Minotaur

The name literally means Minos’ Bull.

When king Minos asked Poseidon (lord of the Sea) for a sacrificial animal, Poseidon sent him a perfect bull from the sea; Minos was so taken by the beauty of the bull that he refused to sacrifice it as he had promised; Poseidon punished him by causing Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, to have a child that was half-bull and half-man, i.e. the Minotaur.

According to the popular story, Minos placed the Minotaur in a complex maze, known as the labyrinth, and would place Athenian youths in the maze to be hunted down and killed by the Minotaur; on the third consecutive year of the sacrifice of the youths, the beast was finally killed by the Athenian hero, Theseus.

The essayist, Plutarkh (Plutarch) (46-120 CE), disputed the existence of the Minotaur and attributes the story to the eloquent and unforgiving Athenians who were seeking revenge on king Minos for his invasion of Athens; Plutarkh suggests that the story of the Minotaur was a distortion of events revolving around a man named Taurus who was a renowned and egotistical athlete; the undefeated Taurus was finally humbled by the Athenian hero, Theseus, and the story was concocted that Theseus had defeated a bull-man instead of a man named bull, i.e. Taurus.

• Lives, Theseus