4 Minotaur

Origins of the Minotaur

The Minotaur is a human with the head of a bull. His father is the Cretan bull and his mother is the queen Pasiphae. The story of the Minotaur starts with Minos fighting with his brothers for who would be the king of Crete. In order to get the throne Minos prayed to Poseidon to send a bull from the ocean to show his brothers that he should be king. However he also said that he would sacrifice it in honour of Poseidon. When he did sacrifice an animal to Poseidon it was a less important animal. In revenge Poseidon made Minos’ wife fall in love with the bull. The child was the Minotaur.

Minos asked Daedalus (a famous inventor who was the father of Icarus) to build a Labyrinth to hide the Minotaur and to stop it escaping. The maze of tunnels was so complicated no one could ever find there way back again.

Theseus and the Minotaur

The Cretans’ (the people of Crete) enemies were the Athenians (the people of Athens). When the Athenians killed the son of Minos, Minos threatened to wage war on Athens, unless they sent seven young boys and seven young girls every nine years. The third time this happened the to-be king of Athens volunteered to go to the Minotaur but unlike the others he planned to kill it.

When Theseus arrived to Crete the daughter of Minos, Ariadne, fell in love with him and asked Daedalus how to help Theseus. Daedalus told her to get a ball of thread and give it to Theseus. Theseus was then able to unwind it as he went into the Labyrinth so that he would not get lost. Theseus went into the Labyrinth, killed the Minotaur and using the ball of thread got back out it.