The Cretans is an original verse play structured around an extant fragment of Euripides’ The Cretans. Set in and around the palace at Knosis, the play opens with Daedalus’ speech establishing the inciting incident (Pasiphae has just given birth to the Minataur) and the central conflict: King Minos is furious both at Pasiphae for obvious reasons and Daedalus for having crafted her the means to have sex with the white bull. When Daedalus exits, the chorus, composed of mystics and priests (or priestesses) devoted to the Goddess Gaea, enters and essentially restates the problem. The youthful priests are supportive of Pasiphae while elders are dubious. The scene then shifts to the interior of the palace, where Potnia (handmaiden to Pasiphae, and also a devotee of Gaea) has a dialogue with Pasiphae. Potnia tries to convince Pasiphae that she’s not responsible for having had sex with the white bull. Pasiphae did it, Portnia argues, because Poseidon made her do it, and Poseidon made her do it because King Minos didn’t sacrifice the white bull to him as he had promised. To punish Minos, Potnia claims, Poseidon possessed Pasiphae with passion for the white bull, knowing the resulting birth of the minataur would humiliate Minos. To prove what she’s arguing, Potnia takes Pasiphae to see the temple Minos built specifically to sacrifice the white bull, which is now abandoned, never having been used. The chorus then returns to contemplate these developments, followed by Icarus, who has been sent by Daedalus to search for Pasiphae. Daedalus knows he’s in trouble with the king and he’s hoping Pasiphae will bail him out by admitting she ordered him to create the magic robe that tricked the bull into having sex with her. Icarus learns from the chorus that Pasiphae is now convinced that it was Poseidon’s madness that made her couple with the bull, and consequentially she blames Daedalus for having helped her. Before Icarus can explain what’s going on, Daedalus sends him away to keep looking for Pasiphae. With Icarus gone, Daedalus learns from the chorus that Pasiphae is now angry with him. Their dialogue leads Daedalus to complain about the weakness of women, and he tells the story of his banishment to Crete for murdering his nephew Talus. Minos then enters for the first time, with the minotaur in his arms, and tells Daedalus his punishment for helping Pasiphae in her crime will be to build a labyrinth to contain the monster. Daedalus exits as Pasiphae is returning from the hidden temple with Portnia. Before they arrive he has a dialogue with the chorus in which he questions Portnia’s influence over Pasiphae and what part she may have played in Pasiphae’s crime. The chorus agrees that Minos must punish anyone guilty of leading Pasiphae to couple with the white bull, including Portnia. When Pasiphae and Portnia join Minos and the chorus, Pasiphae makes her argument that she is not guilty for what has happened, that it is Poseidon who made her do it, and Poseidon did it to punish Minos for not sacrificing the white bull. Minos sends Portnia and Pasiphae away, but he has been shaken by her defense. The chorus, too, especially the elders, have been moved by Pasiphae’s speech. They are inclined to defend Portnia, but they know it’s essential to remain in Minos’s good graces, for the sake of their religion, the goddess, and Crete. The chorus exits as Daedalus and Icarus enter after having constructed the labyrinth in one day with the help of Athena. When Minos joins them, he announces that Daedalus having built the labyrinth is condemned to be held prisoner within it. Though Icarus is not condemned to join his father, he chooses to do so, though not without complaining about it. Daedalus tells Icarus not to worry, he’ll figure out a way to escape (and of course most will know that his means of escape will be to construct wings for them to fly away with, and we know how that turns out for Icarus). With Daedalus and Icarus locked up in the labyrinth with the Minataur, Pasiphae returns and demands Minos, who she has convinced is responsible for what has happened by not killing the white bull, to accept her again as his queen, and to punish all who helped her to couple with the bull. Minos leaves Portnia’s fate in Pasiphae’s hands. Pasiphae turns on Portnia and banishes her from Crete, though she knows Portnia loves her and is devoted to her, and Pasiphae, though she must deny it, loves Portnia. Portnia exits and the chorus returns in a panic. Minos, we learn, has sent his soldiers to rid Crete of all of Gaea’s priests and temples. The time of Gaea’s priests, he tells them, is over. The chorus comes to understand that Minos is banishing their religion and their worship of a goddess and sensual freedom to replace it with his own, male-centered rule of law and restraint necessary, as he sees it, for an ordered world. The chorus then announces to Pasiphae that Portnia has taken her own life with poison, and the choral leader directs others to lay Portnia at Pasiphae’s feet. Minos then condemns the chorus to the labyrinth and leaves Pasiphae to mourn Portnia. For Minos’s sake, Pasiphae pretends to mourn Portnia, but we learn in her final speech that she has hardened her heart to Portnia, and she has chosen to devote herself to Minos, to his kingdom and his rule. Minos returning tells her they will make the world their own, and so the play ends with the banishment of goddess worship and with the coming reign of patriarchy.