Editing Minotaur

{{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}}&nbsp;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&nbsp;century&nbsp;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&nbsp;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&nbsp;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]].

==Etymology==
The word "Minotaur" derives from the [[Ancient Greek]] {{lang|grc|Μινώταυρος}} {{IPA|el|miːnɔ̌ːtau̯ros|}} a [[compound (linguistics)|compound]] of the name {{lang|grc|Μίνως}} ([[Minos]]) and the noun {{wikt-lang|grc|ταῦρος}} ''tauros'' meaning {{gloss|bull}},<ref name="collins_american" /> thus it is translated as the {{gloss|Bull of Minos}}. In Crete, the Minotaur was known by the name Asterion ({{lang|grc|Ἀστερίων}}) or Asterius ({{lang|grc|Ἀστέριος}}),<ref>{{cite book |author=Pausanias |author-link=Pausanias (geographer) |title=Description of Greece |at=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+2.31.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 2.31.1]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Apollodorus |title=Library |at=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+2.31.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 3.1.4]}}</ref> a name shared with Minos's foster-father.{{efn|Hesiod says of Zeus's establishment of Europa in Crete:
: "...&nbsp;he made her live with [[Asterion (king of Crete)|Asterion]] the king of the Cretans. There she conceived and bore three sons, [[Minos]], [[Sarpedon (Trojan War hero)|Sarpedon]], and [[Rhadamanthys]]."<ref name=Hesiod-fr140>{{cite book |author=[[Hesiod]] |title=[[Catalogue of Women]] |at=fr. 140}}</ref>}}

"Minotaur" was originally a proper noun in reference to this mythic figure. That is, there was only the one Minotaur. In contrast, the use of "minotaur" as a common noun to refer to members of a generic "species" of bull-headed creatures developed much later, in 20th&nbsp;century fantasy genre fiction.

The Minotaur was called ''{{lang|la|{{linktext|Minotaurus}}}}'' {{IPA|la|miːnoːˈtau̯rʊs|}} in [[Latin]] and {{lang|ett|Θevrumineš}} in [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=de&nbsp;Simone |first=C. |title=Zu einem Beitrag über etruskisch ''θevru mines'' |journal=Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung |volume=84 |year=1970 |pages=221–223}}</ref> English pronunciation of the word "Minotaur" is varied; the following can be found in dictionaries: {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|aɪ|n|ə|t|ɔːr|,_|-|n|oʊ|-}} {{respell|MY|nə|tor|,_-|noh|-}},<ref name="collins_english" /> {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɪ|n|ə|t|ɑːr|,_|ˈ|m|ɪ|n|oʊ|-}} {{respell|MIN|ə|tar|,_|MIN|oh|-}},<ref name="books.google.com" /> {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɪ|n|ə|t|ɔːr|,_|ˈ|m|ɪ|n|oʊ|-}} {{respell|MIN|ə|tor|,_|MIN|oh|-}}.<ref name="collins_american">{{cite dictionary  |title=Minotaur |dictionary=American English Dictionary |publisher=Collins |url= http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/american/minotaur |access-date=20 July 2013}}</ref>

==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>

==Appearance==
The Minotaur is commonly represented in Classical art with the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull. According to [[Sophocles]]'s {{lang|grc-Latn|[[Women of Trachis|Trachiniai]]}}, when the river spirit [[Achelous]] seduced [[Deianira]], one of the guises he assumed was a man with the head of a bull. From [[classical antiquity]] through the [[Renaissance]], the Minotaur appears at the center of many depictions of the Labyrinth.{{refn|Several examples are shown in Kern (2000).<ref name=Kern-2000/>}} [[Ovid]]'s Latin account of the Minotaur, which did not describe which half was bull and which half man, was the most widely available during the Middle Ages, and several later versions show a man's head and torso on a bull's body - the reverse of the Classical configuration, reminiscent of a [[centaur]].{{refn|Examples include illustrations&nbsp;204, 237, 238, and 371 in Kern.<ref name=Kern-2000/>}} This alternative tradition survived into the Renaissance, and is reflected in Dryden's elaborated translation of [[Virgil]]'s description of the Minotaur in Book VI of the ''[[Aeneid]]'': "The lower part a beast, a man above/The monument of their polluted love."<ref>The Aeneid of Virgil, as translated by John Dryden, found at http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.6.vi.html . Virgil's text calls the Minotaur "biformis"; like Ovid, he does not describe which part is bull, which part man.</ref> It still figures in some modern depictions, such as [[Steele Savage]]'s illustrations for [[Edith Hamilton]]'s ''[[Mythology (book)|Mythology]]'' (1942).

== Theseus myth ==
[[File:Kylix Theseus Aison MNA Inv11365 n1.jpg|left|thumb|[[Tondo (art)|Tondo]] showing the victory of [[Theseus]] over the Minotaur in the presence of [[Athena]] from {{Circa|435}} BC]]
All the stories agree that prince [[Androgeus (son of Minos)|Androgeus]], son of King Minos, died and that the fault lay with the Athenians. The sacrifice of [[Sacrificial victims of Minotaur|young Athenian men and women]] was a penalty for his death.

In some versions he was killed by the [[Athens|Athenians]] because of their jealousy of the victories he had won at the [[Panathenaic Games]]; in others he was killed at [[Marathon, Greece|Marathon]] by the Cretan Bull, his mother's former taurine lover, because [[Aegeus]], king of Athens, had commanded Androgeus to slay it. The common tradition holds that Minos waged a war of revenge for the death of his son, and won. The consequence of Athens losing the war was the regular sacrifice of [[Sacrificial victims of Minotaur|several of their youths and maidens]]. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]' account of the myth said that Minos had led a fleet against Athens and simply harassed the Athenians until they had agreed to send children as sacrifices.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, Attica, chapter 27 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=1:chapter=27&highlight=minotaur |access-date=18 May 2023 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> In his account of the Minotaur's birth, [[Catullus]] refers to yet another version<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Catullus]] |url=http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e64.htm |title=Carmen&nbsp;64}}</ref> in which Athens was "compelled by the cruel plague to pay penalties for the killing of [[Androgeus (son of Minos)|Androgeon]]". To avert a plague caused by divine retribution for the Cretan prince's death, Aegeus had to send into the Labyrinth "young men at the same time as the best of unwed girls as a feast" for the Minotaur. Some accounts declare that Minos required [[Sacrificial victims of Minotaur|seven Athenian youths and seven maidens]], chosen by lots, to be sent every seventh year (or ninth); some versions say every year.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] |title=On the [[Aeneid]] |at=6.14 |quote={{lang|la|singulis quibusque annis}} 'every one year'.}}

: The annual period is given by {{cite dictionary |year=1964 |title=Androgeus |dictionary=Dictionary of Classical Mythology |publisher=[[Harper & Row]] |last=Zimmerman |first=J.E. |postscript=;}} and {{cite book |last=Rose |first=H.J. |title=A Handbook of Greek Mythology |publisher=Dutton |year=1959 |page=265}} Zimmerman cites [[Virgil]], [[Apollodorus]], and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]].

: The nine-year period appears in [[Plutarch]] and [[Ovid]].</ref>

[[File:Theseus Minotaur BM Vase E84.jpg|thumb|203x203px|Theseus dragging the Minotaur out of the Labyrinth, red-figure kylix from {{Circa|440-430}} BC]]
When the time for the third sacrifice approached, the Athenian prince [[Theseus]] volunteered to slay the Minotaur. Isocrates orates that Theseus thought that he would rather die than rule a city that paid a tribute of children's lives to their enemy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Isocrates, Helen, section 27 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0144:speech=10:section=27&highlight=minotaur |access-date=18 May 2023 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> He promised his father Aegeus that he would change the somber black sail of the boat carrying the victims from Athens to Crete, and put up a white sail for his return journey if he was successful; the crew would leave up the black sail if he was killed.

In Crete, Minos's daughter [[Ariadne]] fell madly in love with Theseus and helped him navigate the Labyrinth. In most accounts she gave him a ball of thread, allowing him to retrace his path. According to various classical sources and representations, Theseus killed the Minotaur with his bare hands, sometimes with a club or a sword.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} He then led the Athenians out of the Labyrinth, and they sailed with Ariadne away from Crete. On the way home, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of [[Naxos (island)|Naxos]] and continued to Athens. The returning group neglected to replace the black sail with the promised white sail, and from his lookout on Cape [[Sounion]], King Aegeus saw the black-sailed ship approach. Presuming his son dead, he killed himself by leaping into the [[Aegean Sea|sea that is since named after him]].<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=Theseus |at=15–19}}{{cite book |author=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |at=i.16, iv.61}}{{cite book |author=[[Apollodorus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]] |at=iii.1, 15}}</ref> His death secured the throne for Theseus.

==Interpretations==
[[File:Statue of the Minotaur (Roman copy after an original by Myron) at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens on 3 April 2018.jpg|left|thumb|240x240px|Statue of the Minotaur (Roman copy of an original by [[Myron]]), [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]]]]
[[File:Plate painted by Lydos. Struggle between Theseus and the Minotaur presumably in the presence of Ariadne.jpg|thumb|195x195px|Theseus wrestling with the Minotaur in the presence of [[Ariadne]], {{Circa|550-540}} BC]]

The contest between Theseus and the Minotaur was frequently represented in [[Greek art]]. A Knossian [[Ancient drachma|didrachm]] exhibits on one side the Labyrinth, on the other the Minotaur surrounded by a semicircle of small balls, probably intended for stars; one of the monster's names was Asterion or Asterius ("star"). <blockquote>[[Pasiphaë]] gave birth to Asterius, who was called the Minotaur. He had the face of a bull, but the rest of him was human; and Minos, in compliance with certain oracles, shut him up and guarded him in the Labyrinth.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Apollodorus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]] |at=3.1.4}}</ref></blockquote>While the ruins of Minos's palace at Knossos were discovered, the Labyrinth never was. The multiplicity of rooms, staircases and corridors in the palace has led some archaeologists to suggest that the palace itself was the source of the Labyrinth myth, with over 1300&nbsp;maze-like compartments,<ref>{{cite web |first=C. Michael |last=Hogan |year=2007 |title=Knossos fieldnotes |website=The Modern Antiquarian |editor=Cope, Julian |url=http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10854/knossos.html#fieldnotes}}</ref> an idea that is now generally discredited.{{efn|
Sir [[Arthur Evans]], the first of many archaeologists who have worked at Knossos, is often given credit for this idea, but he did not believe it;<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=McCullough |title=The Unending Mystery |publisher=Pantheon |date=2004 |pages=34–36}}</ref> modern scholarship generally discounts the idea.<ref name=Kern-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 42–43}}<ref name=Doob-1990/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 25}}
}}
Homer, describing the [[shield of Achilles]], remarked that Daedalus had constructed a ceremonial dancing ground for [[Ariadne]], but does not associate this with the term ''labyrinth''.

Some 19th century mythologists proposed that the Minotaur was a personification of the sun and a Minoan adaptation of the [[Baal]]-[[Moloch]] of the [[Phoenicia]]ns. The slaying of the Minotaur by Theseus in that case could be interpreted as a memory of Athens breaking tributary relations with [[Minoan civilization|Minoan Crete]].<ref name="EB19112"/>

According to [[Arthur Bernard Cook|A.B. Cook]], ''Minos'' and ''Minotaur'' were different forms of the same personage, representing the [[Solar deity|sun-god]] of the Cretans, who depicted the sun as a bull. He and [[James George Frazer|J. G. Frazer]] both explain Pasiphaë's union with the bull as a sacred ceremony, at which the queen of Knossos was wedded to a bull-formed god, just as the wife of the [[Tyrant]] in Athens was wedded to [[Dionysus]]. E. Pottier, who does not dispute the historical personality of Minos, in view of the story of [[Phalaris]], considers it probable that in Crete (where a [[bull cult]] may have existed by the side of that of the [[labrys]]) victims were tortured by being shut up in the belly of a red-hot [[brazen bull]]. The story of [[Talos]], the Cretan man of [[brass]], who heated himself red-hot and clasped strangers in his embrace as soon as they landed on the island, is probably of similar origin.

[[File:Perfume_jar_(Aryballos)_in_the_shape_of_a_minotaur_Greek_made_in_Ionia_580-560_BCE_Terracotta_(1).jpg|thumb|[[Ionia]]n Perfume Jar in the shape of a minotaur|200x200px]][[Image:Minotaurus.gif|thumb|right|The Minotaur in the [[Labyrinth]], engraving of a 16th-century AD gem in the Medici Collection in the [[Palazzo Strozzi]], Florence{{refn|
[[Paolo Alessandro Maffei]] (1709), ''Gemmae Antiche'', Pt. IV, pl. 31; Kern (2000): Maffei "erroneously deemed the piece to be from [[Classical antiquity]]".<ref name=Kern-2000/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 202, fig. 371}}
}}|150x150px]]

[[Kerényi Károly]] viewed the Minotaur, or Asterios, as a god associated with stars, comparable to [[Dionysus]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kerenyi |first=Karl |year=1951 |title=The Gods of the Greeks |pages=269}}</ref> Coins minted at [[Knossos]] from the fifth century showed labyrinth patterns encircling a goddess's head crowned with a wreath of grain,<ref>See illustrations of [[Carme (mythology)|Carme]], for an example of a goddess crowned with a labyrinthine wreath of grain.</ref> a bull's head, or a star. Kerényi argued that the star in the Labyrinth was in fact Asterios, making the Minotaur a "luminous" deity in Crete, associated with a goddess known as the Mistress of the Labyrinth.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kerényi|first=Karl|title=Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life|year=1976|pages=104–105, 159}}</ref>

A geological interpretation also exists. Citing early descriptions of the minotaur by [[Callimachus]] as being entirely focused on the "cruel bellowing"<ref name=Callimachus-Mair-Mair-1921>{{cite book |author=[[Callimachus]] |year=1921 |title=Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams |translator1=Mair, A.W. |translator2=Mair, G.R. |place=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press}}</ref>{{efn|
[[Callimachus]] first refers to the minotaur with the phrase
: "Having escaped the cruel bellowing and the wild son of [[Pasiphaë]] and the coiled habitation of the crooked labyrinth"&nbsp;...<ref name=Callimachus-Mair-Mair-1921/>
}}
it made from its underground labyrinth, and the extensive tectonic activity in the region, science journalist Matt Kaplan has theorised that the myth may well stem from geology.
{{efn|
Kaplan argues that the minotaur is the result of ancient people trying to explain earthquakes;<ref>{{cite book |author=Kaplan, Matt |title=Science of Monsters |place=New York, NY |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2012}}</ref> he points out that carbon dating of marine fossils attached to boulders that were ejected from the ocean by ancient [[tsunamis]] indicates the region was [[tectonically]] very active during the years when the minotaur myth first appeared.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Scheffers, Anja |display-authors=etal |year=2008 |title=Late Holocene tsunami traces on the western and southern coastlines of the Peloponnesus (Greece) |journal=[[Earth and Planetary Science Letters]] |volume=269 |issue=1–2 |pages=271–279|doi=10.1016/j.epsl.2008.02.021 |bibcode=2008E&PSL.269..271S }}</ref> Given this, he argues that the Minoans used the monster to help explain the terrifying earthquakes that were "bellowing" beneath their feet.
}}

===Image gallery===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="110">
File:Theseus Castellani Louvre E850.jpg|Theseus and the Minotaur. Detail from an Attic [[black-figure]] [[amphora]], {{circa|575 BC–550 BC}}.
File:Theseus Minotaur Louvre F33.jpg|Theseus and the Minotaur. Side A from a black-figure Attic amphora, {{circa|540 BC}}.
File:Theseus Minotauros Louvre G67.jpg|Theseus and the Minotaur. Attic red-figured plate, 520–510 BC.
File:Theseus Minotauros Louvre CA2254.jpg|Theseus and the Minotaur. Attic black-figure [[lekythos]], 500–475 BC. From Crimea.
File:183-Thesee-tuant-le-Minotaure MNA.jpg|Theseus and the Minotaur, black-figure amphora  {{Circa|480}} BC
File:British Museum Room 20a Neck Amphora Oionokles Painter Theseus and the Minotaur 19022019 6619.jpg|Theseus fighting the Minotaur, red-figure amphora, {{Circa|460}} BC
File:Theseus Minotauros Staatliche Antikensammlungen SL471.jpg|Theseus and the Minotaur. Side A from an Attic red-figure [[stamnos]], {{circa|460 BC}}.
File:Kylix Theseus Minotauros Louvre F83.jpg|Theseus and the Minotaur, Attic black-figure kylix tondo, {{circa|450–440 BC}}.
</gallery>

== 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>

==See also==
*[[Theseus and the Minotaur]] – a logic game that is inspired by the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth.
*[[Kao (bull)]] – a legendary chaotic bull in Meitei mythology, similar to Minotaur in character
*[[Ox-Head and Horse-Face]] – two guardians or types of guardians of the underworld in Chinese mythology
*[[Satyr]] – a legendary human-horse (later human-goat) hybrid(s)
*[[Shedu]] – a figure in Mesopotamian mythology with the body of a bull and a human head
*''[[Minotauria]]'' – a [[genus]] of [[Dysderidae|woodlouse hunting spiders]] endemic to the [[Balkans]]<ref name=Kulc1903>{{cite journal |last=Kulczyński |first=W. |year=1903 |title=Aranearum et Opilionum species in insula Creta a comite Dre Carolo Attems collectae. |journal=Bulletin International de l'Académie des Sciences de Cracovie |pages=32–58 |volume=1903 }}</ref>

== Footnotes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|25em}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|collapsible=collapsed|wikt=minotaur|commonscat=yes|n=no|q=no|s=minotaur|b=no|v=no}}
*[http://www.theoi.com/Ther/Minotauros.html Minotaur in Greek Myth] source Greek texts and art.
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000333 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of the Minotaur)]
{{Greek religion}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Minotaur| ]]
[[Category:Anthropomorphic cattle]]
[[Category:Cattle in art]]
[[Category:Theseus]]
[[Category:Monsters in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological anthropophages]]
[[Category:Mythological bovines]]
[[Category:Mythological human–animal hybrids]]
[[Category:Mythological Cretans]]
[[Category:Knossos]]