Asterios and the Labyrinth
A Tale from the Minoan Bronze Age, When the Deeds of Heroes Outmatch the Gods’ Intercession.
A crown contested.
A kingdom on the brink.
A love unyielding ‘gainst strife.
UPON KING MINOS’S DEATH, ASTERIOS, HIS SON, MUST ASCEND THE THRONE of the Kingdom of the Labrys, willing or nilling. Elsewise Krete shall sink into chaos under the rebel lords’ sway. His kin’s lives would be forfeit or cast into thralldom. His fellow, Prince Phaistos of Archanes, he that leads his great host, would be lost to him without hope. ‘Twould be the end of the House of the Divine Bull
The sorcery of his mother, elder sister, and mighty aunt yields him vantage o’er his enemies. Theirs is a dreadsome ally from Tartaros, the Mother of All Monsters. Yet he must prove his worth by leading his men in the sieges of Kydonia and Zakro. And ere lords Koronos and Lykosander spill further blood, he must rescue his captive beloved and those he cherishes.
To make matters worse, Argives from the mainland have set foot upon his isle, sworn in covenant with Lykosander. Shall the wedlock of him and Phaistos with Pharaoh Thutmose’s daughters bind the alliance he needs to shield his kingdom? May the princesses beget them sons, that their lineages endure? As men and women contend each in their own sphere, only the Fates may tell what shall betide.
Author’s Note
THUS BEGINS THIS TALE FROM THE MINOAN BRONZE AGE, AN ERA AS DIM IN RECORD AS IT IS RADIANT IN MYTH, ITS SOUL HEWN FROM THE BEDROCK OF ANCIENT KRETE, where palatial walls once gleamed with the splendor of Labrys-bearing kings and queens, and where legend has woven the names of Europa, Minos, the enchantress-sisters Pasiphaë and Kírke, and the dread Minotaur into the everlasting tapestry of Western memory.
Yet Asterios and the Labyrinth is no retelling of Theseus’s quest. It is the imagining of a world that might have been, in which succession crises spill into bloody revolt, statecraft and sorcery entwine, and love dares stake its claim amid the clash of bronze and desire. Aye, I have taken liberties—but with reverence, not disdain—for the myths and ruins upon which this world is founded have long withstood the passage of time. Even so, I have neither stretched nor distorted names, lineages, or timelines beyond what may be gleaned from Homer, Hesiod, and the fragments that endure.
This is a tale of betrayal, loss, survival, vengeance, and a love that defines one’s purpose for living. Prince Asterios’s struggle, within and without, is one of inheritance, not only of rule, but of burdens borne, monsters faced, and bonds too sacred to sunder. His is a journey through labyrinthine trials not unlike those we all must walk, though ours be less often paved with spells, shafts, and spears.
May your heart prove steadfast to fare forth through these pages and lead you unto that which is dearest: the freedom and fire to live your own truth.
Rio de Janeiro, Winter of MMXXV