The Minotaur was a creature with a head of a bull and a body of a human. This creature was born of Pasiphae, Minos' wife, and a white bull sent by Poseidon who was angry with Minos. Minos was so disgusted and embarrassed by his wife and the Minotaur that he ordered Daedalus to hide them. Daedalus built a maze called the Labyrinith where they were to live and never escape. One of Minotaur's half brothers ordered that seven youths and seven maidens from Athens be let into the maze every ninth year to try and kill the Minotaur. The Minotaur survived by capturing and eating these youngsters because they could not find their way out of the maze.

One clever young person that entered the Labyrinith was Theseus. Theseus was aided by one of Minos' daughters, Ariadne, who gave Theseus a magical ball of thread, made by Daedalus, to retrace

Before he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos struggled with his brothers for the right to rule. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of approval by the gods for his reign. He promised to sacrifice the bull as an offering, and as a symbol of subservience. A beautiful white bull rose from the sea, but when Minos saw it, he coveted it for himself. He assumed that Poseidon would not mind, so he kept it and sacrificed the best specimen from his herd instead. When Poseidon learned about the deceit, he made Pasipha, Minos' wife, fall madly in love with the bull. She had Daedalus, the famous architect, make a wooden cow for her. Pasipha climbed into the decoy and fooled the white bull.

The offspring of their lovemaking was a monster called the Minotaur.

his path once he found and killed the Minotaur. Theseus was successful in his attempt in killing the Minotaur and escaping the Labyrinith.

From a literary point of view, the Minotaur has experienced two major phases, one as the incarnation of horror and the other as illustrating the complexities of monstrosity. In the Greek and Latin Classical myth, the Minotaur was not the subject of an autonomous literary theme. It was either the monster slain by Theseus or conceived by Pasiphae. Its monstrosity left so little room for doubt that, during the Middle Ages, it sometimes appeared as a devil or a monster among many others, independently of its mythical background. During the Renaissance and neoclassical period, it was reinstated within the context of the Greek myth, but its role did not extend beyond that of providing a foil for Theseus. It was from the end of the nineteenth century onwards that the loathsome creature provided systematic food for thought rather than simply firing the imagination. The very particular circumstances of its conception, its monstrous nature, its relationship with the labyrinth and its slaying by Theseus became i

Some topics in this essay:
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