Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
Of all the mythical beasts found in fiction, the minotaur is among the most fearsome and
mysterious beasts out there.
With the body of a man and the head of a bull, this monster was a force to be reckoned with
hidden inside the confines of its labyrinth.
But what if this beast was not myth, but reality?
Let’s explore.
If you want more What If videos, check out our “Biggest What Ifs” playlist on the
channel.
Now get ready, it’s time to ask the question: What if Minotaurs were Real?
As usual, I’ll start with a brief description and history of the Minotaur, for those who
don’t know much about it.
The name minotaur comes from the Greek Minotauros, meaning "Minos' Bull".
The God Poseidon sent a snow white bull to King Minos, son of Zeus, to be sacrificed,
but when he didn't kill the beast, Poseidon vengefully caused his wife to fall in love
with the bull, and have a child with it.
Yeah, Greek Mythology was weird.
The offspring of this union was the first minotaur, possessing the body of a man, and
the head of a bull.
To keep it hidden, Minos put the minotaur in a labyrinth build by Daedalus.
Later, after his son was killed by the Athenians, Minos stated that 7 Athenian boys and 7 girls
would be sent into the maze every ninth year to feed the minotaur.
The beast was later killed by the Athenian hero Theseus.
Of course, the real world implications of the minotaurs existing would vary greatly
depending on which depiction we were looking at.
In the original mythology, the minotaur was a unique creature, but in other pieces of
fiction, minotaurs are seen in numbers, and can be found across the land.
For the purposes of this video, we’ll focus on the original idea of the minotaur, with
a single beast being found inside a labyrinth.
If this labyrinth actually existed nowadays, and it was known that a Minotaur resided within
it, some would simply call for the destruction of the labyrinth.
If the intent was to kill the minotaur, this could probably be done pretty well.
However, given how cool the labyrinth would likely be, it’s more likely that the beast
would be killed more directly.
While the minotaur would have been very dangerous in ancient times, nowadays the advent of firearms
would make it relatively easy to deal with.
One swat team could likely get in there, find the minotaur, and take it out in a matter
of hours.
Plus, GPS tracking could allow for much easier travel through the labyrinth, and worst comes
to worst, they could easily blow holes in the walls with explosives.
However, there’s a good chance that they would wish to take the beast alive, whether
to preserve it, or exploit it and show it to the world.
If a real life minotaur was found, people would pay a great deal to see it in person,
and this would be difficult for some to pass up.
Teams would be sent into the labyrinth to capture it, and then it would either be toured
around the world, or take up permanent residence in one location, acting as a tourist attraction.
But it could be that they would choose not to remove the minotaur from the labyrinth.
Perhaps they would decide to turn the labyrinth itself into an interactive experience.
If the beast was subdued and kept in a certain area, and the maze was mapped out, you could
turn it into the escape room to end all escape rooms.
You could solve clues for hints on traversing the maze, and if you make it to the centre,
you’d get a glimpse of the terrifying minotaur.
This would quickly become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world.
It could even be that the beast wouldn’t be used for entertainment purposes at all,
but rather for scientific experimentation.
If researchers learned how this combination of man and bull came to be genetically, it
could open the door to amazing progress in genetic science.
However, there’s a good chance that animal rights groups would argue for the minotaur
to be saved, and not exploited.
Particularly if it had the heightened sentience seen in certain depictions, many would be
calling for it to be preserved and given a chance at life.
This might be a hard sell, particularly if it was the only one of its kind, but given
its humanoid nature people might find it distasteful to keep the minotaur in captivity.
In this case, it might be given a sanctuary, more comfortable than the labyrinth, and perhaps
they would even attempt to rehabilitate it somewhat, if it had some amount of sentience.
And now we return to our question: What if Minotaurs were Real?
Well, if we wanted to kill it, it would be pretty easy.
Guns are pretty useful in this regard.
However, it’s more likely that the beast would be kept alive, either given sanctuary,
studied by researchers, or used for entertainment.
On the other hand, it’s possible that this would be deemed immoral, particularly since
it may possess greater sentience than a regular bull.
In this case, it would likely be put somewhere where it couldn’t hurt anyone, but where
it could live out the rest of its days in peace.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own.
If you liked this video, please thumbs up and subscribe to the channel down below.
While you’re down there, let me know what you would do if you came face to face with
a minotaur.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.