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==Creation myth== [[File:Pasiphae Minotauros Cdm Paris DeRidder1066 detail.jpg|thumb|[[Pasiphaë]] and baby Minotaur, [[Attica|Attic]] red-figure [[kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]] found at Etruscan [[Vulci]]. Italy. Currently at the [[Cabinet des Médailles]], Paris]] After ascending the throne of the island of Crete, [[Minos]] competed with his brothers as ruler. Minos prayed to the sea god [[Poseidon]] to send him a [[Cretan Bull|snow-white bull]] as a sign of the god's favor. Minos was to sacrifice the bull to honor Poseidon, but owing to the bull's beauty he decided instead to keep him. Minos believed that the god would accept a substitute sacrifice. To punish Minos, Poseidon arranged with Aphrodite for Minos's wife, [[Pasiphaë]], to fall in love with the bull. Pasiphaë had the [[master craftsman]], [[Daedalus]], fashion for her a hollow wooden cow, into which she climbed to let the bull mate with her. She then fell pregnant and bore Asterius, the Minotaur, making him a grandchild of [[Helios]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Apollodorus, Library, book 3, chapter 1 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022:text=Library:book=3:chapter=1&highlight=minotaur |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=18 May 2023 |website=perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Chicago |first=Judy |title=The Dinner Party (Heritage Floor): Pasiphae |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/heritage_floor/pasiphae |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241012160225/https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/heritage_floor/pasiphae |archive-date=12 October 2024 |website=BrooklynMuseum.org}}</ref> Pasiphaë nursed the Minotaur but he grew in size and became ferocious. As the unnatural offspring of a woman and a beast, the Minotaur had no natural source of nourishment and thus devoured humans for sustenance.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}} Minos, following advice from the oracle at [[Delphi]], had Daedalus construct a gigantic [[Labyrinth]] to hold the Minotaur. Its location was near Minos's palace in [[Knossos]].<ref name="EB19112">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Minotaur|volume=18|page=555}}</ref>
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