Minotaur
The Bull of Minos
MIN-uh-tor
Bull-headed son of a Cretan queen, sealed in a maze and fed on Athenian children, a monster made entirely by his stepfather's dishonesty.
The Story
Poseidon sent Minos a white bull to sacrifice; Minos kept it. The god's answer was to make Pasiphaë, the queen, desire the animal, and the child of that was Asterion, the Minotaur. Minos hid him in a labyrinth built by Daedalus and levied seven Athenian youths and seven maidens as tribute to feed him.
Theseus volunteered for the third tribute. Ariadne, Minos's daughter, gave him a ball of thread to keep the way back, and he killed her half-brother in the dark at the centre of the maze. Nothing in the story is the Minotaur's doing; every decision that produced him was made by someone else.
Did You Know?
- His actual name is Asterion, the starry one. Minotaur is a description, the bull of Minos, not a name.
- Labyrinth is often derived from labrys, the Minoan double axe, whose symbol is carved all over the palace at Knossos. The real palace has around 1,300 interconnected rooms.
- Frescoes at Knossos show young men and women vaulting over the horns of charging bulls, which is either the origin of the tribute story or a very large coincidence.