Every year when I reach “Theseus and the Minotaur” in my Greek mythology heroes unit, I can almost predict the reaction: “Oh, imagine that. Another hero fighting another monster.” Fair enough—after three weeks of one hero after another, even a classic myth can feel cliché. That’s why I started asking myself: How can I make this story feel fresh again? The answer led me down two different creative pathways—each a unique take on how students experience story structure and point of view.
Choose Your Own Adventure Greek Mythology Style
Growing up in the 1980s, I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books—you know, the ones that let you flip between pages and decide your fate. Maybe I was enthralled by the video game vibe, the power of my choices changing the story, or just the fact the hero could die. So when I started teaching, I wanted to give my students that same feeling, and the first part of Theseus’ story—his adventure-filled journey to Athens—was a perfect fit for a Choose Your Own Adventure-style story.
I wrote the first version of “Theseus: Lord of Athens” about twenty years ago, and if you have been following me for a while, you might remember when it was a webquest hosted on Mythologyteacher.com. As great as that version was, it had its glitches, and when the old website went down, so did the Theseus adventure. Now it’s back—resurrected as a new and improved browser-based adventure made with Twine. (FYI: If you’re not familiar with Twine, it’s an amazing free tool for creating your own “branching pathways narrative,” the non-trademarked term for Choose Your Own Adventure. Check it out if you or your students are interested in this type of storytelling.)
This time around, I’ve added a few bells and whistles to the quest including original illustrations, a move counter, a death tracker, and a final score, which gives you a rank from “Master Hero” all the way down to “Assistant Pig-Keeper.”
To celebrate its triumphant return, “Theseus: Lord of Athens” will be half off for a limited time. At this time, the game only re-tells the first part of the Theseus story, but I’m also gauging whether there’s interest in a second part. Fill out this form if you would be interested in seeing a second leg of Theseus’s interactive adventure. Click HERE to see more details about the interactive quest, including screenshots.
That took care of the first part of Theseus’s story, but what about the second?
Voices from the Labyrinth: Every Side of the Story
Since I had previously adapted the myth as Reader’s Theater script-stories and Theseus’s battle with the Minotaur as a classroom strategy game, I wanted a new way to mix up the second half of the narrative and maybe teach point of view in the process.
This is the part of the story where Theseus journeys to Crete, confronts King Minos, and navigates the Labyrinth. I thought about all the characters who are “trapped” by the Labyrinth in various ways—selfish King Minos, his daughter Princess Ariadne, Pasiphae the Mad Queen, Daedalus the inventor, his unfortunate son Icarus, and, of course, the Minotaur himself. What if all of these characters had a chance to tell their own stories?
“If these walls could talk.”
The list of characters grew and grew, and I realized that each of them had a different piece of the puzzle to share. And so “Voices from the Labyrinth” was born.
Picture your classroom transformed into the palace of King Minos, filled with twenty-five characters, each with his or her own story to tell—some proud, some tragic, some deeply misunderstood. Students take on these roles and rotate through a series of two-minute “speed dating” conversations, swapping secrets and unraveling how their fates intertwine. Slowly the mystery of the Labyrinth unravels, revealing the twisted truth of the Minotaur’s imprisonment.
As the viewpoints weave their tapestry, the question also arises: Should Theseus be considered a hero for defeating such a miserable, abused creature? I’ll never forget one student exclaiming, “Whoa! I can’t believe Theseus did that!” That’s when I knew the myth had come alive again.
To celebrate its release, “Voices from the Labyrinth” is also half off for a limited time. Check out "Voices from the Labyrinth" by clicking HERE.
Why does it matter?
Sure, both of these activities hit important standards like RL.7.6 (point of view) and RL.11–12.3 (author’s choices). But more importantly, they invite students to question storytelling itself.
They remind us that heroes can be flawed, monsters can be misunderstood, and stories can take many forms—sometimes linear, sometimes looping back on themselves like twisting passageways.
Whether your students are navigating their own heroic journey through Theseus’s choices or embodying the many voices of Crete, they’ll come away realizing one essential truth:
There’s always more than one way to tell a story.
Stay creative!
Zachary