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{{short description|Creature of Greek mythology}} {{about|the mythological monster}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}} {{Infobox deity | type = Greek | name = Minotaur | image = Tondo Minotaur London E4 MAN.jpg | alt = | caption = The Minotaur on an Attic ''[[kylix]] [[Tondo (art)|tondo]]'' from {{circa|515}} BC with a [[kalos inscription]].{{Efn|In {{langx|grc|ὁ παῖς καλός}}, ''ho pais kalos'' meaning "the boy is beautiful", a common [[Epigraphy|epigraphic]] formula found on Attic pottery}} | abode = [[Labyrinth]], [[Crete]] | parents = [[Cretan Bull]] and [[Pasiphaë]] | siblings = [[Acacallis (mythology)|Acacallis]], [[Ariadne]], [[Androgeus]], [[Glaucus (son of Minos)]], [[Deucalion of Crete|Deucalion]], [[Phaedra (mythology)|Phaedra]], [[Xenodice (mythology)|Xenodice]] and [[Catreus]] | other_names = Asterion }} In [[Greek mythology]], the '''Minotaur'''{{Efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|aɪ|n|ə|t|ɔːr|,_|ˈ|m|ɪ|n|ə|t|ɔːr|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Minotaur.wav}} {{respell|MY|nə|tor|,_|MIN|ə|tor}},<ref name= "collins_english">{{cite web |url= http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/minotaur |title= English Dictionary: Definition of Minotaur |publisher=Collins |access-date= 20 July 2013}}</ref> {{IPAc-en |US|ˈ|m|ɪ|n|ə|t|ɑːr|,_|-|oʊ|-}} {{respell|MIN|ə|tar|,_-|oh|-}};<ref name= "books.google.com">{{Citation | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6Lc9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA79 | title = Pronunciation: Designed for Use in Schools and Colleges and Adapted to the Wants of All Persons who Wish to Pronounce According to the Highest Standards | first = John Hendricks | last = Bechtel | publisher = Penn Publishing Co | year = 1908}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation | title = The Book of Literature: A Comprehensive Anthology of the Best Literature, Ancient, Mediæval and Modern, with Biographical and Explanatory Notes | volume = 33 | first1 = Richard | last1 = Garnett | first2 = Léon | last2 = Vallée | first3 = Alois | last3 = Brandl | publisher = Grolier society | year = 1923 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-mMUAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA645}}.</ref>}} ({{langx|grc|Μινώταυρος}}, ''Mīnṓtauros''), also known as '''Asterion''', is a mythical creature portrayed during [[classical antiquity]] with the head and tail of a [[bull]] and the body of a man<ref name=Kern-2000>{{cite book |last=Kern |first=Hermann |date=2000 |title=Through the Labyrinth |location=Munich, London, New York |publisher=Prestel |isbn=379132144-7}}</ref>{{rp|style=ama|p= 34}} or, as described by Roman poet [[Ovid]], a being "part man and part bull".{{efn| According to [[Ovid]]: : {{lang|la|semibovemque virum semivirumque bovem}},<ref> {{cite book |author=[[Ovid]] |title=[[Ars Amatoria]] |at=2.24}}</ref> one of the three lines that his friends would have deleted from his work, and one of the three that he, selecting independently, would preserve at all cost, in the apocryphal anecdote told by [[Albinovanus Pedo]].<ref>[[Albinovanus Pedo|A. Pedo]] cited by {{cite journal |first=J.S. |last=Rusten |date=Autumn 1982 |title=Ovid, Empedocles, and the Minotaur |journal=The American Journal of Philology |volume=103 |issue=3 |pages=332–333, esp. 332|doi=10.2307/294479 |jstor=294479 }}</ref> }} He dwelt at the center of the [[Labyrinth]], which was an elaborate [[maze]]-like construction{{efn| In a counter-intuitive cultural development going back at least to Cretan coins of the 4th century BCE, many visual patterns representing the [[Labyrinth]] do not have dead ends like a maze; instead, a single path winds to the center.{{refn| Kern (2000);<ref name=Kern-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|at=Chapter 1}} Doob (1990)<ref name=Doob-1990>{{cite book |author=Doob, Penelope Reed |date=April 1990 |title=The Idea of the Labyrinth: From Classical antiquity through the Middle Ages |place=Ithaca, NY |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-080142393-2}}</ref>{{rp|style=ama|at=Chapter 2}} }}}} designed by the architect [[Daedalus]] and his son [[Icarus]], upon command of King [[Minos]] of [[Crete]]. According to tradition, every nine years the people of [[Athens]] were compelled by King Minos to choose [[Sacrificial victims of the Minotaur|fourteen young noble citizens]] (seven men and seven women) to be offered as sacrificial victims to the Minotaur in retribution for the death of Minos's son [[Androgeus (son of Minos)|Androgeos]]. The Minotaur was eventually slain by the Athenian hero [[Theseus]], who managed to navigate the labyrinth with the help of a thread offered to him by the King's daughter, [[Ariadne]].
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