Cretan Bull
The seventh labour of Heracles: capturing the monstrous bull of Crete, either the one Poseidon sent or the father of the Minotaur.
The Meaning of Cretan Bull
This is the bull that fathered the Minotaur — and Heracles wrestled it into submission with his bare hands. The Cretan Bull was either the beautiful bull Poseidon sent from the sea (which Minos failed to sacrifice) or a different beast ravaging Crete. Pasiphae had mated with it, producing the Minotaur. King Minos gave Heracles permission to capture it. Heracles overpowered it, rode it across the sea to the Peloponnese, and showed it to Eurystheus. Released, it wandered to Marathon, where Theseus later captured it again. The bull links three major hero cycles: Heracles, Theseus, and the Minotaur story, connecting Crete, Athens, and Mycenae.
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Cretan Bull
🐉 creaturelabour, Crete
The magnificent bull sent by Poseidon to Minos that became the father of the Minotaur, later captured by Heracles as his seventh labour.
Cattle of Geryon
💭 conceptlabour
The tenth labour of Heracles: stealing the red cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon from the island of Erytheia at the western edge of the world.
Theseus and the Minotaur
💭 conceptNarrative
The Athenian hero's descent into the Labyrinth to slay the bull-headed monster and liberate Athens from its blood tribute
Cerberus
💭 conceptlabour
The twelfth and final labour of Heracles: descending to the Underworld and bringing back Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog, without weapons.
Augean Stables
💭 conceptlabour
The fifth labour of Heracles: cleaning the stables of King Augeas, which held 3,000 cattle and had not been cleaned in thirty years.
The Twelve Labours
💭 conceptHeroism, endurance, redemption
Twelve impossible tasks imposed on Heracles by King Eurystheus as penance for killing his own family in a madness sent by Hera.
Heracles
🗡 heroThe twelve labours
Heracles performed twelve seemingly impossible labours as penance for killing his family in a madness sent by Hera — the most famous cycle of heroic tasks in mythology.
Pasiphaë
🗡 heroQueen of Crete, mother of the Minotaur
Pasiphaë was the queen of Crete whom Poseidon cursed with an unnatural desire for a bull — the mother of the Minotaur and a sorceress in her own right.
Minotaur's Labyrinth
🐉 creatureBull-headed man of the Labyrinth
The Minotaur was a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull, born from Pasiphaë's unnatural union with the Cretan Bull, imprisoned in the Labyrinth.
Girdle of Hippolyta
💭 conceptlabour
The ninth labour of Heracles: obtaining the war belt of the Amazon queen Hippolyta, a gift from her father Ares.
Ceryneian Hind
🐉 creaturelabour, sacred
A golden-antlered, bronze-hooved deer sacred to Artemis that Heracles pursued for an entire year as his third labour.
Calydonian Boar Hunt
💭 conceptNarrative
The great hunt that assembled heroes from across Greece to destroy a divine boar sent by the wrathful Artemis