Minotaur

The Minotaur, according to George F. Watts.

The Minotaur (from the Greek Μινώταυρος [Minótauros]) is a monster from Greek mythology, with the body of a man and the head of a bull. His name means "Bull of Minos", and he was the son of Pasiphae and the Bull of Crete. He was locked in a labyrinth designed by the craftsman Daedalus, made expressly to hold him, located in the city of Knossos on the island of Crete. For many years, seven men and seven other women were brought into the labyrinth as a sacrifice to be fed to the beast, until its life ended at the hands of the hero Theseus. The fourteen young people were interned in the labyrinth, where they wandered lost until they were found by the Minotaur. The myth has its most complete version in the Mythological Library of Apolodoro.

Birth of the Minotaur

Minotaur bust at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

There were several versions about the affront that caused Minos's wife, Pasiphae, to have the need to join the Bull of Crete, feeling an insane passion for him which led to her pregnancy. The most widespread version says that Minos, son of Zeus, asked the god Poseidon for support so that his people would acclaim him as an early king, since his father Asterion was the former king of Crete, now deceased. Poseidon heard him and made a beautiful white bull come out of the seas, which Minos promised to sacrifice in his name. However, when Minos was amazed by the qualities of the beautiful white bull, he hid it among his herd and sacrificed another bull in its place, hoping that the god of the ocean would not notice the change. Upon learning this, Poseidon was filled with anger, and to take revenge, he inspired in Pasiphae an unusual and irrepressible desire for the beautiful white bull that Minos kept for himself.

To consummate her union with the bull, Pasiphae enlisted the help of Daedalus, who built a wooden cow covered in real cowhide for her to climb into. The bull lay with her, thinking she was a real cow. From this union the Minotaur was born.

The labyrinth of Crete

The Minotaur ate only human flesh, and as it grew older it became more savage. When the monster became uncontrollable, Daedalus built the Cretan Labyrinth, a gigantic structure made up of countless corridors going in different directions, crisscrossing each other, only one of which led to the center of the structure, where the Minotaur was abandoned..

At the same time that the labyrinth enclosed the Minotaur, one of the sons of Minos, Androgeo, was murdered in Athens after an Olympic competition where he was champion. The king of Crete declared war on the Athenians. Minos attacked Athenian territory and, aided by the plague that struck the besieged, conquered Megara and made Athens surrender. Minos's victory imposed several conditions for the surrender, and it is said that the oracle of Delphi was the one who advised the Athenians. Athenians to offer tribute to Crete. Thus, one of the emerging conditions was to deliver seven young boys and seven maidens as sacrifices to the Minotaur. There are several known versions about the frequency of this tribute: every year, every three years or every nine years. The fourteen young people were interned in the labyrinth, where they wandered lost for days until they met the Minotaur, serving him as food.

The arrival of Theseus in Crete

Theory fighting with the Minotaur.

Years after punishment was imposed on the Athenians, Theseus, son of Aegeus, set out to kill the Minotaur and thus free his homeland from Minos and his doom. Two things are told about how Theseus came to enter the labyrinth of Crete. Some say that after helping Aegeus against the Palantidae, Theseus learned of the sacrifice of the young men and decided to be part of the offering himself to face the beast. Another narration says that it was Minos himself who chose the young people who would serve as food for the Minotaur, and, aware of Aegeus's appreciation for Theseus, he wanted him to be devoured in the labyrinth. It was the third time that fourteen young Athenians, seven boys and seven maidens, were going to be sacrificed in favor of the monster, when Theseus arrived in Crete, 18 years after the terror of the Minotaur began.

Upon reaching Crete, the young men were introduced to Minos. Theseus then met Ariadne, daughter of the king, who fell in love with him, the princess begged Theseus to refrain from fighting the Minotaur, as that would lead to certain death, but Theseus convinced her that he could defeat him. Ariadne, seeing the young man's bravery, set out to help him, and devised a plan that would help Theseus find his way out of the labyrinth in case he defeated the beast. In reality, this plan was requested by Ariadne to Daedalus, who had managed to build the labyrinth in such a way that the only way out was to use a ball of thread, which Ariadne gave to Theseus so that, once he had Entered in the labyrinth, he will tie a end of the ball to the entrance. Thus, as he penetrated the maze, the thread would remember the path and, once he had killed the Minotaur, he would wind it up and find the exit.

The end of the Minotaur

Theseus went through the labyrinth until he met the Minotaur, killed him and to get out of it, he followed back the thread that Ariadne had given him.

The stories don't always agree with each other on how the above happened. It is not clear, for example, what relationship there was between Theseus and Ariadne. The truth is that both conspired against Minos to end the life of the Minotaur, who was locked in the labyrinth and escape from Crete. It could have been just the love they had for each other, or the one she felt for Theseus, or simply that Theseus had promised Ariadne to take her out of Crete and take her with him. In the same way, there are versions and multiple representations that explain that Theseus killed the Minotaur not using his bare hands, but with the help of a sword that Ariadna would secretly give him along with the ball before entering the labyrinth. According to this, Ariadne had been advised by Daedalus, the builder of the labyrinth. However, other sources indicate that Theseus killed the Minotaur with his fists, while other sources say that Theseus killed the Minotaur by sticking his own horn into it. There is not even unanimity. in how Theseus managed to get out of the labyrinth, although the most general way is by means of Ariadne's thread (which has inspired the rhetorical figure of the same name), but other stories say that Theseus managed to escape thanks to the light of the crown of gold he obtained from Amphitrite in an adventure at sea, which led him into the labyrinth.

Myth in popular culture

• Carlo Lapucci has pointed out the relationship of the myth of Minotauro with stories like The beauty and the beast.

• This myth has also been interpreted to Cretan civilization during the Minoid Period.

• Jorge Luis Borges produced a poetic recreation of the myth in his story “The House of Asterion”. This same author also has a poem describing this same story titled "The Fable Yarn".

• In turn, Julio Cortázar wrote his play “The Kings” creating a new version of this same myth. In it, minotaur is a benevolent being and it is Theseus who, stripped of all humanity, ends with him.

• As one of the most famous fantastic figures, the Minotaur is part of a large number of fictional universes in literature, games and contemporary entertainment in general. It appears above all in the different role games and worlds of the epic genre

• In Assassin's Creed: Odyssey minotaur turns out to be a person with its modified genetic material.

• In the video game for mobile devices Fate/Grand Order the minotaur is called Asterios and has the shape of a young man of great stature, in addition to having a pair of horns looking at his head.