In this video you shall discover What is a
Minotaur, Minotaur Facts and his story in
Greek mythology.
The term Minotaur derives from the name “Minos”
and the noun "bull", translated as "(the)
Bull of Minos".
In Crete, the Minotaur was known by the name
Asterion, a name shared with the foster father
of king Minos.
The yet to be king Minos, prayed to Poseidon,
the sea god, to send him a snow-white bull,
as a sign of support.
This animal would be the famous Cretan Bull.
Prince Minos was to kill the bull to show
honor to the deity, but decided to keep it
instead because of its beauty.
He thought Poseidon would not care if he kept
the white bull and sacrificed one of his own.
The god took offence....
To punish Minos, Poseidon made Pasiphaë,
the wife of Minos, fall deeply in love with
the bull.
Pasiphaë had craftsman Daedalus make a hollow
wooden cow, and climbed inside it in order
to mate with the white bull.
The offspring was the monstrous Minotaur.
Disturbing yet ingenious...
Pasiphaë nursed him, but he grew and became
ferocious, being the unnatural offspring of
a woman and a beast; he had no natural source
of nourishment and thus devoured humans for
sustenance.
Minos, after getting advice from the oracle
at Delphi, had Daedalus construct a gigantic
labyrinth to hold the Minotaur.
Daedalus may have truly studied the child
of his own accord and predicted that he would
grow up to be so powerful that he could rip
through any cage.
However, he did not seem to be very intelligent.
Therefore, Daedalus decided to build a massive
puzzle to trap the beast.
When it was finished, the Minotaur was placed
in the center of the puzzle, where he had
no chance of finding his way out.Its location
was near the royal palace in Knossos.
The ancient Greeks depicted the Minotaur as
a creature with a man’s body and a bull’s
head.
His body was fully human, although his legs
and arms were bulging with almost superhuman
muscles.
Beginning at his shoulders, he transformed
into a bull with blue-black fur and sharp
horns that could easily gore any human challenger.
Sometimes, he was drawn with a bull’s tail
as well.
Over time, the Minotaur’s image has become
less human and more bullish.
Today, only his muscled stomach and arms remain
human, although he does manage to walk upright
on his bull’s legs.
The Minotaur has gone down in history as a
bloodthirsty, mindless monster.
He killed innocent, unarmed victims and feasted
on their bodies.
However, this description is given by the
Athenians, who had a reason to hate the Minotaur,
they were forced to supply victims for him
to eat.
Perhaps a metaphor for the tributary status
of Athens towards the Minoans, perhaps not.
It’s possible that the Minotaur was not
so monstrous; he might even have been viewed
as a hero by the people in his native kingdom,
Minoa.
Unfortunately, their records of the Minotaur
were lost to time.
