Editing Minos (section)

== Mythological Minos ==
{{Greek underworld}}

[[Asterion (king of Crete)|Asterion]], king of Crete, adopted the three sons of Zeus and Europa: Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus. According to the ''Odyssey'' (Book XIX l. 203, as interpreted by Plato in ''Laws'' 624), Minos consulted with Zeus every nine years. He got his laws straight from Zeus himself. When Minos' son Androgeos won the [[Panathenaic Games]], the king, Aegeus, sent him to Marathon to fight a bull, resulting in the death of Androgeos. Outraged, Minos went to Athens to avenge his son, and on the way, he camped at Megara, where Nisos lived. Learning that Nisos' strength came from his hair, Minos gained the love of Scylla and her aid in cutting off her father's hair so that he could conquer the city. After his triumph, he punished Scylla for her treachery against her father by tying her to a boat and dragging her until she drowned. On arriving in Attica, he asked Zeus to punish the city, and the god struck it with plague and hunger. An oracle told the Athenians to meet any of Minos' demands if they wanted to escape the punishment. Minos then asked Athens to send seven boys and seven girls to Crete every nine years to be sacrificed to the Minotaur (the offspring from the zoophilic encounter of Minos' wife Pasiphaë with the Cretan Bull that the king refused to surrender to Poseidon) which he had placed within a labyrinth he commanded his architect Daedalus to build. The Minotaur was defeated by the hero Theseus with the help of Minos' daughter Ariadne.

=== Glaucus ===
{{Main|Glaucus (son of Minos)}}
Glaucus was playing with a ball<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabula'' [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae3.html 136].</ref> or mouse<ref>Apollodorus, ''Library'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.3.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 3.3.1].</ref> and suddenly disappeared one day. The [[Curetes (tribe)|Curetes]] told the Cretans, "A marvelous creature has been born amongst you: whoever finds the true likeness of this creature will also find the child."

Three times a day, the calf changed color from white to red to black. [[Polyidus]] of Argos observed the similarity to the ripening of the fruit of the [[mulberry]] plant, and Minos sent him to find Glaucus.

Searching for the boy, Polyidus saw an owl driving bees away from a wine cellar in Minos' palace. Inside the wine cellar was a cask of honey, with Glaucus dead inside. Minos demanded Glaucus be brought back to life, though Polyidus objected. Minos ordered Polyidus to be entombed with the body. When a [[snake]] appeared nearby, Polyidus killed it immediately. Another snake came for the first, and after seeing its mate dead, the second serpent left and brought back an [[herb]], bringing the first snake back to life. Following this example, Polyidus used the same herb to resurrect Glaucus.

Minos refused to let Polyidus leave Crete until he taught Glaucus the art of [[divination]]. Polyidus did so, but then, at the last moment before leaving, he asked Glaucus to spit in his mouth. Glaucus did so and forgot everything he had been taught.

=== Poseidon, Daedalus and Pasiphaë ===
[[File:Gaziantep Zeugma Museum Daedalus mosaic 1871.jpg|thumb|A [[Roman mosaic]] from [[Zeugma, Commagene]] (now in the [[Zeugma Mosaic Museum]]) depicting [[Daedalus]], his son [[Icarus]], Queen [[Pasiphaë]], and two of her female attendants]]

Minos justified his accession as king and prayed to [[Poseidon]] for a sign. Poseidon sent a giant white bull out of the sea.<ref>''Bibliotheke'' 3.1.3; compare [[Diodorus Siculus]] 4.77.2 and [[John Tzetzes]], ''Chiliades'' i.479ff. Lactantius Placidus, commentary on Statius, ''Thebaid'' v.431, according to whom the bull was sent, in answer to Minos's prayer, not by Poseidon but by Jupiter.</ref> Minos was committed to sacrificing the bull to Poseidon<ref>The act would have "returned" the bull to the god who sent it.</ref> but then decided to substitute a different bull. Poseidon cursed [[Pasiphaë]], Minos' wife, in rage, with a mad passion for the bull. Daedalus built her a wooden cow, which she hid inside. The bull mated with the wooden cow, and Pasiphaë was impregnated by the bull, giving birth to a horrible monster, again named Asterius,<ref>''Bibliotheke'' 3.1.4.</ref> the [[Minotaur]], half-man half bull. Daedalus then built a complicated "chamber that with its tangled windings perplexed the outward way"<ref>Apparently a quotation, according to [[Sir James George Frazer]], (''Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation'', 1921), commenting on ''Bibliotheke'' 3.1.4.</ref> called the [[Labyrinth]], and Minos put the Minotaur in it. To make sure no one would ever know the secret of who the Minotaur was and how to get out of the Labyrinth (Daedalus knew both of these things), Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son, [[Icarus (mythology)|Icarus]], along with the monster. Daedalus and Icarus flew away on wings Daedalus invented, but Icarus' wings melted because he flew too close to the sun. Icarus fell into the sea and drowned.

=== Theseus ===
[[File:Amphora with Theseus slaying the Minotaur.jpg|thumb|Amphora showing Theseus slaying the Minotaur, 460 BC. Ref:{{British-Museum-db|1837,0609.57|id=399119}}.]]

Minos' son [[Androgeus (son of Minos)|Androgeus]] won every game in a contest hosted by [[Aegeas]] of [[Athens]]. Alternatively, the other contestants were jealous of Androgeus and killed him. Minos was angry and declared war on Athens. He offered the Athenians peace if they sent Minos [[sacrificial victims of Minotaur|seven young men and seven virgin maidens]] to feed the [[Minotaur]] yearly (which corresponded directly to the Minoans' meticulous records of lunar alignments – a full moon falls on the equinoxes once every eight years). This continued until [[Theseus]] killed the Minotaur with the help of [[Ariadne]], Minos' lovestruck daughter.

=== Nisus ===
Minos was also part of the King [[Nisos|Nisus]] story. Nisus was King of Megara and was invincible as long as a lock of crimson hair still existed, hidden in his white hair. Minos attacked Megara, but Nisus knew he could not be beaten because he still had his lock of crimson hair.<ref>''Bibliotheke'' 3.15.8</ref> His daughter, [[Scylla (princess)|Scylla]], fell in love with Minos and proved it by cutting the crimson hair off her father's head. Nisus died, and Megara fell to Crete. Minos spurned Scylla for disobeying her father. She was changed into a shearer bird, relentlessly pursued by her father, who was a falcon.

=== Death ===
Minos searched for Daedalus by traveling from city to city, asking a riddle; he presented a spiral seashell and asked for it to be strung all the way through. When he reached Camicus, Sicily, King Cocalus, knowing Daedalus would be able to solve the riddle, fetched the old man. He tied the string to an ant, which walked through the seashell, stringing it all the way through. Minos then knew Daedalus was in the court of King Cocalus and demanded he be handed over. Cocalus managed to convince him to take a bath first; then Cocalus' daughters and Daedalus, with Minos trapped in the tub, scalded him to death with boiling water.<ref>Graves, Robert (1960). ''The Greek Myths''. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Penguin Books pp. 313–314{{ISBN?}}</ref>

After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in [[Greek Underworld|Hades]] together with his half-brother [[Aeacus]] and his full-brother [[Rhadamanthus]]. Rhadamanthus judged the souls of Asians, Aeacus judged Europeans, and Minos had the deciding vote.<ref>[[Plato]], ''[[Gorgias (dialogue)|Gorgias]]'' 523a and 524b ff (trans. Lamb)</ref>