Minotaur
creatureA monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, imprisoned in the Labyrinth beneath Crete. The Minotaur was fed Athenian youths until Theseus slew it.
The Myth
The Minotaur was born from Queen Pasiphae of Crete, who had been cursed by Poseidon to fall in love with a magnificent white bull. The result of this unnatural union was the Minotaur — Asterion, a creature half-man and half-bull, savage and man-eating.
King Minos, horrified and ashamed, commissioned the master craftsman Daedalus to build the Labyrinth — a maze so complex that no one who entered could find their way out. The Minotaur was imprisoned at its center.
Athens, having lost a war to Crete, was forced to send seven young men and seven young women to Crete every nine years as tribute. These youths were sent into the Labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur. The hero Theseus volunteered as one of the fourteen, navigated the maze with the help of Ariadne's thread, and slew the beast.
Parents
Pasiphae and the Cretan Bull
Symbols
Fun Fact
The word "labyrinthine" — meaning extremely complex and confusing — comes from the Minotaur's Labyrinth.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth: