The Minotaur
By Desilation 7 Comments
king Minos demand was monstrous. every nine years (roughly every 100 lunar cycles, or a "great year" to the ancients) king Minos declared tribute of seven young men and seven young women from Athens as a condition of ending the war. the young men Athenians were taken to Crete, where Minos locked them all in his infamous labyrinth. once inside, it was only a matter of time until the young men and women died ether from starvation, or at the hands of the Minotaur
The Minotaur was a rampaging, uncontrollable monster: half-man and half-bull. He was locked in the labyrinth to keep him from roaming freely over Crete. why didn't the Cretans try to kill the minotaur? because it was, in a twisted way king minos's only surviving son.
The minotaur was a direct result of minos's hubris, which grew immense in the kings later years. Once he claimed he could have anything wanted simply by asking for it, and demanded that a divine bull rise up from the sea. He promised to sacrifice it to Poseidon if it was given to him. The divine bull did appear, but Minos gave in to greed. When the time came for him to sacrifice the finest bull in his herd to Poseidon, Minos merely sacrificed his second-best bull.
Poseidon was outraged, and turned the divine bull into minos's curse. not only did the divine bull rampage over Crete, but minos's wife pasiphae fell in love with the bull. With the help of the brilliant inventor Daedalus, Pasiphae disguised herself as a heifer in order to consummate her affection for the bull. The Minotaur was born nine months later. he was named Asterios, and placed within the room that would become the center of the labyrinth. The maze was built outwards, according to Daedalus's own twisted plans.
The Minotaur met its end at the hands of the Athenian hero Theseus, who willingly went with the third wave of young men and women to be sacrificed. Once there, minos's daughter Ariadne approached and offered to help him kill her half-brother, if in return Theseus would take her away to Athens and marry her.
Theseus agreed, and so Ariadne gave him an enchanted ball of golden string Daedalus had given to her. The ball was enchanted to help someone find their way to the center and then back again, by turning the corners correctly as it unwound. When Theseus found the Minotaur, he then caught it unaware and sacrificed it to Poseidon, as Ariadne instructed. perhaps the news came to king Minos as a relief.