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Minotaur
Minotaur
This article is about the mythological monster. For other uses, see Minotaur (disambiguation).
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Minotaur
Contents
1 Etymology
3 Theseus myth
4 Interpretations
5 Cultural references
5.5 Film
6 See also
7 Footnotes
8 References
9 External links
Etymology
The word minotaur derives from the Ancient Greek Μῑνώταυρος, a compound of the name Μίνως
(Minos) and the noun ταῦρος "bull", translated as "(the) Bull of Minos". In Crete, the Minotaur
was known by the name Asterion,[9] a name shared with Minos' foster-father.[c]
"Minotaur" was originally a proper noun in reference to this mythical 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 century fantasy
genre fiction.
English pronunciation of the word "Minotaur" is varied. The following can be found in dictionaries:
/ˈmaɪnətɔːr, -noʊ-/ MY-nə-tor, -noh-,[1] /ˈmɪnətɑːr, ˈmɪnoʊ-/ MIN-ə-tar, MIN-oh-,[2] /ˈmɪnətɔːr,
ˈmɪnoʊ-/ MIN-ə-tor, MIN-oh-.[12]
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 snow-white bull as a sign of the god's favour.
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 made Minos' wife Pasiphaë fall in love with the bull. Pasiphaë had the craftsman
Daedalus fashion a hollow wooden cow, which she climbed into in order to mate with the bull. The
monstrous Minotaur was the result. 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. Minos, following advice
from the oracle at Delphi, had Daedalus construct a gigantic Labyrinth to hold the Minotaur. Its
location was near Minos' palace in Knossos.[13]
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' 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.[14]
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.[15] This depiction is in keeping with Dryden's 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."[16] This alternative tradition survived into the Renaissance, and still figures in
some modern depictions, such as Steele Savage's illustrations for Edith Hamilton's Mythology
(1942).
Theseus myth
All the stories agree that prince Androgeus, son of King Minos, died and that the fault lay with the
Athenians. The sacrifice of young Athenian men and women was a penalty for his death.
In some versions he was killed by the Athenians because of their jealousy of the victories he had
won at the Panathenaic Games; in others he was killed at 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 loosing the war was the regular sacrifice of several of their
youths and maidens. In his account of the Minotaur's birth, Catullus refers to yet another
version[17] in which Athens was "compelled by the cruel plague to pay penalties for the killing of
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 seven Athenian youths and seven
maidens, chosen by lots, to be sent every seventh year (or ninth); some versions say every year.
[18]
When the time for the third sacrifice approached, the Athenian prince Theseus volunteered to slay
the monster. 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' 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] 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 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 sea that is since named after him.[19] His death secured the throne for
Theseus.
Pasiphaë and the Minotaur, Attic red-figure kylix found at Etruscan Vulci in Italy. Now exhibited at
Cabinet des Médailles, Paris
Interpretations
Theseus Fighting the Minotaur, 1826, by Jean-Etienne Ramey, marble, Tuileries Gardens, Paris
The contest between Theseus and the Minotaur was frequently represented in Greek art. A
Knossian 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").
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.[20]
While the ruins of Minos' 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 maze-like
compartments,[21] an idea that is now generally discredited.[d]
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 Phoenicians. The slaying of the Minotaur by
Theseus in that case could be interpreted as a memory of Athens breaking tributary relations with
Minoan Crete.[13]
The Minotaur in the Labyrinth, engraving of a 16th-century AD gem in the Medici Collection in the
Palazzo Strozzi, Florence[23]
According to A.B. Cook, Minos and Minotaur were different forms of the same personage,
representing the sun-god of the Cretans, who depicted the sun as a bull. He and 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.
Karl Kerenyi viewed the Minotaur, or Asterios, as a god associated with stars, comparable to
Dionysus.[24] Coins minted at Cnossus from the fifth century showed labyrinth patterns encircling
a goddess' head crowned with a wreath of grain,[25] a bull's head, or a star. Kerenyi 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.[26]
A historical explanation of the myth refers to the time when Crete was the main political and
cultural potency in the Aegean Sea. As the fledgling Athens (and probably other continental Greek
cities) was under tribute to Crete, it can be assumed that such tribute included young men and
women for sacrifice. This ceremony was performed by a priest disguised with a bull head or mask,
thus explaining the imagery of the Minotaur.[citation needed]
Once continental Greece was free from Crete's dominance, the myth of the Minotaur worked to
distance the forming religious consciousness of the Hellene poleis from Minoan beliefs.[citation
needed]
A geological interpretation also exists. Citing early descriptions of the minotaur by Callimachus as
being entirely focused on the "cruel bellowing"[27][e] 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. [f]
Image gallery
Theseus and the Minotaur, attic black-figure kylix tondo, ca. 450–440 BC.
Theseus and the Minotaur, attic black-figure kylix tondo, ca. 450–440 BC.
Theseus and the Minotaur. Detail from an Attic black-figure amphora, ca. 575 BC–550 BC.
Theseus and the Minotaur. Detail from an Attic black-figure amphora, ca. 575 BC–550 BC.
Theseus and the Minotaur. Side A from an Attic red-figure stamnos, ca. 460 BC.
Theseus and the Minotaur. Side A from an Attic red-figure stamnos, ca. 460 BC.
Theseus and the Minotaur. Side A from a black-figure Attic amphora, ca. 540 BC.
Theseus and the Minotaur. Side A from a black-figure Attic amphora, ca. 540 BC.
Tondo of the Aison Cup, showing the victory of Theseus over the Minotaur in the presence of
Athena.
Tondo of the Aison Cup, showing the victory of Theseus over the Minotaur in the presence of
Athena.
Theseus and the Minotaur. Attic black-figure lekythos, 500–475 BC. From Crimea.
Theseus and the Minotaur. Attic black-figure lekythos, 500–475 BC. From Crimea.
Cultural references
This section appears to contain trivial, minor, or unrelated references to popular culture. Please
reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture, providing citations to
reliable, secondary sources, rather than simply listing appearances. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (May 2020)
Dante's Inferno
English translation
In these lines, Virgil taunts the Minotaur in order to distract him, and reminds the Minotaur that
he was killed by 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
Dis.[g] The Minotaur seems to represent the entire zone of Violence, much as Geryon represents
Fraud in Canto XVI, and serves a similar role as gatekeeper for the entire seventh Circle.[33]
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".[34] Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in his own commentary,[35]
[36] 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 oneself) and was conceived in the 'false cow' (violence against nature,
daughter of God)."
Virgil and Dante then pass quickly by to the centaurs (Nessus, Chiron and Pholus) who guard the
Flegetonte ("river of blood"), to continue through the seventh Circle.[37]
Surrealist art
Edward Burne-Jones's illustration of Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, 1861
From 1933 to 1939, Albert Skira published an avant-garde literary magazine Minotaure, with
covers featuring a Minotaur theme. The first issue had cover art by Pablo Picasso. Later covers
included work by Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst, and Diego Rivera.
Pablo Picasso made a series of etchings in the Vollard Suite showing the Minotaur being
tormented, possibly inspired also by Spanish bullfighting.[38] He also depicted a Minotaur in his
1933 etching Minotaur Kneeling over Sleeping Girl and in his 1935 etching Minotauromachy.
Argentine author Julio Cortázar published the play Los reyes in 1949, which reinterprets the
Minotaur's story. In the book, Ariadne is not in love with Theseus, but with her brother the
Minotaur.[39]
Mika Waltari's 1945 historical novel The Egyptian, set in the 12th century B.C., sees the main
protagonist and his slave venture into the Cretan labyrinth in search of the protagonist's love
interest, sacrificed to a Cretan god beforehand. Minotaur, in turn, is the name of the chief Cretan
priest who wears a bull mask, which makes people confuse him for an actual human/bull hybrid
upon first encounter in a dim light.
The short story The House of Asterion by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges gives the
Minotaur's story from the monster's perspective.
Mark Z. Danielewski's novel House of Leaves features both the labyrinth and the Minotaur as
prominent themes.
Aleksey Ryabinin's book Theseus (2018).[40][41] provides a retelling of the myths of Theseus,
Minotaur, Ariadne and other personages of Greek mythology.
Madness and the Minotaur is a 1981 text adventure game for the TRS-80 Color Computer[45]
The storyline of the 2017 virtual reality video game Theseus revolves around the titular hero's
mission to defeat the Minotaur.[46]
In Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (2018), there is a mission where the main character (Alexios or
Kassandra) visits the ruins of the Palace of Knossos in order to kill the Minotaur in the Labyrinth of
the Lost Souls.[47] Completing the mission grants the player the achievement "A-maze-ing
Victory" on the Steam and Xbox platforms and a PlayStation trophy of the same name.[48]
In the video game Hades (2020) by Supergiant Games, the protagonist defeats the Minotaur
(named Asterius) in Elysium, where he fights beside Theseus.[49]
In the turn-based strategy series Heroes of Might & Magic, the Minotaur is a unit that is
controllable by the player. Traditionally, they are sided with the Dungeon faction (Formerly the
Warlock / Mountain faction).[50]
In the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, the Minotaur is named Asterios, and summonable as a
Berserker-class Servant; this particular version of the character is shown with a child-like mentality
and loves Euryale, one of the Gorgons.
In the Total War Saga: Troy, In the campaign, the player can come across mythical units to recruit
in their armies, one of which is the Minotaur. One of his recruiting locations can be found on the
Crete. Minotaur is also available to play in the custom games.
The Castlevania series features minotaurs as enemies starting in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
In the 2002 Ensemble Studios real-time strategy game Age of Mythology, minotaurs can be trained
and utilized in combat by Greek players who choose to worship Athena.[51]
In King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow the protagonist has to defeat the Minotaur in
order to escape the labyrinth
Teros, one of the playable legends in Brawlhalla, is a gladiator-driven adaptation of the minotaur.
The Minotaur appears as an enemy in Miitopia, with three main alts. The first is the regular
Minotaur, which is fought as a boss in the second kingdom, Neksdor. The second alt is the Blue
Minotaur, which is mainly fought in the Dark Lord's Castle in Karkaton. Then, in the post-game
area New Lumos, the First District boss is a Minotaur called King Cow, who is also fought in the
Ground Floor of the dungeon in New Lumos, the Tower of Dread. all of them have the same
moves, either using a AOE earthquake attack, or smacking a party member with their giant mallet.
League of Legends (2009) features a playable character named "Alistar", who is modeled after a
Minotaur.[52]
Film
Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete, a 1960 Italian film directed by Silvio Amadio and starring Bob
Mathias[53]
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, a 1976 film directed by Sam Wanamaker with Peter Mayhew, in
his film debut, as Minoton, a bronze Minotaur golem[54][55]
A monster resembling the Minotaur (and named as such) appears in the 1981 film Time Bandits.
[56]
Minotaur, a horror adaptation of the legend starring actor Tom Hardy as Theo (Theseus), released
on DVD by Lions Gate in 2006[57]
In Dave Made a Maze, An Origami Minotaur appears as the creature that lives in the eponymous
maze. [58]
See also
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.
Shedu – a figure in Mesopotamian mythology with the body of a bull and a human head
Tikbalang – a creature of Philippine folklore with the head and hooves of a horse, usually depicted
standing on its hind legs.
Footnotes
According to Ovid:
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.[6]
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.[8]
"... he made her live with Asterion the king of the Cretans. There she conceived and bore three
sons, Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys."[10]
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;[22] modern scholarship generally discounts the idea.
[4](pp 42–43)[7](p 25)
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" ...[27]
Kaplan argues that the minotaur is the result of ancient people trying to explain earthquakes;[28]
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.[29] Given this, he argues that the Minoans used the monster to
help explain the terrifying earthquakes that were "bellowing" beneath their feet.
The fallen angels, the Erinyes [Furies], and the unseen Medusa were located on the City of Dis's
defensive ramparts.[32]
References
Bechtel, John Hendricks (1908), 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,
Penn Publishing Co.
Garnett, Richard; Vallée, Léon; Brandl, Alois (1923), The Book of Literature: A Comprehensive
Anthology of the Best Literature, Ancient, Mediæval and Modern, with Biographical and
Explanatory Notes, vol. 33, Grolier society.
Kern, Hermann (2000). Through the Labyrinth. Munich, London, New York: Prestel. ISBN
379132144-7.
A. Pedo cited by Rusten, J.S. (Autumn 1982). "Ovid, Empedocles, and the Minotaur". The
American Journal of Philology. 103 (3): 332–333, esp. 332.
Doob, Penelope Reed (April 1990). The Idea of the Labyrinth: From Classical antiquity through the
Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-080142393-2.
de Simone, C. (1970). "Zu einem Beitrag über etruskisch θevru mines". Zeitschrift für
vergleichende Sprachforschung. 84: 221–223.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Minotaur" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge
University Press. p. 555.
Servius. On the Aeneid. 6.14. singulis quibusque annis 'every one year'.
The annual period is given by Zimmerman, J.E. (1964). "Androgeus". Dictionary of Classical
Mythology. Harper & Row; and Rose, H.J. (1959). A Handbook of Greek Mythology. Dutton. p. 265.
Zimmerman cites Virgil, Apollodorus, and Pausanias.
Hogan, C. Michael (2007). Cope, Julian (ed.). "Knossos fieldnotes". The Modern Antiquarian.
Paolo Alessandro Maffei (1709), Gemmae Antiche, Pt. IV, pl. 31; Kern (2000): Maffei "erroneously
deemed the piece to be from Classical antiquity".[4](p 202, fig. 371)
See illustrations of Carme, for an example of a goddess crowned with a labyrinthine wreath of
grain.
Kerényi, Karl (1976). Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life. pp. 104–105, 159.
Callimachus (1921). Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams. Translated by Mair, A.W.; Mair, G.R.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kaplan, Matt (2012). Science of Monsters. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Scheffers, Anja; et al. (2008). "Late Holocene tsunami traces on the western and southern
coastlines of the Peloponnesus (Greece)". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 269: 271–279.
Beck, Christopher, "Justice among the Centaurs," Forum Italcium 18 (1984): 217-29
Tidworth, Simon Theseus in the Modern World essay in The Quest for Theseus London 1970
pp244-9 ISBN 0269026576
De Laurentiis, Antonella (2009). "Los reyes: El laberinto entre mito e historia" [Los reyes: The
Labyrinth Between Myth and History]. Amaltea. Revista de mitocrítica (in Spanish). Universidad
Complutense de Madrid. 1: 145–155. ISSN 1989-1709.
A.Ryabinin. Theseus. The story of ancient gods, goddesses, kings and warriors. – СПб.: Антология,
2018. ISBN 978-5-6040037-6-3.
Kulczyński, W. (1903). "Aranearum et Opilionum species in insula Creta a comite Dre Carolo
Attems collectae". Bulletin International de l'Académie des Sciences de Cracovie. 1903: 32–58.
"Madness and the Minotaur (1982)". Dragon Data. 1982. p. 3. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
Billcliffe, James (1 November 2018). "Assassin's Creed Odyssey A Place of Twists and Turns Quest
Guide – How to find and defeat the Minotaur to get the artifact". vg247. Gamer Network.
Retrieved 4 November 2018.
"HADES: Get Pumped for 'The Beefy Update'!". epicgames.com. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
"The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete". Letter Box. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
Hutchinson, Sean (19 May 2015). "15 Chewbacca Facts in Honour of Peter Mayhew's Birthday".
Mental Floss. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
"Peter Mayhew, Chewbacca in 'Star Wars' franchise, dies at 74". NBC News. Retrieved 2 May
2019.
Ritman, Alex (2 November 2020). "Terry Gilliam says Sean Connery was originally written into
'Time Bandits' as a joke, yet "saved my ass" on fantasy film". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved
11 May 2022 – via hollywoodreporter.com.
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