Greg Williams, age 15, of Jackson, Miss., for his question:

WHAT WAS A MINOTAUR?

A minotaur was a mythical monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. King Minos of Crete kept it in the Labyrinth, a mazelike building from which no one could escape.

Minos sacrificed seven Athenian youths and seven Athenian maidens to the minotaur each year. Theseus of Athens finally killed the monster and escaped from the Labyrinth by following a thread given to him by Minos' daughter, Ariadne. He took Ariadne with him, but later deserted her.

The palace excavated at Knossos in Crete has so many passages that it resembles the legendary Labyrinth. Paintings and mosaics found there show bulls and bull baiting games.

Theseus, in Greek mythology, was the son of a great king of early Athens. Returning from Crete after he killed the Minotaur, he had agreed that his ship would fly white sails if he should come back alive. Otherwise, the black sails with which the ship left Athens would not be changed.

In his hurry to desert Ariadne, Theseus forgot to fly white sails. When King Aegus, his father, saw the black sails on the returning ship, he killed himself in his sorrow, thinking Theseus was not alive. Theseus then became king of Athens.