Cretan Bull

The Cretan Bull was a savage bull of Greek myth, tied both to King Minos and to Heracles. Sent from the sea by Poseidon, it was the animal Pasiphae loved, the father of the Minotaur, the target of Heracles’ seventh labor, and, after it was set free, the Marathonian Bull that Theseus finally overcame near Athens.

Origin of the Bull

The usual story begins with Minos. When his claim to rule Crete was disputed after the death of Asterius, he said that the gods had given him the kingdom and that whatever he prayed for would be granted. While sacrificing to Poseidon, he prayed that a bull might appear from the depths of the sea, promising to sacrifice it when it came. Poseidon sent up a fine bull and Minos got the kingdom, but he sent the bull to his herds and sacrificed another animal instead (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.3). Angry, Poseidon made the bull savage (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.4). Pausanias gives a related reason: the Cretans said Poseidon sent the bull because Minos, although master of the Greek sea, did not honor the god above the others (Pausanias 1.27.9).

Apollodorus mentions another version, which he credits to Acusilaus: this was the bull that carried Europa across the sea for Zeus (Library 2.5.7).

The Bull and Pasiphae

Poseidon also made Minos’ wife Pasiphae fall in love with the bull. She found a helper in Daedalus, who built a wooden cow on wheels, hollowed it out, sewed a cow’s hide over it and set it in the meadow where the bull grazed. Pasiphae climbed inside, the bull mated with the wooden cow, and she gave birth to Asterius, called the Minotaur, who had a bull’s head and a man’s body. Minos, following certain oracles, shut him in the Labyrinth that Daedalus had built (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.4). Virgil also pictures Crete with the cruel love for the bull, Pasiphae and the Minotaur, “a memorial of unspeakable love”, among the carvings Daedalus made on the doors of Apollo’s temple at Cumae (Aeneid 6.23–26).

The Seventh Labor of Heracles

Eurystheus set Heracles the seventh labor of fetching the Cretan Bull (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.7). Heracles went to Crete and asked Minos for help; Minos told him to fight and catch the bull himself, and Heracles did so. He brought it to Eurystheus, showed it to him and then let it go free (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.7). Diodorus has a different version: Heracles obtained the aid of Minos, and carried the bull back to the Peloponnese by sailing across the sea on its back (Diodorus 4.13.4).

The Marathonian Bull

After it was released, the bull roamed through Sparta and all Arcadia, crossed the Isthmus and reached Marathon in Attica, where it harried the inhabitants (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.7). Pausanias says it killed everyone it met on the way, including Androgeos, son of Minos, and that Minos’ war against Athens over this death ended in the tribute of seven girls and seven boys for the Minotaur (Pausanias 1.27.10). In Apollodorus Androgeos is killed after Aegeus sends him against the bull of Marathon, though others say he was ambushed by jealous rivals on the road to Thebes (Library 3.15.7).

Theseus later dealt with it. In Apollodorus, Aegeus, persuaded by Medea that Theseus was a danger, sent him against the Marathonian bull, and Theseus killed it (Epitome 1.5–6). According to Diodorus, Theseus mastered the bull, brought it to Athens, and Aegeus sacrificed it to Apollo (Diodorus 4.59.6). Pausanias writes that Theseus drove it to the Acropolis and sacrificed it to the goddess there, Athena, and that the people of the deme of Marathon dedicated an offering commemorating the deed (Pausanias 1.27.10). The sources therefore differ on whether the sacrifice was to Apollo or to Athena.

Cretan Bull Sources

Apollodorus, Library 2.5.7, 3.1.3–4 and 3.15.7; Epitome 1.5–6. Diodorus Siculus 4.13.4 and 4.59.6. Pausanias 1.27.9–10. Virgil, Aeneid 6.23–26.

See Also: Labours of Heracles, Minotaur, Pasiphae, Eurystheus, Minos, Poseidon, Daedalus, Theseus, Aegeus