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The Minotaur (Ancient Greek: Μινώταυρος (Mīnṓtauros)) is a hybrid creature in Greek mythology that is part man and part bull. He was named Asterion at birth, after his mother's father-in-law.

In Mythology[]

Pasiphae Minotauros Cdm Paris DeRidder1066 detail

Pasiphae nurses the Minotaur

In most myths, there was only one Minotaur, which was the offspring of Minos' white bull and wife Pasiphaë.

Before he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos struggled with his brothers for the right to rule. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of approval. He was to sacrifice the bull in Poseidon's name, but decided to keep it instead because of its beauty. As punishment, Poseidon caused Pasiphaë, Minos' wife, to fall madly in love with the bull from the sea, the "Cretan Bull". She had Daedalus, the famous architect, make a hollow wooden cow for her as a decoy in order to fool the bull. Pasiphaë climbed into the wooden cow and the decoy proved successful. The offspring of their unnatural lovemaking was a monster called the Minotaur.

The Minotaur, as the Greeks imagined him, had the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull. Pasiphaë nursed him in his infancy, but he grew and became ferocious. King Minos, after getting advice from the Oracle at Delphi, ordered Daedalus to construct something to hold the Minotaur underneath Minos' palace (possibly the one in the city of Knossos). Daedalus then built the labyrinth.

It is said that because the king of Athens, Aegeus, had murdered Minos' son Androgeos in jealousy, Minos made Athens send a tribute of seven youths and seven maidens to Crete to feed the Minotaur every nine years.

When Theseus, son of King Aegeus, reached Athens and found out about these sacrifices, he wanted to put a stop to it and volunteered himself to be one of the youths. It was there that he met Minos' daughter Ariadne, who fell in love with the young hero. She promised to provide a way through the labyrinth if he agreed to marry her. When he did, she gave him a ball of thread and told him to fasten it to the entrance and carry it with him - then, once he needs to find his way out, he can just follow the path the thread made. Doing so, Theseus made his way into the labyrinth and found the Minotaur sleeping. He killed the beast with his bare hands and rescued the other youths, following the trail of thread out of the labyrinth.

Real life references[]

The Minotaur is often described by writers as the ancient Greeks' way of describing and representing the man's constant fight against his inner beast, and his struggle to control it.

In Popular Culture[]

Television[]

  • In 2000's The Mummy TV series, a Minotaur who was once a Majai became the guardian of the Scroll of Thebes encountered the O'Connell's and later became their ally.
  • The Minotaur is featured on the eponymous fourth episode of the documental mythology television series Clash of the Gods.[1]

Comics[]

Film[]

  • In the 2005 horror film, he is portrayed as a skeletal quadrupedal bull that has human flesh covering him, it has the same ear drum as Grendel in 2007, the beginning of the film shows the original design.
  • The Minotaur appears in the 2011 film Immortals, in which it is a henchman of King Hyperion. He fights Theseus in the Labyrinth and is killed by him, while protecting the Epirus Bow.

Video Games[]

  • Minotaur appears as a boss and a collectible demon in the Megami Tensei franchise.

Family[]

Tectamid Genealogy in Greek mythology
 
 
 
Tectamus
 
Bistonis
 
Agenor
 
Telephassa
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Asterion
 
Europa
 
Zeús
 
Hḗlios
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sarpedon
 
Anchiroe
 
Rhadamanthys
 
Minos
 
Pasiphae
 
The Cretan Bull
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alcinoe
 
Lycus of Athens
 
Lilaea
 
Deucalion
 
The Mīnṓtauros
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ericthonid Kings of Lycia
 
 
 
 
 
Idomeneus
 
Medea
 
Leucus
 
 

Sources[]


See also[]

External links[]

Gallery[]

Image gallery of Minotaur

References[]

  1. Clash of the Gods, Season 1 ep. 4
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Minotaur (view authors). As with Myth and Folklore Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported).
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