"The House of Asterion" | |
---|---|
Short story by Jorge Luis Borges | |
Original title | "La casa de Asterión" |
Country | Argentina |
Language | Spanish |
Publication | |
Published in | Los Anales de Buenos Aires |
Publication type | Periodical |
Media type | Print (magazine) |
Publication date | May 1947 |
"The House of Asterion" (original Spanish title: "La casa de Asterión") is a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The story was first published in 1947 in the literary magazine Los Anales de Buenos Aires and republished in Borges's short story collection The Aleph in 1949. It is based on the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur and is told from the perspective of Asterion, the Minotaur.
One of Borges's shortest stories, it was written over a period of two days and received generally positive reviews from contemporary critics and authors. The story explores themes of death, redemption, and the nature of monstrosity. Its narrative style has been referred to as a "literary puzzle", with the narrator's identity not fully revealed until the end of the story. Literary critic Gene H. Bell-Villada noted that "there is no instance of a major author so inverting the hero–monster relationship" prior to "The House of Asterion".