Minotaur

The Minotaur was a monster of Crete, the son of Pasiphae, wife of King Minos, and a bull sent by Poseidon. Apollodorus says he had the face of a bull and the rest of him human; he was shut up in the Labyrinth, where he was fed on Athenian youths and maidens until Theseus killed him with Ariadne’s help (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.4, 3.15.8).

The Birth of the Minotaur

The Minotaur was the result of a king’s broken promise and a god’s anger. His mother was Pasiphae, daughter of the Sun and wife of Minos; his father was the bull that Poseidon had sent up from the sea (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.2–4). His own name was Asterius, but he is known by the name Minotaur, “the bull of Minos”.

Poseidon and Minos

The story begins when Asterius, the ruler of Crete who had married Europa and brought up her children, died without a son of his own. Minos, one of those children, wished to rule Crete, but his claim was opposed. He declared that he had received the kingdom from the gods and that whatever he prayed for would be done. He prayed to Poseidon to send a bull up from the depths, promising to sacrifice it. Poseidon sent a fine bull and Minos won the kingdom (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.3).

Pasiphae and the Cretan Bull

Minos sent the bull to his herds and sacrificed another in its place. Angry at this, Poseidon made the bull savage and made Pasiphae fall in love with it (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.4; Diodorus Siculus 4.77.2). Daedalus, an architect who had fled from Athens, built a hollow wooden cow on wheels and covered it with the hide of a real cow. Pasiphae climbed inside, the bull coupled with it as if it were a real cow, and she gave birth to Asterius, who was called the Minotaur (Apollodorus 3.1.4).

What the Minotaur Looked Like

Apollodorus gives him the face of a bull and the rest of a man. Diodorus describes him as double in form, with the upper body to the shoulders that of a bull and the rest that of a man (Diodorus Siculus 4.77.3). Ovid calls him a monster of two shapes, the joined form of bull and youth (Metamorphoses 8.155–156, 8.169).

The Labyrinth and the Fourteen Athenians

The Labyrinth

Minos, following certain oracles, shut the Minotaur up in the Labyrinth that Daedalus built (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.4). Ovid says Minos meant to remove the shame of his household by enclosing the monster in a house of many winding, hidden passages, and that Daedalus made it so confusing that he could scarcely find the entrance himself (Metamorphoses 8.155–168). Diodorus adds that its passages were so winding that those who did not know them had difficulty finding the way out (Diodorus Siculus 4.77.4). Homer already knew of Daedalus’ work at Knossos, but only as a dancing floor he made for Ariadne (Iliad 18.590–592).

The Meal of the Minotaur

The Minotaur was fed on young Athenians. Minos’ son Androgeus had won every contest at the Panathenaic festival in Athens and then died, either destroyed by the bull of Marathon, to which Aegeus sent him, or ambushed by jealous rivals; Minos made war on Athens for his death. When famine and plague struck the city, an oracle told the Athenians to give Minos whatever satisfaction he chose, and he demanded seven youths and seven maidens, unarmed, to be fodder for the Minotaur (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.7–8). Apollodorus does not say how often they were sent. Hyginus says every year (Hyginus, Fabulae 41); Diodorus and Ovid say every ninth year (Diodorus Siculus 4.61.3; Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.170–171).

The Death of the Minotaur: Theseus

Theseus, son of Aegeus, was among those to be sent as the third tribute; Apollodorus adds that some say he volunteered (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.7; Diodorus Siculus 4.61.4). In Crete, Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with him and offered to help him if he would take her to Athens and marry her. Theseus swore that he would. Ariadne asked Daedalus how to find the way out of the Labyrinth, and on his advice she gave Theseus a clue of thread. He fastened it to the door and unwound it as he went in (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.8–9). Apollodorus says that Theseus found the Minotaur in the last part of the Labyrinth and killed him with his fists, then followed the thread back out. Ovid says the door was found again by means of the thread (Metamorphoses 8.172–173).

After the Minotaur

Theseus sailed away at night with Ariadne and the rescued young people, and here the stories divide. In Homer, Artemis killed Ariadne on Dia, on the evidence of Dionysus (Odyssey 11.321–325). In Apollodorus, they put in at Naxos, where Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off (Epitome 1.9). In Ovid, Theseus sailed to Dia and left her on the shore, and Liber (Dionysus) took her up and set her crown in the sky (Metamorphoses 8.174–182). Daedalus, in turn, fled from Minos’ anger; his son Icarus was lost at sea on the way (Diodorus Siculus 4.77.5–9). The full story of the flight is told on the page of Daedalus, and the voyage home on the page of Theseus.

Minotaur Sources

Apollodorus, Library 3.1.2–4 (birth), 3.15.7–8 (tribute and Labyrinth); Apollodorus, Epitome 1.7–9 (Theseus and Ariadne); Diodorus Siculus 4.61 and 4.77 (tribute, appearance, Labyrinth); Hyginus, Fabulae 41 (yearly tribute); Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.152–182; Homer, Iliad 18.590–592 and Odyssey 11.321–325.

See Also: Minos, Pasiphae, Cretan Bull, Theseus, Ariadne, Daedalus