Minos in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Minos

33 passages from 10 ancient authors that tell of Minos, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Minos, son of Zeus and Europa, ruled Crete and gave it its laws, then became a judge of the dead. See his family, his reign, and his afterlife role. For the story in one place, read our article on Minos.

Hesiod (1)

Hesiod, Fragments 1.72–85Athens, Crete and central GreeceThese fragments name Butes, Breyon and Cychreus, and then Minos, Androgeos and Ariadne. They end with the families of Eurytus, Autolycus, Locrus, Ileus, Clymene and Thoas.

Homer (2)

Homer, Iliad 13.328–454Idomeneus' onslaughtIdomeneus and Meriones go into the battle like fire on a mountain, and Idomeneus kills Othryoneus, who had sought Cassandra's hand, and then Asius. He kills Alcathous, a son-in-law of Anchises, and Deiphobus' spear, thrown at Idomeneus, misses him and kills Hypsenor. Idomeneus boasts over each of his victims and calls on Zeus.
Homer, Odyssey 11.568–640Minos, Orion and the great sinnersOdysseus sees Minos judging the dead with a golden sceptre, and Orion driving wild beasts across a meadow. He sees Tityos, Tantalus and Sisyphus in their torments, and then the ghost of Heracles, while Heracles himself is among the gods. Heracles speaks of his labours and of the dog of Hades, and Odysseus waits for more heroes, but the ghosts flock round him with a great cry, and he returns to the ship in fear.

Apollodorus (5)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.15.1–3.16.2Erechtheus, Aegeus, Minos's war on Athens and the birth of TheseusPandion's sons divide his inheritance and Erechtheus becomes king; his daughters include Procris, killed accidentally by Cephalus, and Orithyia, carried off by Boreas. The section covers Cleopatra and Phineus, Eumolpus and the war with Erechtheus, who sacrifices his daughter, and Aegeus and his marriages. Minos, to avenge Androgeus, takes Megara through Scylla's treachery and imposes the tribute of youths and maidens for the Minotaur. It ends with the birth of Theseus to Aethra and his first two labours, where the surviving text of the Library breaks off.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.1.1–4Europa, Minos and the birth of the MinotaurZeus takes the form of a bull and carries Europa from Phoenicia to Crete, where she bears Minos, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthys, while her brothers Cadmus, Phoenix and Cilix, with Telephassa and Thasus, settle in distant lands. The three sons quarrel over Miletus, and Minos marries Pasiphae and has his children. Minos wins the kingdom by praying for a bull from Poseidon and then sacrificing another; Poseidon makes the bull savage and makes Pasiphae fall in love with it, so that with Daedalus's wooden cow she bears the Minotaur, shut up in the Labyrinth.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome E.1.1–24Theseus and the Minotaur; Daedalus, Phaedra and PirithousThe Epitome picks up Theseus' labours with the sow of Crommyon and goes on through Sciron, Cercyon and Damastes, after which he reaches Athens and Medea's plot against him fails. With Ariadne's clue he kills the Minotaur, and Ariadne is left on Naxos for Dionysus; Aegeus leaps to his death when he sees the black sail. The section then follows Daedalus and Icarus and Minos's death in Sicily, Theseus's Amazon wife and Phaedra's passion for Hippolytus, the Centauromachy, Helen's abduction, and Theseus's capture in Hades and death on Scyros.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 2.5.7–10The Labours of Heracles (7-10): the Cretan Bull to Geryon's CattleHeracles brings the Cretan bull to Mycenae and takes the man-eating mares of Diomedes of Thrace, founding Abdera. For the belt of Hippolyte he sails to the Amazons, kills her after Hera stirs up trouble, and on the way home saves Hesione from the sea monster at Troy, which Laomedon will not pay for. For the tenth labour he crosses to Erytheia, kills Geryon and his herdsman and dog, and drives the cattle home through Italy and Sicily, wrestling Eryx and enduring Hera's gadfly.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.3.1–2Minos's son Glaucus and the seer PolyidusMinos's young son Glaucus, chasing a mouse, falls into a jar of honey and drowns. Polyidus, who solves the riddle of the three-coloured cow, finds the boy, and when shut in the tomb with the body he sees a serpent revive another with a herb and uses it to raise Glaucus. Minos forces Polyidus to teach the boy divination, and Polyidus tricks Glaucus into spitting into his mouth, so that he forgets it.

Aeschylus (1)

Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 585–651First stasimon: the crimes of women and the sword of JusticeThe Chorus sing of the many horrors that earth and sea produce, and of the more terrible passions of women. They tell of the daughter of Thestius, who burned the brand on which her son's life depended, of the maiden who cut her father Nisus' immortal lock for Minos' gold, and of the Lemnian crime. They say that the sword of Justice is already close to the one who has done wrong.

Apollonius Rhodius (2)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3.1026–1162Medea's charm and the lovers' partingMedea tells Jason how to use the charm: sacrifice to Hecate by night, anoint himself and his weapons, and throw a stone among the Earthborn men. They exchange promises to remember each other, Jason speaks of Iolcus and Ariadne, and Medea reproaches him before they part; she returns home in distress.
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3.912–1025Jason and Medea meet at the temple of HecateArgus leads Jason and Mopsus towards the shrine of Hecate, and a crow, speaking for Hera, mocks Mopsus; he sends Jason on alone. Jason and Medea meet in silence, and he begs her for help, speaking of Ariadne and Theseus. She gives him the charm.

Diodorus Siculus (5)

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.59.1–4.63.5TheseusThe historian tells of Theseus' birth at Troezen and his labours against the robbers on the road to Athens, then of the Minotaur: Minos' war over the death of Androgeos, the tribute of youths, Ariadne's help, and Theseus' union of the Attic demes into one city. He adds the story of Phaedra and Hippolytus and the exploits of Peirithoüs, including the abduction of Helen and the descent to Hades.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.76.1–4.80.6Daedalus, Minos in Sicily and the Mothers at EngyumDaedalus, an Athenian craftsman who invents the saw and the potter's wheel, flees to a deme of Attica after the death of his nephew, then to Crete, where he makes the contrivance for Pasiphae, and then escapes to Sicily; Icarus falls into the sea. Minos pursues him to Sicily and dies at the court of Cocalus. The section ends with the cult of the Mothers at Engyum and the great temple the townspeople built for them.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 5.78.1–5.80.4Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon; the peoples of CreteMinos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon are sons of Zeus and Europa; Rhadamanthys is the most just of men and rules many islands and a stretch of the Asian coast. Minos' descendants include Idomeneus and Meriones, and the historian lists the peoples who later mixed with the Cretans.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 5.81.1–5.84.4Lesbos, Tenedos and the CycladesThe historian tells of the first settlers of Lesbos, including the Pelasgians, and of Lesbos son of Lapithes, who gave it its name, and of the colonies from Lesbos led by Macareus. He then tells of Tennes and the founding of Tenedos, and ends with the smaller Cyclades, which Minos colonised from Crete.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 5.73.1–5.77.8The gods' discoveries and their Cretan originsZeus is said to have given each god a field of invention: the Muses the letters and poetry, Apollo the lyre, healing and the bow, Hermes the herald's staff, Athena the olive, and Dionysus the vine. The chapters then give an older Heracles, Artemis, Plutus, and the claim that most of the gods began in Crete and spread to other lands.

Ovid (4)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.1–151Scylla and NisusMinos besieges Megara, where Nisus, the king, wears a purple lock of hair on which his safety depends. His daughter Scylla, who loves Minos from the wall, cuts off the lock and takes it to him, but Minos rejects her for her treachery and sails away. Scylla, abandoned, swims after the ship and is turned into a sea-bird, the ciris, which is pursued by her father, turned into an osprey.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.453–613Cephalus at Aegina; the plagueMinos is gathering a fleet to make war on Athens, and Cephalus is sent from Athens to ask help from Aeacus, king of Aegina, and is received with honour. Aeacus tells how Hera (Juno), angered that the island was named after Zeus' (Jupiter's) lover Aegina, sent a plague that killed its people. The plague began among animals and spread to men, and the dead lay unburied in thousands.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.152–263The Minotaur; Daedalus and IcarusMinos returns to Crete and shuts the Minotaur, the monster born of Pasiphae's unnatural love, in a labyrinth built by Daedalus. The Athenians pay tribute of youths and maidens until Theseus kills the monster with the help of Ariadne's thread, and Ariadne is placed among the stars as a crown. Daedalus, long exiled in Crete, makes wings of feathers and wax for himself and his son Icarus, who flies too near the sun and falls into the sea. Daedalus' nephew Perdix, whom he threw from a tower out of jealousy, is changed into a partridge, and Daedalus is received by King Cocalus in Sicily.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.413–571Byblis and CaunusThemis' prophecy ends, and Byblis, a girl of Miletus, falls in love with her twin brother Caunus, and at first tries to deceive herself that it is only sisterly love. She dreams of him, and debates with herself whether she should write to him, and in the end writes a letter confessing her love. As she gives the tablets to a servant, they slip from her hands and fall.

Pausanias (8)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.4.1–10Samos and Chios: the Heraeum, Smilis and DaedalusPausanias recounts the Ionian settlement of Samos under Procles of Epidaurus, quoting Asius on the earlier line of Phoenix and Ancaeus, and the Ephesian attack under Androclus. He discusses the sanctuary of Hera, which the Samians say was founded where the goddess was born by the Imbrasus under a willow, and the old image by the Aeginetan Smilis. A digression on Daedalus, his flight from Athens to Minos and then to Cocalus in Sicily, follows. The section ends with the legendary history of Chios according to Ion, from Poseidon and Oenopion to King Hector.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.17.1–6Athens: altar of Mercy, gymnasium of Ptolemy and sanctuary of TheseusIn the market-place are altars of Mercy, Modesty, Rumour and Impulse, which Pausanias takes as proof of Athenian piety. Nearby are the gymnasium of Ptolemy and the sanctuary of Theseus, with paintings of the Amazon war, the Centaur battle and Minos testing Theseus with a ring. He then gives the conflicting tales of Theseus’ death: his capture in Thesprotia with Pirithous, his loss of the throne to Menestheus, and his end on Scyros, from where Cimon later brought his bones to Athens.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.27.1–10Athens Acropolis: Athena Polias, the Arrephoroi, Tolmides and the bull of MarathonIn the temple of Athena Polias Pausanias lists a wooden Hermes, Daedalus’ folding chair, Persian spoils and the sacred olive, then the temple of Pandrosus and the secret night rite of the Arrephoroi. He describes figures of Erechtheus and Eumolpus, the statue of Tolmides with a summary of his campaigns, and bronze groups of Theseus lifting the rock, and of Theseus and the bull of Marathon, told through Troezenian and Cretan tales.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.2.1–7Sparta: the Agid kings from Eurysthenes to Alcamenes, and Lycurgus’ lawsPausanias traces the Agid royal house from Eurysthenes and Agis through Echestratus, Labotas, Doryssus and Agesilaus, noting colonies such as Patrae and the Aeolian colony of Gras, the expulsion of the Cynurians and the first wars with Argos. He records that Lycurgus gave the laws in the reign of Agesilaus, whether from Delphi or Crete, and the conquest of Aegys and of Amyclae, Pharis and Geranthrae under Teleclus, who was killed by Messenians at Limnae.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.53.1–11Tegea: Apollo, God of Streets, the sons of Tegeates and the sanctuaries of the cityPausanias explains why Tegea has images of Apollo, God of Streets: Apollo and Artemis took vengeance on those who ignored Latona, and Limon killed his brother Scephrus, for which the festival rite re-enacts a pursuit by the priestess of Artemis. He reports the migration of Cydon, Archedius and Gortys to Crete and the Cretan version of those names. He lists the Tegean tribes, the temples of Demeter and the Maid, Paphian Aphrodite, Dionysus and Apollo with an image by Chirisophus, the Common Hearth, and the high place of Clarian Zeus, then the roads to Laconia and their sanctuaries.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.1.1–5Attica: Sunium, Laurium and the harbours of Piraeus and PhalerumPausanias begins at Cape Sunium and sails along the Attic coast past Laurium and the island of Patroclus. He explains how Piraeus replaced Phalerum as the port of Athens under Themistocles, and describes the grave of Themistocles, the precinct of Athena and Zeus, the Long Colonnade and Conon’s sanctuary of Aphrodite at Piraeus. He also notes shrines at Munychia, Phalerum and Cape Colias, and a temple of Hera on the road to Athens said to have been burnt by Mardonius.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.19.1–6Athens: Delphinium, Gardens, Cynosarges, Lyceum and the Ilissus stadiumBeyond the Olympieum Pausanias notes the shrines of Pythian and Delphinian Apollo, with the tale of Theseus tossing the oxen over the temple roof, the square image of Aphrodite in the Gardens by Alcamenes, Cynosarges with altars of Hercules and Hebe, and the Lyceum with the tomb of Nisus of Megara. He describes the Ilissus, where Orithyia was carried off by the North Wind, the temple of Huntress Artemis at Agrae, and the white marble stadium built by Herodes.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.34.1–12Methana and Hermionis: the coast and the old and new cities of HermionPausanias describes Methana, with its hot springs, the rite against the south-west wind and the Isles of Pelops, then the origins of Hermion and the Dorian settlement. He follows the road from Troezen to Hermion, past Cape Scyllaeum with its story of Scylla and Minos, the islands and capes of the coast, Mount Buporthmus and the promontory where old Hermion stood. He ends with the sights of the present city, including the temples of Aphrodite of the Deep Sea and of Demeter Warmth.

Nonnus of Panopolis (3)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 25.80–193Book 25: The feats of Perseus and Minos set against those of DionysosThe poet continues the comparison with Perseus, setting his sea-monster, Polydectes and Andromeda against Dionysos' defeat of the Giants. He contrasts Minos' conquest of Megara, won through Scylla's love, with a victory won by hard fighting, and turns to Heracles, whose Nemean lion was matched by the boy Dionysos with his team of lions.
Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 13.201–308Book 13: Aiacos, Asterios and Aristaios joinAiacos comes with his Myrmidons, who were once ants, and Asterios brings the Cretans, who will later settle in Colchis. Aristaios comes last, because he had challenged Dionysos with his honey and lost. He is the son of Cyrene and leads the Arcadians, armed by Apollo.
Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 47.364–495Book 47: Ariadne's lament; her marriage to Dionysos; the madness of ArgosAriadne laments her abandonment and begs any passing sailor to take her to Athens. Dionysos appears, consoles her and promises her a crown of stars, and they marry on Naxos amid songs and dances. He then goes to Argos, where the people, fearing Hera, refuse his rites, and he drives the Argive women mad so that they kill their infant children.

Bacchylides (2)

Bacchylides, Dithyrambs 17.1–132Dithyramb 17: Theseus and MinosA ship bears Theseus and fourteen Athenian youths and maidens to Crete, where Minos lays a hand on a maiden and Theseus rebukes him. Minos asks Zeus for a sign and challenges Theseus to bring back his gold ring from the sea. Theseus dives, is carried by dolphins to the hall of his father Poseidon and robed by Amphitrite, and comes back unwetted to the ship while the Athenians sing a paean.
Bacchylides, Epinicians (Odes of Victory) 1.111–2.14Odes 1–2: Minos on Ceos; Argeius, boys' boxing at the IsthmusOde 1 breaks in on Minos, who comes from Crete with fifty ships, weds Dexithea on Ceos and leaves half his host there, and their son Euxantius becomes lord of the island. The poet then praises Argeius, son of Pantheides, whose family Apollo favoured, and reflects that Virtue's renown outlasts death. Ode 2 is a short song announcing Argeius' victory in boys' boxing at the Isthmus and recalling the seventy wreaths won there by the Ceans.