In his 1994 hypothetical play We Saw a Minotaur, Bowie used his own computer and video material "to tell the story of a Modern Day Minotaur". So we could speculate on what of this filtered through to 1.Outside.

"I'm deranged" is sung by The Artiste / Minotaur. Going back to Greek mythology (Bowie said Outside was essentially driven from a pagan engine), the Minotaur was a violent monster that lived underground. For the Artiste, however, it is something to be appreciated - it's a composite being, and as Bowie mentioned, ancient rock paintings were discovered (the oldest known to man) with depictions of the Minotaur. (To Bowie's astonishment these were discovered after he had written the album).

The Minotaur was the offspring of Pasiphaë, queen of Crete, and a snow-white bull the god Poseidon had sent to Pasiphaë's husband, King Minos. Minos refused to sacrifice the beast, so Poseidon made Pasiphaë fall in love with it and give birth to the Minotaur.

In "I'm Deranged", the artiste/minotaur sings "cruise me blonde, cruise me babe", an invitation to the white bull. Likewise in the Voyeur of Utter Destruction: "I shake and stare at the mother's little vermin", could be a reference to the beast child.

In Bowie's 1994 artwork, there is a charcoal and chalk drawing of what he describes as "the costume for an unborn Minotaur……those eggs signify it's birth". In the diary, "pregnancy" and "giving birth" was a key to the ritual.



After the birth of the Minotaur, comes the architect.

Minos ordered the architect and inventor Daedalus to build a labyrinth so intricate the Minotaur's escape from it without assistance would be impossible. Ramona A Stone says "I was an artiste in a tunnel". The mythology also says the Minotaur was confined in these tunnels and fed with young humans which Minos forced Athens to send him as tribute. So from this perspective, Baby Grace is sacrificed for the Minotaur.

Finally, in the scurry towards the end of the millenium, there's a link between modern day ritual and ancient pagan ritual. One trait is in the "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" video where people are emblazed with tatoo and piercings - very tribal yet at the same time typical of trends in the 1990s.

To some, these patterns appear as "chaos" or "premillenium tension", but Bowie suggests a bigger picture. Perhaps appeasing - or silencing - the Gods is becoming irreligious - peverting the modern catholic ritual. There is no hell - if you're already in it.

In A Small Plot of Land, the townspeople reflect on the pagan quest: "swings through the tunnels and claws his way, is small life so manic are these really the days?". The "tunnels" and "steaming caves" might be the commuter system, but at the same time it parallels the prison of the Minotaur. Is this the place where Leon says "It's difficult you see, to give up baby, to leave the job when you know the money's from day to day"? In this respect, we are all bound by similar prisons - the architecture is the physical space and the need for financial security and wealth bounds us to a certain course of action. As Bowie sings in Ricochet: "Early, before the sun, they struggle off to the gates.......In their secret fearful places they see their lives.......Unravelling before them.......March of flowers - march of dimes.......These are the prisons, these are the crimes".