1 00:00:00,750 --> 00:00:14,269 Far beneath the palace of the treacherous King Minos, in the damp darkness of an inescapable 2 00:00:14,269 --> 00:00:20,030 labyrinth, a horrific beast stalks the endless corridors of its prison, enraged with the 3 00:00:20,030 --> 00:00:23,769 bloodlust so intense that its deafening roar shakes the earth. 4 00:00:24,829 --> 00:00:29,710 It is easy to see why the Minotaur myth has a long history of being disregarded as pure 5 00:00:29,710 --> 00:00:30,050 fiction. 6 00:00:30,050 --> 00:00:35,729 However, there's a good chance that the Minotaur and other monsters and gods 7 00:00:35,729 --> 00:00:39,770 were created by our early ancestors to rationalize the terrifying things 8 00:00:39,770 --> 00:00:42,950 that they saw in the natural world, but did not understand 9 00:00:42,950 --> 00:00:46,929 And while we can't explain every aspect of their stories 10 00:00:46,929 --> 00:00:51,649 there may be some actual science that reveals itself when we dissect them for clues 11 00:00:51,649 --> 00:00:57,649 So, as far as we know, there have never been human-bull hybrids 12 00:00:57,649 --> 00:01:03,289 But the earliest material written about the Minotaur doesn't even mention its physical form. 13 00:01:04,109 --> 00:01:06,890 So that's probably not the key part of the story. 14 00:01:07,890 --> 00:01:12,069 What the different tellings do agree upon, however, is that the beast lives underground. 15 00:01:12,750 --> 00:01:16,010 And when it bellows, it causes tremendous problems. 16 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:22,140 The various myths are also specific in stating that genius inventor Daedalus 17 00:01:22,140 --> 00:01:25,000 carved out the labyrinth beneath the island of Crete. 18 00:01:25,939 --> 00:01:30,019 Archaeological attempts to find the fabled maze have come up empty-handed, 19 00:01:30,719 --> 00:01:33,840 but Crete itself has yielded the most valuable clue of all 20 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:35,780 in the form of seismic activity. 21 00:01:37,819 --> 00:01:41,159 Crete sits on a piece of continental crust called the Aegean Block 22 00:01:41,159 --> 00:01:44,780 and has a bit of oceanic crust known as the Nubian Block 23 00:01:44,780 --> 00:01:46,159 sliding right beneath it. 24 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:50,400 This sort of geologic feature, called a subduction zone, 25 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:54,900 is common all over the world and results in lots of earthquakes. 26 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:01,620 However, in Crete, the situation is particularly volatile, as the Nubian block is attached 27 00:02:01,620 --> 00:02:05,219 to the massive buoyant continental crust that is Africa. 28 00:02:05,900 --> 00:02:12,620 When the Nubian block moves, it does not go down nearly as easily or as steeply as oceanic 29 00:02:12,620 --> 00:02:14,879 crust does in most other subduction zones. 30 00:02:16,199 --> 00:02:22,180 Instead, it violently and abruptly forces sections of the Mediterranean upwards in an 31 00:02:22,180 --> 00:02:23,580 event called uplift. 32 00:02:23,580 --> 00:02:26,800 and Crete is in Uplift Central. 33 00:02:27,900 --> 00:02:32,599 In the year 2014, Crete had more than 1,300 earthquakes 34 00:02:32,599 --> 00:02:34,800 of magnitude 2.0 or higher. 35 00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:38,520 By comparison, in the same period of time, 36 00:02:38,699 --> 00:02:41,539 Southern California, a much larger area, 37 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,759 experienced a mere 255 earthquakes. 38 00:02:45,599 --> 00:02:48,419 Of course, we don't have detailed seismic records 39 00:02:48,419 --> 00:02:49,680 from the days of King Minos, 40 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,319 but we do know from fossil records and geologic evidence 41 00:02:53,319 --> 00:02:55,819 that Crete has experienced serious uplift events 42 00:02:55,819 --> 00:02:58,960 that sometimes exceeded 30 feet in a single moment. 43 00:03:00,599 --> 00:03:02,979 Contrast this for a moment with the island of Hawaii, 44 00:03:03,659 --> 00:03:05,419 where earthquakes and volcanic activity 45 00:03:05,419 --> 00:03:08,280 were tightly woven to legends surrounding Pele, 46 00:03:08,780 --> 00:03:10,939 a goddess both fiery and fair. 47 00:03:11,879 --> 00:03:14,719 Like the Minotaur, her myths included tales of destruction, 48 00:03:15,259 --> 00:03:18,240 but they also contained elements of dance and creation. 49 00:03:18,939 --> 00:03:21,639 So why did Hawaii end up with Pele 50 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:23,719 and Crete end up with the Minotaur. 51 00:03:24,740 --> 00:03:27,180 The difference likely comes down to the lava 52 00:03:27,180 --> 00:03:29,500 that followed many of Hawaii's worst earthquakes. 53 00:03:30,379 --> 00:03:32,860 The lava on Hawaii is made of basalt, 54 00:03:33,379 --> 00:03:35,560 which once cooled is highly fertile. 55 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:38,719 Within a couple of decades of terrible eruptions, 56 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:41,900 islanders would have seen vibrant green life thriving 57 00:03:41,900 --> 00:03:44,000 on new peninsulas made of lava. 58 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:47,120 So it makes sense that their mythology captured this 59 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:50,719 by portraying Pele as a creator as well as a destroyer. 60 00:03:51,379 --> 00:03:56,120 As for the people of Crete, their earthquakes brought only destruction and barren lands. 61 00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:01,020 So perhaps, for them, the unnatural and deadly Minotaur was born. 62 00:04:02,340 --> 00:04:07,340 The connections between mythical stories and the geology of the regions where they originated 63 00:04:07,340 --> 00:04:11,780 teach us that mythology and science are actually two sides of the same coin. 64 00:04:12,599 --> 00:04:15,539 Both are rooted in explaining and understanding the world. 65 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:20,120 The key difference is that where mythology uses gods, monsters, and magic, 66 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,759 Science uses measurements, records, and experiments.