The House of Asterion

by Jorge Luis Borges

One of Borges's shortest stories, The House of Asterion was written over a period of two days. The story explores themes of death, redemption, and the nature of monstrosity. Its narrative style has been referred to as a "literary puzzle", with the narrator's identity not fully revealed until the end of the story.

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Mythology, Fiction, Classics, Retellings, Greek Mythology

2 pages, Unknown Binding

Published May 1, 1947

About the author

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph (transl. The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really cannot say anything about this story without giving away its ending, which makes you re-examine everything you thought you were reading. I was left wondering what the number 14 might have meant to Borges. He is, in some ways, mystical and beyond my grasp.

[Glenn Russell]

The myth of the Minotaur goes back to ancient Greece, the Minotaur being a creature “part man and part bull” dwelling at the center of an elaborate maze-like labyrinth on the island of Crete. But who since the time of the ancient Greeks over two thousand years ago has ever thought to explore this vivid mythic tale with the Minotaur with fresh eyes? Answer: Argentina’s master fabulist and storyteller Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). Reading this Borges short story over the years has prompted me to ask the following questions. Below the questions, is the classic Borges tale itself.

• The Minotaur is man-like enough to share the very human experience of frustration and boredom – and the Minotaur yearns for release. How do we in our daily lives escape these conditions, if at all? Is our vision of eternal life a life free of frustration and boredom, a life where the experience of time dissolves?

• What would be the qualities of a life completely transcending frustration and boredom? Or, a life transcending clock time itself with all our reflections on the past and projections into the future? Is this possible in our current form or is this an experience we envision possible only after our death?

• Similar to many other readers, the ending of this Borges tale caught me by surprise. What does this say about our very human tendency to project qualities and mindsets onto mythic creatures? Put another way, do we think just because a creature is not completely human that creature’s experience of life has nearly nothing in common with our own?

• Why does the Minotaur rely on a redeemer to release him? Why didn’t it occur to him to take a more active role in his own release, his own escape? Does the Minotaur envision his release as one into oblivion, or is this simply our own very human projection?

• Lastly, what’s with all the numbers? Especially number fourteen and number nine? As modern people have we lost our sense of numbers containing a kind of magic and symbolically charged meaning?

THE HOUSE OF ASTERION
I know they accuse me of arrogance, and perhaps misanthropy, and perhaps of madness. Such accusations (for which I shall exact punishment in due time) are derisory. It is true that I never leave my house, but it is also true that its doors (whose numbers are infinite) are open day and night to men and to animals as well. Anyone may enter. He will find here no female pomp nor gallant court formality, but he will find quiet and solitude. And he will also find a house like no other on the face of this earth. (There are those who declare there is a similar one in Egypt, but they lie.) Even my detractors admit there is not one single piece of furniture in the house. Another ridiculous falsehood has it that I, Asterion, am a prisoner. Shall I repeat that there are no locked doors, shall I add that there are no locks? Besides, one afternoon I did step into the street; if I returned before night, I did so because of the fear that the faces of the common people inspired in me, faces as discolored and flat as the palm of one’s hand. The sun had already set,but the helpless crying of a child and the rude supplications of the faithful told me I had been recognized. The people prayed, fled, prostrated themselves; some climbed onto the stylobate of the temple of the Axes, others gathered stones. One of them, I believe, hid himself beneath the sea. Not for nothing was my mother a queen; I cannot be confused with the populace, though my modesty might so desire.

The fact is that I am unique. I am not interested in what one man may transmit to other men; like the philosopher I think that nothing is communicable by the art of writing. Bothersome and trivial details have no place in my spirit, which is prepared for all that is vast and grand; I have never retained the difference between one letter and another. A certain generous impatience has not permitted that I learn to read. Sometimes I deplore this, for the nights and days are long.

Of course, I am not without distractions. Like the ram about to charge, I run through the stone galleries until I fall dizzy to the floor. I crouch in the shadow of a pool or around a corner and pretend I am being followed. There are roofs from which I let myself fall until I am bloody. At any time I can pretend to be asleep, with my eyes closed and my breathing heavy. (Sometimes I really sleep, sometimes the color of day has changed when I open my eyes.) But of all the games, I prefer the one about the other Asterion. I pretend that he comes to visit me and that I show him my house. With great obeisance I say to him: Now we shall return to the first intersection or Now we shall come out into another courtyard or I knew you would like the drain or Now you will see a pool that was filled with sand or You will soon see how the cellar branches out. Sometimes I make a mistake and the two of us laugh heartily.

Not only have I imagined these games, I have also meditated on the house. All parts of the house are repeated many times, any place is another place. There is no one pool, courtyard, drinking trough, manger; the mangers, drinking troughs, courtyards pools are fourteen (infinite) in number. The house is the same size as the world; or rather,it is the world. However, by dint of exhausting the courtyards with pools and dusty gray stone galleries I have reached the street and seen the temple of the Axes and the sea. I did not understand this until a night vision revealed to me that the seas and temples are also fourteen (infinite) in number. Everything is repeated many times, fourteen times, but two things in the world seem to be repeated only once: above, the intricate sun; below, Asterion. Perhaps I have created the stars and the sun and this enormous house, but I no longer remember.Every nine years nine men enter the house so that I may deliver them from evil. I hear their steps or their voices in the depths of the stone galleries and I run joyfully to find them. The ceremony lasts a few minutes. They fall one after another without my having to bloody my hands. They remain where they fell and their bodies help distinguish one gallery from another. I do not know who they are, but I know that one of them prophesied, at the moment of his death, that some day my redeemer would come. Since then my loneliness does not pain me, because I know my redeemer lives and he will finally rise above the dust. If my ear could capture all the sounds of the world, I should hear his steps. I hope he will take me to a place with fewer galleries and fewer doors. What will my redeemer be like?,I ask myself. Will he be a bull or a man? Will he perhaps be a bull with the face of a man? Or will he be like me?

The morning sun reverberated from the bronze sword. There was no longer even a vestige of blood. “Would you believe it, Ariadne?” said Theseus. “The Minotaur scarcely defended himself.”

[Connie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The House of Asterion" is a short story which is also a puzzle. It's an inner monologue describing the life of an unknown lonely narrator. (The narrator is someone who is a character in a famous literary work, and this retelling gives us the story from a different point of view.) As we read the short story, we try to guess the identity of the narrator before it is revealed at the end.

Thanks to Ian for his review which prompted me to read Borges' puzzle of a story.

[Shirin (unavailable) fictional men only · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story and The Library of Babel influenced Susanna Clarke in writing Piranesi, the author herself mentioned. The similarity is beautiful; it's great to expand upon such pieces.

And god forgive me why I never understood that he was Minotaur!

[Hon Lady Selene [on a hiatus] · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quote hidden under
"Would you believe it, Ariadne? The Minotaur scarcely defended himself."
because spoiler. This is a mere two page story, just the same, it is distinctly erudite and characteristically Borgesian.

[elif sinem · Rating 5 out of 5]

New writing goals acquired

[Ian D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Συγκλονιστικό και δεν μπορώ να πω και τίποτα για να μην σποϊλεριάσω.
2 σελίδες είναι, διαβάστε το.

[Cassie G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like that we’re forced to see things from the Minotaur’s perspective rather than just believing him to be a stupid monster without thoughts and feelings and beliefs of his own.

[Mandy Botlik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had read this before readin Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. This had to have influenced her book. The minotaur is a meditative thoughtful and ultimately peaceful person. He does not do the killing the men fall. He is not a prisoner. Others fear him so he keeps to himself. Such a unique look into the mind of a person that is usually cast as an inhuman monster. I only wish it was longer.

[Alison Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leave it to Borges to capture the main character’s perspective in a pith and empathetic two pages. We are so used to the tale of the Minotaur that it’s startling to see his story through his own eyes. ‘The House of Asterion’ is heartbreaking in its simplicity and revolutionary in quiet empathy. A masterpiece.

[Alien Bookreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this fun to read but because of my lack of awareness of mythology I didn’t get the hidden layer. It’s a very short story about some kind of supernatural, mythical/ religious figure who lives in a house that is the world. He is not trapped though everyone thinks he is. I thought "is he the antichrist?"

In the end he is a Minotaur. But since I don’t know the mythology behind Minotaurs I didn’t feel like the ending was suddenly Illuminating. I enjoyed reading this very short story and enjoying the puzzle, picking up the clues, trying to see what it would lead to. If I was familiar with the myth of the Minotaur beforehand, this will be a more fulfilling read.

I like the perspective of this character, not realizing that he is considered a monster to the outside world. He is just living his life, in his strange house, getting bored of the monotony.

[Saranya [mostly ia] · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's less a story about a minotaur and more an invitation to inhabit the bewildered, lonely mind of one... proving that even a beast in a maze can possess a surprising interiority. Borges, ever the sly architect... constructs a narrative that’s both a profound meditation on isolation and a brain-tickling puzzle that left me wondering who exactly is the real monster – the one in the center or the ones who built the walls.

[然然 · Rating 5 out of 5]

czuję się idiotycznie dodajac do przeczytanych opowiadanie które ma zawrotną objętość dwóch stron BUT ITS SO GOOOOD i nadal myślę o nim często....

[Emily Migliazzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply lonely.

“The house is the same size as the world; or rather, it is the world” (2).

“Would you believe it, Ariadne?…The Minotaur scarcely defended himself” (2).

[Curran Collier]

Primordial Piranesi

[Vigneswara Prabhu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps because of the nature of the narrative, this story reminded me of The Outsider, by H.P. Lovecraft. Much like the alleged Hemingway flash fiction "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn", the bare two pages worth story, nevertheless leaves for you hints and crumbs which culminate in the final sentence revelation, that make you go, 'Ooooh, I did not see that coming'.

Strangely enough, It also reminded me of the claustrophobia and horror elicited from the masterful novel I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Do give this a try, and it's literally as short as a pamphlet, but will give you a headful of thoughts.

[ameliera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Asterion thought to liberate the sacrifices because he assumed that they, too, lived in a labyrinth like him. That they lived in an infinite world of reflections and loneliness and boredom. And was he wrong?
We could interpret our world or reality or universe as being a labyrinth, and we could also interpret it as being our own mind, full of repetitions and reflections where we are ultimately alone.

[chad chrysanthemum · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my god oh my god oh my god. immediately one of the best things i've ever read. i have been exploded, etc. read the first half three times before i even hit the second half and then read it all through again. holy shit. i need to read everything jorge luis borges has ever written posthaste how have i never read any of his works???? library request page is open as we speak. and this is IN TRANSLATION im looking at the shadows on the cave wall and going BEST STORY EVER !!!! writing that makes you feel like maybe and perhaps you have never understood language yourself. the level of mastery. christ. don't read ANYTHING ELSE about this and go read it right now. it's literally two pages you have no reason not to go read it.

[Jinan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent smol story. Loved the hmmm perspective and writing style, or rather.... writing logic. Theres a certain kind of sharp whimsy. Like a point tilted slightly to a whole different view.

I shan't reveal much more but I shall say this; the tale is a puzzle about a puzzle about a puzzle.

[Jessica 🥨 (inactive) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 ⭐️

I changed my mine about the others-this is my favourite one so far. Not only was it the shortest one so far but I also understood it the best and it was really interesting

[tanisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's impossible to review this short story in depth without giving away the point of it, so instead i will just scream that everyone should read it. it's a thoughtful and empathetic piece that is wholly redefined by its ending. brilliant writing, truly.

[Brona's Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had known before my first read through of The House of Asterion (La casa de Asterion | 1947) that Borges was inspired to write a story from the perspective of the Greek monster, the Minotaur, after seeing Watts’ painting of the lonely, yearning, desperate creature staring out to sea.

Knowing this made my second read through more pleasurable.

Now I could see that the story was the interior ruminations of the minotaur – his life inside the labyrinth (‘another ridiculous falsehood has it that I, Asterion, am a prisoner‘), the many ways he distracted himself with games and imaginative play, his loneliness, and the routine of the ceremony (‘every nine years nine men enter the house so that I may deliver them from evil‘). Asterion revealed that he too is waiting for his redeemer; someone who will relieve him from the evilness that is his existence. For Asterion, death is freedom, liberation. Death is not to be feared, but embraced.
Full review here - https://bronasbooks.com/2022/03/15/th...

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my all-time favorite short story. It's 2 pages long, and absolutely brilliant.

[BillyDingle · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

3.5 stars!

A short story about the minotaur and his perspective of the maze he's trapped in as well as the loneliness he feels. Probably the most comprehensive story I'll ever read by Borges

[Althani M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very short story!
I read this story in only a few minutes, and my head was immediately filled with questions!

"Borges’s stories are all short yet profound. I admire his deep fascination with myths and labyrinths. His stories compel you to reread them immediately after finishing them."

The story begins with Asterion and immediately he defend himself. He lives in a house with an infinite number of doors and rooms. None of the doors are locked, and he can go anywhere he wishes. But He said "I, Asterion, am a prisoner"
!!??

People accuse him of arrogance and misanthropy. He claims that he does not feel lonely, yet he invents another version of himself simply to have someone to talk to!!!
He even wonders whether he might have created the world, although he can no longer remember doing so.


Asterion does not lie to us; he simply does not understand himself!!!
“Every nine years nine men enter the house so that I may deliver them from evil. I hear their steps or their voices in the depths of the stone galleries and I run joyfully to find them. The ceremony lasts a few minutes. They fall one after another without my having to bloody my hands.”

This gave me chills!

[Maham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly believe that an author must be a master of their craft to make you feel the emotions of a full-length novel in a short story because they are bound by a more limited number of pages; when it came to The House of Asterion, I think I felt every emotion possible.

In only two pages, and written over only two days, Borges wrote about the Minotaur in a way that I have never read before. From now on, when I look up at the stars, I will think of this story and the child named 'little star' who never got to see the starry sky.

[Mathew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although very interesting and successful in it's own right, I'm not completely convinced that this work is due all of the praise it's given.

If JLB wanted to prove that a story can be told in under 2 pages, well then he's done just that with flying colors, however, I don't think that this rendered his work of the highest quality of art that he was capable of.

I felt that too much is given away for free without interpretation and the work felt incredibly bloated with heavy handed footnotes that I feel as an author he could have trusted his readership a bit more to parse and or discern the themes and meaning of his story. So for me the work is a format flop.

However, the content is still very interesting. The concept is fascinating, and there are sparks of greatness that I only wish he had taken a bit more time and or effort to envision.

[laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

“everything is repeated many times, fourteen times, but two things in the world seem to be repeated only once: above, the intricate sun; below, Asterion.”

did you know that two pages can change your life forever. stop whatever bullshit you’re doing and go read this. DO NOT READ ANYTHING ABOUT IT PRIOR TO READING IT. thank you borges i love you borges

[Annalisa Ferrara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this short story so much, it's brilliant and the point of view is so unique! I can't recommend it enough!

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very clever, very short story (only 2 pages). The way it's written is unsettling, but also tragic in a very quiet sort of way. This story is simple, but quite effective. It makes you feel a lot of things and tackles a lot of themes in such a short time. And I really enjoyed it.

Sidenote: Please, if this sounds interesting to you, go into it blind. Do not read anything more about it.