This vase shows Theseus killing the Minotaur. The Cretans, victorious over Athens in a war, decreed that every year several Athenian youth must sail to Crete and be thrust into a labyrinth, lost until the half man, half bull Minotaur tracked them down and ate them. Theseus, son of the King of Athens, volunteered to be one of the selected youths, hoping to find a way to slaughter the Minotaur.

Once in Crete, Princess Ariadne fell in love with Theseus, and offered to help him if he promised to take her back to Athens as his wife. She gave him a ball of string so he could find his way out of the labyrinth if he was able to kill the creature. He did, and took Ariadne back with him on the ship, but ended up leaving her on the island of Naxos, because the god Dionysos asked him to giver her up to him.

The Minotaur was the offspring of an adulterous affair between Pasiphae, King Minos' wife, and an attractive bull.