Theseus and the minurotaur fight, and Theseus is defeated physically and morally. The narrator tells us that these events are purely coincidental. He compares Theseus to a "terrifying monster" who betrayed the "unnatural union" between man and beast. He says that these words are "prejudiced" and "prescriptive" and that if they were not, they would kill and devour Theseus. He asks the narrator to tell him the story of these events.