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. ↵
134 comments
Troy Leonard
prior to reading this article I was not familiar with Minotaur at all and I’m glad that I did click in this article to read. this was very interesting to read and I was shocked when I read that Minotaur was created by a queen and null having relations. You would think that i would have interpret that from the picture but I was expecting something different from how he was created. great article
Eduardo Foster
What a great article! I have heard of the Minotaur but did not had a deep investigation into it. The article have great sources of information and I am impress because is weird how the minotaur was created. It is actually crazy that a minotaur came from a human queen and a bull. Great source of information and keep it up with the good work!
Mario Sosa
The origin of the Minotaur is a most interesting and tragic one. I’ve noticed that this tale is somewhat similar to Medusa’s origin story, since both King Minos and Medusa get punished by the gods for their love for someone and the result is someone turning into an animal – whether that be Medusa’s hair turning into snakes or Queen Pasiphae giving birth to the Minotaur bull.The ending makes me wonder how the Minotaur came to be known as this wicked beast that resides in the labyrinth. Fantastic article, good work!
Valeria Hernandez
Sarah Mares writes an outstanding interesting article that describes the interesting details birth of birth of Minotaur and the events that led up to his creation. The author explains the story arc perfectly as she provides readers with an explanation and sequel to the disturbing events that lead to an unusual birth. The author is authentic with providing a protagonist and antagonist that filled the purpose of the story.
Edward Cerna
I really liked this article because I am interested in these types of writings. I like the detail you went into and I was surprised at a couple things that had happened that I had not known before so I am glad I read this because I learned something I had not known before. I really liked the pictures you used in this article, they really compliment what you were writing about really well.
Lisa Varela
This article did a great job narrating the events of a story in which the characters are widely known but not their story. I had heard of the Minotaur and I would associate it with the labyrinth, however, I never knew about its birth or how it came to be. This story shows Greeks belief that one must not go against the gods!
Marco Picardo
I remember learning about the minotaur in Latin. I was always fascinated and disturbed by the story itself. It was refreshing rereading and getting more in-tuned with the topic. The article did a good job of covering the basics of the story, such as the queen falling for the bull instead of her husband and so on. Overall great article.
Jasmine Martinez
This was such an interesting article. I had heard of the Minotaur before but never really knew much history or background about it. It was really informative on many things I never knew, such as the Minotaur had come from bull sacrificing to poseidon as well as from a queen and a bull, very surprising but interesting to read about. Great article!
Sebastian Castro Ramos
On my high school literature class I read the story of the Minotaur’s Labyrinth. I learned some background of the story, but I never got to read a description as detailed as this one. It is amazing how far Poseidon went to punish King Minos. I find it interesting how in Greek Mythology gods and goddesses have human characteristics like greed or enough anger to want to punish, just as Poseidon did. Great Article!
Andrea Chavez
I think this article that has had the biggest impact on me. It is a subject I had to stop and think about what I just had read. I think Poseidon went a little over it with his plan. But in a weird way I enjoyed the reading because Greek mythology is a very interesting subject for me. It would be a very good next article a continuation of this same article.