»Neo as Theseus«

For those of you who are not well-versed in Greek mythology, Theseus was the Greek hero who slew the Minotaur.

It is my theory that Neo is an incarnation of Theseus. Here are some examples of why I feel this way;

1) Theseus exhibited a cunning talent regarding mazes. He could find his way through any maze, particularly after discovering a treasure left for him by his father; a spool of golden thread that he would one day use to escape the Minotaur's maze.

Neo exhibits a cunning as well, innately detecting a certain falsehood to the world around him in the first Matrix. When given his 'golden thread' (the pill) he was able to free himself of his own maze; the Matrix.

2) Theseus willingly entered the Minotaur's maze so that he could face the monster that kept King Minos' daughter Ariadne captive.

Neo willingly reentered the Matrix so that he could face the agents who kept the minds of the world captive.

3) Theseus joined with a group of six others who would be sacrificed to the Minotaur by order of King Minos, so that he could travel to the isle of Crete and face the monster. The majority of his companions are killed.

Neo enters the Matrix with several companions of his own at the behest of Morpheus, most of whom are killed by Cypher's betrayal.

4) Theseus wins the heart of Ariadne, who sneaks aboard his ship as he leaves Crete, despite his wishes.

Neo wins the heart of Trinity, who enters the Matrix with him several times, despite his wishes.

5) Theseus travels the road from Corinth to Athens, dispensing justice along the way against criminals who are evil, but not involved really with his true nemisis, the Minotaur.

Neo travels from the Nebuchadnezzar to the Matrix and from Zion to surface, doing battle with the Frenchman, the Train Man, the Twins and other evil-doers who are not directly affiliated with his true nemisis, Agent Smith.

6) King Minos is responsible for the creation of the Minotaur, but he rewards Theseus (by making peace with King Aegeus) when he successfully enters the labyrinth and slays the creature.

The AI from the end of Matrix 3 is responsible for the creation of Agent Smith, but rewards Neo (by making peace with Zion) for successfully entering the Matrix and slaying the agent.


This is just a short list of the similarities. Some of them are stretches, I admit, but the majority are right on. Let me know what you think.

I think this connection is VERY vague.

Of course, you may look at matrix like a maze designed for mind, but no one have entered this maze willingly - people were born to it - and those that escaped (Neo & co.) did not re-enter matrix only for killing the agents (if I would follow your proposals).

Concerning the Neo & Trinity love story, you may pick a random book in library, read it and then try to find some similarities between Neo & Trinity - I sure you do (if you will try enough ).

Concerning the greek myths, I think that there is little bit more viable connection to the story of Illias - the Troyan Horse: just imagine that Smith represents greeks (however he do not resemble them at all) and Bane is his Troyan Horse (he is a human, nobody expect him to be an avatar of deadly program). After all, he managed to destroy almost whole Zion fleet ...

There is a similarity in all heroic myths.

The heores are almost always cunning and brave, and a leader of some sort of group. They fight a bad guy, enter into the bad guy's headquarters (storm the castle, destroy the Death Star), and often free victims (damsels in distress, slaves, etc. . .). They usually get the girl. And they dispense justice and so forth. The connections you made from Neo to Theseus can be made to almost every hero of myth from Theseus and Perseus to Luke Skywalker to Superman. And yes even, Neo.

There's a really good book by Bill Moyers that explains how every mythological hero follows the same formula.

That was a point that I was attempting to make with some subtlety. I was parodying the 'meaningful' interpretations of this movie.

There's a serious problem with this theory. Theseus was a lying bastard.

First he promised his mother that he wouldn't leave her when he found out who his father was. Then when he had to break that promise he promised that he would return to her (which he never did).

He broke his promise to his mother and took the shorter, but more dangerous road to his father's kingdom.

The girl who helps him to defeat the minotaur by giving him the ball of string is actually the minotaur's half-sister. (She is the daughter of the king and queen of crete while the minotaur is the child of the queen of crete and a ... well you get the idea) She decides that the minotaur should probably be put out of its misery but only agrees to let Theseus into the maze with a sword (and the ball of string) if he promises to take her home with him.

As far as I know she doesn't manage to get onto the ship with him against his wishes. I was told that he just left without her after sleeping with her the previous night.

Anyway after all this lying he forgets what he promised to his father. So instead of changing the black sail for the white sail he wraps the bulls head in the white sail. His father seeing the black sail believes Theseus to be dead and you know the rest....