
May 22, 2024
2.5 Stars
A Greek heroic tale (in a more modern telling) about the Minotaur and a number of other classical beasts and nations. Soft and straightforward, but a pleasant read with a simple and happy ending.
A Greek heroic tale (in a more modern telling) about the Minotaur and a number of other classical beasts and nations. Soft and straightforward, but a pleasant read with a simple and happy ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2015
Read a few of Swann's many years ago and loved them, but found the characters in this too twee.
January 23, 2022
A beautiful novel set in an ancient Greece that never was but always is. Swann has an ability to transport the reader to a setting utterly foreign, inhabited by gods, monsters, mortals and others.
December 28, 2023
Enjoyable enough, little fantasy story based on Greek mythology. The story is a bit basic and pat, but the writing is quite smooth and the book well-paced.
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