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Allusions:

1. The Tower of Babel- was inspired by the Ziggurat. In the old testament, the tower was meant to explain the origin of language, Stephen O'Conner named his short novel the Ziggurat to represent the manipulation of language such as the emotions of the Minotaur himself, the young girl and the language of technology- a sequence of zeros and ones.

2. Labyrinth- maze-like structure build to hold the Minotaur.

The Adventure of Theseus

Theseus found the sword of King Aegeus and left to Athens by land.

He was to be killed by the Queen but his father spared his life

He volunteered to be fed to the Minotaur, and ended up killing him.

Father saw his ship return with black sails, and mistaken the code, he drowned himself.

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The new girl:
Smaller than the others. "her eyes were filled with rhomboids of white, then blue, then red...separated by two wrinkles that said to the Minotaur, Go away! I'm too busy for you!" She was not afraid of the minotaur. "Maybe he's not so bad, shed tell herself. Maybe everything I've heard is wrong." She wanted to believe that the minotaur wasn't all bad.

Minotaur:
Bigger than the others. "To the Minotaur, humanity consisted of loud noises and a series of cowardly and craven acts" The minotaur eats everything because he's always hungry. when the girl asks why he didn't eat her, he replies, "Because I'm not hungry". Early on, the Minotaur didn't feel embarrassment. "Here came that embarrassment again, that sweatiness at his hairline, that pricking in his armpits, that heart surge which was like a form of strangulation. Why was this happening?" The girl changes the Minotaur, bringing out his human side. his vocabulary increased as well. "To embarrassment and shame, he added joyless. He added regret. He added lost.

The Blue Man:
Bluebird wings mustache. Round glasses. Eyes transcendently sad, with the welling sadness of an infant.
Symbolized as god
The blue hand acts as god and knocks down the tower of babel in the game
Made the minotaur apologize, even though he had done no apparent harm.

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Beauty & The Beast: The minotaur and the new girl in the story of Ziggurat can be likened unto the infamous movie adaption by Walt Disney of The Beauty and The Beast. In it, a handsome but arrogant prince is transformed into a hideous beast that falls in love with a headstrong, village girl named Belle that is taken as a prisoner as retribution for her father's thievery.
In a similar sense, the Ziggurat portrays a story of a carnivorous monster, the Minotaur, who is intrigued by a human girl that makes him question what his purpose is and find answers about human society, much like how the Beast relearns human qualities and emotions with the help of Belle's infectious and compassionate nature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast_(1991_film)

Beowulf: The Minotaur of the Ziggurat has one thing in common with the monster, Grendel of Beowulf. Both creatures have no particular care about the human race, and succumb to their desire for human flesh. They were both procreated by a human and nonhuman species and their mentality allowed them to make rational thoughts in their heads, but not to the point of executing self control.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf

Scheherazade:  A vizier's daughter, Scheherazade told 1,000 tales to a king (that killed off his wives when he was bored of them) in 1,001 nights, making sure to leave each story on a cliffhanger and promising to finish each story the next night, by doing this the king fell in love with her and made her his queen. This can be related to how the new girl provided a channel of intriguing conversation for the Minotaur and kept his mind away from eating her to learning from her, sharing in her company, keeping her alive and with him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheherazade

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In the short story of Ziggurat literary devices are used by description.
The new girl is described as "smaller than most of the others" I think description is very important because it gives us, the readers, a very good visual of the new girl. The author later says her "shoulders shook" and her fingers twitched" It helps the readers get a visual that the new girl, like the Minotaur is different than the others.
Later on in the reading the new girl tells the Minotaur "go away! I'm too busy for you"
The New Girl doesn't run away because f how ugly the Minotaur is. With everything the author has said about the New Girl we start to tell that the New Girl is also different from evryone else.
Symbolism
The blue man is God
The Ziggurat is the Tower of Babel

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1.  Given the Minotaurs characteristics how does the author want you to interpret him?
2.  How does the girls' attitude affect the Minotaurs behavior?
3.  What is your interpretation on the girl and her personality?
4.  Why does the girl feel so comfortable with the Minotaur?
5.  Did he die in the water like his dad?
6.  Why didn't the minotaur know about getting out of the labyrinth?

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Minotaur is not the traditional beast, he differs because he is not as intimidating physically, this is the first sign of his connection to humans.

Tower of Babel and Hand of God in the game are both allusions to the Bible, representing communication and the process behind it.

Labyrinth originates from Greek mythology, it is the maze created to house the Minotaur created by Daedalus.