The Minotaur — Part I
The Minotaur is probably the first image that comes to mind when we mention Ancient Greek mythology. An intimidating bull's head, a pair of sturdy, thick horns, and a heavily muscled human body — this image appears in our heads regardless of how familiar we are with ancient mythology or art. And there is a good reason why. The myth telling us the story of the Minotaur is so old that he is considered one of the first characters to appear in early examples of Greek pottery, along with the Sirens. His iconic appearance has remained largely unchanged since the beginning of his myth. In fact, for this very reason, ancient writers were often very brief with their physical descriptions because his hybrid shape was already so well known through ancient pottery and art.
Although his appearance is so familiar, his full legend — not so much. We simply recognize him as a quest or an obstacle, an episode in the myth about Theseus, where he defeats the monster and happily carries on. But that is how the Minotaur's story ends. So how does his story start?
Prince of the Lilies, Minoan fresco, c. 1650–1400 BC. Palace of Knossos, Crete. Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
Divine lineage
It is almost always impossible to establish the origin of any myth. They were often changed through time and across territories, or existed in several versions at the same time. So the best we can do is put together all the evidence and information that we have to at least try to see the complete picture.
Father's side of the family
Asterion — that's the name of the Minotaur — was born into a family of not especially loving parents. His father, or perhaps we should say stepfather, King Minos, was the son of Zeus and Europa — a high-ranking princess from the coastal city-state of Tyre.
The myth about the abduction of Europa is so famous that it inspired countless works of art through the centuries. Europa was tricked by Zeus, who, to gain her trust, transformed himself into a great white bull and approached her on the beach. When Europa trustingly climbed onto the bull's back, as anyone would do, Zeus carried her right into the sea, to the island of Crete.
Roman fresco depicting Europa and the bull. Pompeii, House of Jason, AD 20–40. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.
As puzzling as it is, the story becomes even wilder. When they arrived in Crete, Zeus forced himself on Europa under a plane tree and fathered three sons. As the king of the gods, he obviously couldn't stay long bringing up his children with a mortal woman, so he arranged a marriage for Europa with the childless King Asterion — the grandfather of the Minotaur — and with this, his sons became princes of Crete.
While her story might not have been very happy from the beginning, Europa lived a life of luxury from then on. She died of old age, loved as a mother and a queen, and was later honoured as a goddess, Hellotis. When the old King Asterion died, Minos, the eldest of Europa's three sons, did not have an undisputed claim to the throne and had to fight his siblings for control over Crete.
Minotaur editorial, Gods & Monsters by Macabre Gadgets; Mycenaean Bull Rhyton, 16th c. BCE, National Archaeological Museum, Athens; black-figure kylix depicting the Minotaur, 515 BCE, Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España, Madrid.
Mother's side of the family
While the Minotaur's father had only one divine parent, his mother was a fully immortal goddess. Queen Pasiphaë, wife of King Minos, was the daughter of the sun god Helios and the sea nymph Perseis. Her name, Pasiphaë, translates from Greek as "All-Shining" — underlining her belonging to the powerful family of the sun god.
If the ancestry wasn't enough, she also belonged to a notoriously dangerous family of sorcerers. Her sister was Circe, the famous witch from Homer's Odyssey who turned men into pigs. Her brother was King Aeëtes of Colchis, the keeper of the Golden Fleece and father of the deadly sorceress Medea.
She herself was considered wicked and frightening by ancient audiences, although perhaps her later actions found more understanding in ancient times than in ours.
Minotaur ring by Macabre Gadgets.
Divine marriage
When the marriage between Minos and Pasiphaë was arranged, it was not a love story or romantic adventure. It was simply a political alliance between two powerful divine families.
A power couple at the time, with a strong grip on the Cretan crown, it would appear that they had it all. But Greek tragedy is famous for showing the audience two sides of the story. Behind closed doors, power-hungry Minos was cruel and deceitful, while Pasiphaë was a terrifying source of pure horror.
When she realized that Minos was unfaithful, she cursed him with a curse of highly sophisticated cruelty that adds beautifully to her portrait of a powerful sorceress.
Every time her husband, King Minos, took a new girl to his royal bed to satisfy his desires, the new mistress died. The reason behind it: scorpions and serpents that Minos was cursed to release every time he had an orgasm. Minos himself was completely unharmed physically, but the curse undeniably affected him.
Pasiphaë was not just using her powers as a witch to get revenge. She was showing us an absolutely cold, controlled, and calculated response to the assault — the breaking of sacred marriage bonds.
The fact that Minos was fully aware of the curse and still chose to cheat on his wife every time a beautiful maiden came along only adds chills to both of these characters.
Divine birth
We already have a rough image of his parents and what they were capable of, so how did the Minotaur himself come to be? The birth of the Minotaur — Prince Asterion — is divine in all possible ways.
After long years of marriage, and after fathering eight mighty children with Pasiphaë, King Minos asks Poseidon to prove his right to rule Crete by fulfilling his request. Minos prays to Poseidon for a majestic white bull to be brought out of the ocean, promising to sacrifice it to the sea god himself.
Poseidon happily assists, and the most glorious bull that ever was, the Cretan Bull, emerges from the foamy waters, ready to be sacrificed to glorify the sea god. But Minos is so amazed by the beast that he cannot bring himself to kill it. Instead, he chooses to sacrifice a lesser bull and keep the white one for himself.
And in sacrificing to Poseidon he prayed that a bull might appear from the depths, promising to sacrifice it when it appeared. Poseidon did send him up a fine bull, and Minos obtained the kingdom, but he sent the bull to the herds and sacrificed another.
— Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library, Book 3
Enraged, Poseidon, famous for his short temper, decides to punish Minos and sends a curse upon his wife Pasiphaë, making her fall in love with the white bull.
The story that unfolds is truly one of the most remarkable Ancient Greek myths. Pasiphaë, driven by desire for the beast, turns to Daedalus — an exiled Athenian inventor who was sheltered by the royal couple in Crete — to make it possible to fulfill her desire to be loved by the great bull.
Daedalus creates a sophisticated wooden cow to trick the Cretan Bull, with a space inside it where the queen could comfortably position herself and conceive a child with the beast.
He constructed a wooden cow on wheels, took it, hollowed it out on the inside, sewed it up in the hide of a cow which he had skinned, and set it in the meadow in which the bull used to graze. Then he introduced Pasiphaë into it; and the bull came and coupled with it, as if it were a real cow.
— Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library, Book 3.1.2
Roman fresco depicting Daedalus, Pasiphaë, and the wooden cow. Northern wall of the triclinium, Casa dei Vettii, Pompeii.
Less than a year later, although some sources claim that the pregnancy was longer than usual, a beastly child was born. At first, only his unnatural appearance caused chaos in the palace, fuelling rumours around the royal couple and the gods' curse.
But as Asterion grew rapidly past infancy, something even more shocking was revealed: he had an enormous appetite for human flesh and started to attack and devour servants and guards in the palace.
Minotaur sculpture by Macabre Gadgets — hand crafted in marble with gold-plated sterling silver horns.
The Labyrinth
Terrified, Minos considers his actions. He cannot harm Pasiphaë because of fear of angering Helios — even a son of Zeus couldn't withstand the wrath of the sun god. He cannot kill the baby Minotaur because he fears enraging Poseidon even further.
So the decision is made: hide the beast and put the Minotaur to wander forever in the darkness of an underground labyrinth. Daedalus, the very genius who made it possible to conceive the beast, is ordered to imprison it.
Bust from a statuary group representing Theseus and the Minotaur. Roman copy of the lost group attributed to Myron; the original bronze group served as a fountain in the Plaka, Athens, 5th century BCE. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
Within a few years, a massive labyrinth is built, and the baby Minotaur, now growing stronger and hungrier, is put at its very center. The queen is devastated by the fate of her child but is unable to stop the imprisonment.
Although no description has survived of the actual transportation of the beast, one possible explanation is that Asterion was never moved at all — the labyrinth was simply built around him, year after year.
It seems that, for the time being, Minos' problem was carefully concealed and buried beneath his palace. But in truth, it was far from it.
That was exactly the point when the familiar Minotaur story begins.
The Minotaur is the last, closing figure in our Gods & Monsters series — a campaign inspired by ancient Greek pottery and the darker myths it recorded. Explore the THEA world, or discover the Minotaur ring and Minotaur sculpture from the collection. Part II of this story — the Labyrinth, Theseus, and what the myth really means — coming soon.
