One of the most famous mythological Greek creatures is the Minotaur: half man, half bull. The myth begins in Crete where there was a struggle for power between brothers for the rule of Crete. Minos, one of the brothers, prayed to the God Poseidon to send a sign to prove to his brothers that he should be the one to rule Crete. Minos asked to send a white bull for proof and that he would sacrifice it upon its arrival to show appreciation to the God Poseidon. Poseidon (Pictured below to the right) sent a white
bull from the sea. Once Minos received it he decided that he wanted to keep the bull for himself so instead he decided to sacrifice one of his regular bulls. Poseidon was displeased because of Minos not staying true to his word so in return, Poseidon made Minos' wife Pasipha (pictured below) fall deep in love with the white bull. Pasipha had the famous architect Daedalus build a cow body to fool the bull into making love with her. From all this came half bull half man, the minotaur.
The Minotaur had the head of a bull and the body of a man. He ended up causing so much terror and destruction on Crete that Minos asked the architect Daedalus to build a giant labyrinth in which nobody or nothing could escape. The minotaur was taken captive and released in this labyrinth. Every year seven young men and women were sent into the labyrinth to feed to the Minotaur. A man from Athens known as Theseus then volunteered himself in a hope that he could defeat the beast. So Theseus ventured to Crete where he met Minos' daughter Ariande. They fell in love and were married and in return Ariande gave Theseus a roll of thread. The only way to get out of the labyrinth was if he could find the way out. Thesues tied the thread at the entrance and unraveled it all the way so he could find his way out. Once deep into the maze he came across the sleeping Minotaur and beat it to death.
Never knew the origin of the Minotaur, almost wish it stayed that way. Regardless, nice post, very informative.
ReplyDelete