While working on a project this week, I came across two things which made me think of Minotaur Hotel. I know there are a number of people on here interested in ancient culture and artifacts, so I thought I’d put up a couple of posts on here about them, and share my thoughts. Apologies for the two lengthy messages back to back!
The British Library has a large set of manuscripts which it has scanned and made available online, for anyone to view. There’s lots material of in there, with a wide range of ages, topics, languages, origins, and so forth. While looking for some particular musical works, I stumbled onto a huge collection of ancient papyri! The British Library has scanned nearly 100 of these, and they can all be freely viewed. They cover all sorts of topics, from philosophy, to legal documents, to letters, to medical texts, religious works, and so on. You can take a look at them at the link below. Just scroll down to the ‘Papyrus’ headings:
https://www.bl.uk/research/digitised-manuscripts-3/
Now, these documents all date from periods long after the time in which Asterion lived. They date from around 300BC to 800AD, well over a thousand years after the height of Minoan civilisation. And they’re written in Ancient Greek for the most part, with nothing in any of the Linear languages.
However, that being said, I think they provide some interesting insight into how written documents might have looked in Minoan culture. Papyrus has its origins in Ancient Egypt, and existed in fairly advanced forms even in 2500BC. Given the fairly extensive reach of the Minoan culture, and its high level of technological development for the era, it seems likely that Minoan civilisation would have adopted its use. Indeed, there are examples of the papyrus plant depicted in Minoan artifacts, which would lend credence to that theory. And if Minoan culture tended to influence Greek culture, it may be that the styles used in the surviving Greek papyri have their origins in earlier Minoan examples.
In other words, it’s possible that the Minoans used papyri very much like the ones you can look at here. Asterion himself may have seen documents similar to these, albeit in his own language!
A lot of the papyri in the list above are hard to read or fragmentary, especially the early ones. But here are two which are complete, and easy to make out. They’re late in the grand scheme of things, dating from the 4th century AD, but they follow similar styles of the earlier examples. These are good ones to look at if you want to get a feel for these types of documents!
https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_1000...
https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_1000...
You can find translations of these two papyri at the Internet Archive. The upper papyrus begins on p101 (p158 in the Archive), and the lower one on p145 (p202):
https://archive.org/details/TheGreekMagicalPapyriInTranslation/mode/2up
The reason I was looking at these particular papyri is because their subject was one that was new to me: Ancient Greek magic. These two documents are both essentially books of magical rituals. Now, if you’re tempted to run screaming to the hills, just remember that the practice of magic was fairly commonplace in Europe prior to the Renaissance (and even during it, to be honest). Magic was written about at length in the mediaeval period, to the point where the forms of magic we see in modern games, film, and television have their root in actual mediaeval practice, albeit it much modified over the centuries.
However, I wasn’t aware that the practice of that sort of magic had its origins much further back in human history, extending to the Greeks, and even further back to the Egyptians. And if the Greeks and Egyptians had it, it’s likely the Minoans did too. And why is this relevant? Because the magical rituals demonstrated in these ancient papyri have an interesting similarity to the ‘magic’ we see demonstrated in Minotaur Hotel:
Ancient Greek magic was contractual!
These rituals usually feature the same basic structure. The person conducting the ritual prepares some form of personal sacrifice or offering. This could involve expensive materials, or a task that is difficult or takes a lot of time to enact. For instance, the person may need to make a detailed carving and anoint it with expensive spices, or buy an object and then throw it away, or write or draw on papyrus (itself very costly) using special inks made from special concoctions of animal bloods and other ingredients. The person then calls on a particular spirit, ‘demon’, or minor deity using their True Name (a special, long combination of syllables connected to them, rather than their conventional name). This being is then spoken to in a set, ritual fashion, either verbally, or through text written on specially prepared papyrus. They’re asked to perform a particular task, with the sacrifice/offering being promised in exchange for the service. The being may or may not agree to this.
But it strikes me this is quite similar to the way ‘magic’ works in the Hotel. What’s basically happening in the above is a form of contract, either verbal or written. The person conducting the ritual offers something that a particular entity wants, or something that honours them, in exchange for something magical taking place. This is done using special formal words, spoken or written down. If both parties agree, then the exchange takes place, and the magic happens – and indeed it becomes binding. If not, it does not.
It makes me think of several examples in Minotaur Hotel of things happening in this way. Although there is some ambiguity there, as some of the situations fall more into the realms of more conventional religious rituals, rather than strictly magical ones. Still, for just a few examples, there’s Argos’s first contract, in which Argos agrees to give the master something he needs, in exchange for agreeing to certain magical limitations and favours. Or there’s Argos’s proposed offering to the Gods, or the offering to Hestia, both of which involve offerings to deities using ritual words spoken aloud, in exchange for some intervention taking place. And, of course, there are the many Labyrinth contracts themselves, although in that case the object of the contract is less clear. (It could be the creators of the Labyrinth, of course. But I like the idea of the contract being made with the Labyrinth *itself*, so that the Labyrinth is in some senses a sentient entity in its own right. Although I could be barking up the wrong tree there!)
Either way, the ‘magic’ shown in Minotaur Hotel seems to have a solid basis in historically documented customs, which is neat. And by that I mean not the religious rituals only, but the contractual system that governs the Hotel too!
Anyway, sorry for the long ramble, but I thought that was interesting. I’d recommend having a look at the papyri in the British Library! They’re quite interesting, and might well bear a resemblance to the sort of documents Asterion could have been exposed to in his day!