Editing Minotaur (section)

== References in media ==

{{In popular culture|section|date=May 2020}}

===Dante's ''Inferno''===
[[File:DVinfernoMinotaurOnCliff m.jpg|thumb|[[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] and [[Virgil]] meet the Minotaur, illustration by [[Gustave Doré]]]]
The Minotaur ({{lang|it|infamia di Creti}}, Italian for 'infamy of Crete'), appears briefly in [[Dante]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', in Canto 12 (l. 12–13, 16–21), where Dante and his guide [[Virgil]] find themselves picking their way among boulders dislodged on the slope and preparing to enter into the [[seventh circle of hell]].<ref>The traverse of this circle is a long one, filling Cantos 12 to 17.</ref> Dante and Virgil encounter the beast first among the "men of blood": those damned for their violent natures. Some commentators believe that Dante, in a reversal of classical tradition, bestowed the beast with a man's head upon a bull's body,<ref>Inferno XII, verse translation by R. Hollander, p. 228 commentary</ref> though this representation had already appeared in the Middle Ages.<ref name=Kern-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 116–117}}

{{Verse translation |lang=it
|attr1=''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', Canto XII, lines 16–20
|1=
Lo savio mio inver' lui gridò: "Forse
tu credi che qui sia 'l duca d'Atene,
che sú nel mondo la morte ti porse?
Pártiti, bestia, ché questi non vene
ammaestrato da la tua sorella,
ma vassi per veder la vostre pene."
|2=
My sage cried out to him: "You think,
perhaps, this is the Duke of Athens,
who in the world put you to death.
Get away, you beast, for this man
does not come tutored by your sister;
he comes to view your punishments."
}}

[[File:Blake Dante Hell XII.jpg|thumb|left|[[William Blake]]'s image of the Minotaur to illustrate ''Inferno'' XII]]
In these lines, Virgil taunts the Minotaur to distract him, and reminds the Minotaur that he was killed by [[Theseus|Theseus the Duke of Athens]] with the help of the monster's half-sister [[Ariadne]]. The Minotaur is the first infernal guardian whom Virgil and Dante encounter within the walls of [[City of Dis|Dis]].{{efn|
The [[fallen angel]]s, the [[Erinyes]] [Furies], and the unseen [[Medusa]] were located on the [[City of Dis]]'s defensive ramparts.<ref>{{cite book |first=Dante |last=Alighieri |author-link=Dante Alighieri |title=[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]] |section=Canto&nbsp;IX}}</ref>
}}
The Minotaur seems to represent the entire zone of [[#Seventh Circle .28Violence.29|Violence]], much as [[Geryon]] represents Fraud in Canto XVI, and serves a similar role as gatekeeper for the entire seventh Circle.<ref>Boccaccio, ''Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine'' commentary</ref>

[[Giovanni Boccaccio]] writes of the Minotaur in his literary commentary of the Commedia: "When he had grown up and become a most ferocious animal, and of incredible strength, they tell that Minos had him shut up in a prison called the labyrinth, and that he had sent to him there all those whom he wanted to die a cruel death".<ref>{{cite book |author=Boccaccio |first=G. |author-link=Giovanni Boccaccio |date=30 November 2009 |title=Boccaccio's Expositions on Dante's Comedy |publisher=University of Toronto Press}}</ref> [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]], in his own commentary,<ref>Bennett, Pre-Raphaelite Circle, 177–180.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/pr5246.a43.vol2.rad.html |title=Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His Family-Letters with a Memoir (Volume Two) |website=www.rossettiarchive.org}}</ref> compares the Minotaur with all three sins of violence within the seventh circle: "The Minotaur, who is situated at the rim of the tripartite circle, fed, according to the poem was biting himself (violence against one's body) and was conceived in the 'false cow' (violence against nature, daughter of God)."

Virgil and Dante then pass quickly by to the [[centaur]]s (Nessus, Chiron and Pholus) who guard the [[Phlegethon|Flegetonte]] ("river of blood"), to continue through the seventh Circle.<ref>Beck, Christopher, "Justice among the Centaurs", Forum Italcium 18 (1984): 217–229</ref>

===Surrealist art ===
[[File:Edward Burne-Jones - Tile Design - Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[Edward Burne-Jones]]'s illustration of ''Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth'', 1861]]
 
* [[Pablo Picasso]] made a series of etchings in the ''[[Vollard Suite]]'' showing the Minotaur being tormented, possibly inspired also by Spanish bullfighting.<ref>Tidworth, Simon, "Theseus in the Modern World", essay in ''The Quest for Theseus'' London 1970 pp. 244–249 {{ISBN|0269026576}}</ref>

===Television, literature and plays===
* Argentine author [[Julio Cortázar]] published the play {{lang|es|Los reyes}} (''The Kings'') in 1949, which reinterprets the Minotaur's story. In the book, Ariadne is not in love with Theseus, but with her brother the Minotaur.<ref>{{cite journal |trans-title=Los reyes: The Labyrinth Between Myth and History |language=es |title=Los reyes: El laberinto entre mito e historia |first=Antonella |last=De Laurentiis |issn=1989-1709 |pages=145–155 |volume=1 |year=2009 |journal=Amaltea. Revista de mitocrítica |publisher=[[Universidad Complutense de Madrid]] }}</ref>
* The short story "[[The House of Asterion]]" by the Argentine writer [[Jorge Luis Borges]] gives the Minotaur's story from the monster's perspective.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00144940.1992.9937945 |last=Bennett |first=Maurice J |title=Borges's The House of Asterion |journal=The Explicator |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=166–170 |year=1992 |doi=10.1080/00144940.1992.9937945|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* Asterion is the chief antagonist of ''[[The King Must Die]]'', [[Mary Renault]]'s 1958 reinterpretation of the Theseus myth in the light of the excavation of Knossos.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1958 |title=Fiction and Drama |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/809856 |journal=The English Journal |volume=47 |issue=9 |pages=587–89|jstor=809856 }}</ref>

===Film===
*''[[Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete]]'', a 1960 Italian film directed by [[Silvio Amadio]] and starring [[Bob Mathias]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://letterboxd.com/film/the-minotaur-the-wild-beast-of-crete/|title=The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete |work=Letter Box|access-date=2 May 2019}}</ref>
*''[[Minotaur (film)|Minotaur]]'', a horror adaptation of the legend starring [[Tom Hardy]] as Theo (Theseus), was released on DVD by [[Lionsgate Films|Lions Gate]] in 2006.<ref name="allmoviedvd">{{cite AV media |title=Minotaur (2005) |people=Jonathan English (director)|url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/minotaur-v342810/releases|via=AllMovie|access-date=2 March 2018}}</ref>

=== Video and role-playing games ===
*The ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' role-playing game features minotaurs as opponents and playable characters, but translates them from a singular creature into a species.<ref>{{cite book|author-first=Richard W.|author-last=Forest|editor-first=Jeffrey|editor-last=Weinstock|date=2014|title=The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters|publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]]|chapter=Dungeons & Dragons, Monsters in}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Liz|last=Gloyn|author-link=Liz Gloyn |date=2019|title=Tracking Classical Monsters in Popular Culture|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]]|pages=36–37|isbn=978-1-7845-3934-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hickman |first1=Tracy |authorlink=Tracy Hickman |first2=Margaret |last2=Weis |authorlink2=Margaret Weis |year=1987 |title=[[Dragonlance Adventures]] |publisher=[[TSR, Inc]] |isbn=0-88038-452-2}}</ref>
*In the 2018 action-adventure game ''[[Assassin's Creed Odyssey]]'', the minotaur is a legendary creature to be defeated in a boss fight.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.gamesradar.com/assassins-creed-odyssey-minotaur/ |title=How to find and beat the Assassin's Creed Odyssey Minotaur |first=Sam |last=Loveridge |date=1 May 2020 |access-date=12 December 2024 |magazine=[[Games Radar]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thegamer.com/assassins-creed-odyssey-how-to-find-and-defeat-the-minotaur/ |title=Assassin's Creed Odyssey: How To Find And Defeat The Minotaur |first=Jesse |last=Lennox |date=2 October 2020 |access-date=12 December 2024 |work=[[TheGamer]]}}</ref> In a series of missions various references are made to the mythical history of the minotaur,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://screenrant.com/find-beat-minotaur-assassins-creed-odyssey/ |title=How to Find (& Beat) The Minotaur in Assassin's Creed Odyssey |first=Cody |last=Peterson |date=11 September 2020 |access-date=12 December 2024 |work=[[Screen Rant]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newsweek.com/assassins-creed-odyssey-gates-atlantis-guide-minotaur-medusa-sphinx-cyclops-1158456 |title='Assassin's Creed Odyssey' Gates of Atlantis Guide: Where is the Minotaur, Medusa, Sphinx and Cyclops? |first=Bob |last=Fekete |date=8 October 2018 |access-date=12 December 2024 |magazine=[[Newsweek]]}}</ref> like Theseus and the thread of Ariadne.
*In the 2019 virtual novel game ''Minotaur Hotel'', Asterion the minotaur is a romanceable non-playable character; "Minotaur Hotel is an award-winning gay romance story where you'll meet and grow close with Asterion, the Minotaur of Greek legend, and manage a magical hotel staffed by a cast of mythological beings."<ref>{{cite web |last1=MinoAnon |last2=Nanoff |title=Minotaur Hotel |url=https://minoh.itch.io/minotaur-hotel |website=[[Itch.io]] |access-date=9 August 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Wright |first1=Steve |title=Melbourne Queer Game Festival 2021 winners announced |url=https://stevivor.com/news/melbourne-queer-game-festival-2021-winners-announced/ |website=Stevivor |date=6 October 2021 |access-date=9 August 2024}}</ref>
* In the 2024 video game ''[[Sovereign Syndicate]]'', one of the playable main characters is a minotaur.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Macgregor |first1=Jody |title=Sovereign Syndicate review |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/sovereign-syndicate-review/ |website=[[PC Gamer]] |publisher=[[Future plc]] |access-date=23 January 2024 |date=11 January 2024}}</ref>