When people talk about the ancient mythological creature Minotaur, a ferocious beast immediately comes to mind and perhaps the infamous myth of the labyrinth as well. What people may not know, though, are the interesting details of the events that lead up to the birth of the mighty Minotaur. What is universally recognized as a feared creature of unusual birth was actually created from unfortunate actions between a selfish king and a vengeful god.
King Minos and his wife Queen Pasiphae led a good life ruling over the island of Crete. Minos held power over multiple islands of Greece and was recognized for his success and power by many. In an attempt to prove his rightful claim as King of Crete, Minos had sworn to locate the best bull he could find among his cattle, one that would be very favorable to its intended receiver. Minos would then take this great bull and sacrifice it to Poseidon, god of the seas, as he did each year in order to secure his ownership of the throne. One year in particular, among King Minos’ herd, there birthed a magnificent bull, one that possessed a unique kind of beauty that King Minos had never seen before. Minos truly was in awe of this magnificent bull, so much so that he found himself captivated by its beauty, and he realized that this bull was something he did not want to give up to the promised Poseidon. In fact, Minos purposefully chose to overlook the magnificent bull when making his decision, and settled on a less attractive bull to sacrifice to Poseidon.1
Watching him and his deceitful actions very closely, Poseidon took notice of King Minos’ plan in sacrificing a lesser bull to keep the best for himself. This made Poseidon very angry, and he immediately began thinking about how to discipline Minos for his selfishness. Poseidon saw that Minos loved his wife Pasiphae immensely, and with this knowledge, constructed a plan that would leave Minos and Pasiphae in the presence of a monster. 2
Poseidon cast a curse upon Queen Pasiphae, one of love, which she could not escape. Her love was not for her husband; instead, she felt love for his magnificent bull. Pasiphae would be found swooning over the magnificent bull as if it were a handsome and powerful man ready to take her into his strong arms. Alas, she was so utterly infatuated with the magnificent bull that she constructed a plan to lure the bull towards her, and hopefully lay with her romantically.3
Queen Pasiphae instructed a craftsman of the island, Daedalus, and his son, Icarus, to build her a wooden structure that represented a near-perfect body form of a female bull. She insisted that the piece be built as realistically as possible and large enough for herself to comfortably fit inside without revealing that she was human. In spite of her odd orders, Daedalus and Icarus did what the Queen asked of them. As a finishing touch, Queen Pasiphae placed a large cow hide over the structure so that the magnificent bull would notice the structure and take it as a female looking to mate. The Queen rolled the structure out to the field where she would often see the magnificent bull grazing day after day. She strategically placed herself in the view of the magnificent bull, stepped inside the structure, and waited patiently for the bull’s approach.4
After grazing for a bit, the magnificent bull caught sight of what it thought was the beautiful female and approached it. Before long, the Queen’s plan worked, as the magnificent bull fastened itself upon her and together, engaged in sexual and intimate relations. As a result of this, Queen Pasiphae became pregnant with the baby of the bull and upon its birth realized she was carrying something horrific inside of her.5
Just as Poseidon intended, Pasiphae had relations with the bull she loved and later birthed an unusual creature, born half-bull, half-human to be known as the Minotaur.
The creation and birth of the Minotaur, as well as other monsters, typically is done in response to acts of sin. In this particular case, King Minos’ egotistical actions led him to break a promise made to a god, and in return, that god made Minos’ wife feel the same love that her husband did for the magnificent bull, giving in to her abnormal fascination and eventually birthing an infamous monster of ancient Greece.6
- UXL Encyclopedia of World Mythology, 2009, s.v. “Minotaur.” ↵
- UXL Encyclopedia of World Mythology, 2009, s.v. “Minotaur.” ↵
- Christian Moevs, “Centaurs, Spiders and Saints,” in Vertical Readings in Dante’s Comedy: Volume 2, edited by Corbett George and Webb Heather (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2016), 14-17. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1sq5vb5.7. ↵
- UXL Encyclopedia of World Mythology, 2009, s.v. “Minotaur.” ↵
- Christian Moevs, “Centaurs, Spiders and Saints,” in Vertical Readings in Dante’s Comedy: Volume 2, edited by Corbett George and Webb Heather (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2016), 14-17. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1sq5vb5.7. ↵
- George Palmer Garrett, “The Function of the Pasiphae Myth in Brother to Dragons,” Modern Language Notes 74, no. 4 (1959): 311-13. doi:10.2307/3040070. ↵
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Recent Comments
Alexandra Rodriguez
I love mythology so much, and the Minotaur’s origin is something I never looked into. This article was very well written and I really liked the way the story was told. While I agree that the punishment for King Minos breaking a promise was appropriate for the kind of culture, I have always found it odd that there are multiple mythology stories consisting of sexual relations with animals. It is very different but none-the-less an interesting topic, even though it is a bit gross.
04/10/2018
1:08 pm
Maggie Amador
I love reading about Greek mythology and this story of the Minotaur was not at all what I was expecting. Greek mythology always has some odd twist to it and this story is no exception. I always thought that the Minotaur was just kind of placed on Earth by the gods, but the idea that a woman was cursed to be so infatuated with a bull that she would end up carrying its baby is definitely something out of this world.
07/10/2018
1:08 pm
Donte Joseph
Despite my love for Greek mythology, I still lack information on some important stories. Before I read this article, I had assumed that the Minotaur had just came to be, I had no idea that he had came from somewhere. I think that the Greek Gods might have abused their powers in the worst of ways but to be fair, if they had not, the Minotaur might not have even been created.
07/10/2018
1:08 pm
Diego Aguilera
Such a cool article to read that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in mythology. Its also fascinating when it comes to minotaurs as they are such a unique creature to begin with. I like the back story that was incorporated into the article and I myself would love to see more. I really enjoyed that the author included how they are created as it adds a interesting note to minotaurs.
07/10/2018
1:08 pm
Hailey Stewart
I did not know the origin story of the Minotaur, nor did I know that the Minotaur was a consequence of sin. Mythology has so many branches and layers to it, one of the most interesting being sexual. This article connects this story to the rest of the over-arching narratives and themes of mythology. I like the way the author is very straightforward with the story-telling.
07/10/2018
1:08 pm
Diego Aguilera
Such a cool article to read that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in mythology. Its also fascinating when it comes to minotaurs as they are such a unique creature to begin with. I like the back story that was incorporated into the article and I myself would love to see more. I really enjoyed that the author included how they are created as it adds a interesting note to minotaurs. I remember seeing these minotaurs in a movie called Percy Jackson.
17/10/2018
1:08 pm
Belene Cuellar
I am still very surprised at how hard and passionately the queen fell for the beautiful bull. What did the king do to the bull’s offspring when he found out that the queen had slept with it? I really like how this article was written and its attention to detail made the story very easy to follow and understand. I do like the fact that the queen didn’t try to get rid of the baby when she found out she was pregnant .
28/10/2018
1:08 pm
Lilliana Canales
I’ve always admired the image of the Minotaur and loved hearing about his mazes. I assumed he was created by the gods as a punishment, not in the fashion I just read about, but in a way that there was a conceited man and he was cursed to have the upper body of a bull and lower body of a man. This article was very interesting and Poseidon was pretty upset to go to that extent of the extremes. As for the husband, I wonder how he felt about Minotaur and what he did with the bull. As for Minotaur, did he drink human milk or cow milk? Once again, very interesting article.
07/11/2018
1:08 pm
Dalton Moy
This was a very interesting article. I have always enjoyed reading about mythology, so I had known about the beast called the minotaur, however I did not know of its creation. The creation story of this monster was one that I was not expecting, but I really should not be surprised considering all the other odd, childish and sexual-based acts made by many other mythological characters. Great article.
12/01/2019
1:08 pm
Noah Bolhuis
This was a very disturbing story that I was not expecting. I hated the fact that I could guess what was about to happen, but I am really troubled of ancient Greek culture, and the stories that they came up with. This whole story is deranged, from when she was cursed to love a bull to the fact that she came up with an elaborate plan to build a wooden cow and place herself inside of it in such a way to get pregnant from this bull. This isn’t the first time that Greeks placed themselves in large wooden livestock structures, as this slightly reminds me of the story of Troy.
24/09/2018
1:08 pm