The Minotaur

Terror beneath the Cretan Castle

In the ancient city of Crete lies a terror of a beast. King Minos's beloved "pet" as many of the citizens of the city called it was a ferocious creature indeed. For the time and age you may think it to be a lion, or a great bear of some sort but in fact it was something only from one's own imagination could conjure up. It was a creature unlike any other and said to be kept in a maze-like structure beneath the castle whose designers were Daedalus and his son Icarus whom you may know from familiar legends and lore of ancient time. The "creature" was half man, half beast. It was said to have the head of a bull and body like that of a man and stood uprite. In it's "den" it stalked young athenian men who had been punished, captured or put down in the labrynth for various reasons. It is believed to have been slayed by the Athenian hero Theseus but that is another story to it's own with that of Daedalus and Icarus. The subject for this conversation tonight is the "Minotaur" of Crete.

Asterion the "minotaur" who shares the name of King Minos's foster father. The term "Minotaur" actually translates into " Bull of Minos" so we can ssumidly understand where the great legend received it's common name. Originally a mythic creature in the day and age it "dwelled" beneath create it became something more of a common phrase to describe a "race" of creatures rather than our legendary beast in singular phrase.

The legend of how the beast came about goes something like this. Once Minos gained possesion of the throne in Crete, he came to be in compotition with his brother for power. He had made a deal with Poseidon to send a great bull in show of his favor apon himself. He was supposed to offer the creature in sacrifice but instead kept the bull for himself. Poseidon had become outrage and as punishment made his wife Aphrodite fall deeply in love with the bull, Pasiphae. The two "became one" as the old term goes and gave birth toe the then know blashphemous creature we call the Minotaur. The labrnyth was constructed as a sort of prison for the creature, being half man and half beast it had to natural food source and thus fed on people. The actual location of the labrynth be near and not under Minos' palace but in Knossos.

The Minotaur has appeared more than once in and throughout early history and retains its area of operations so to speak deep within its labrynth. Many depictions show the beast with the head of a bull, chest and mid section of a man and lower torso that of a bull but standing in an erect posture. An odd depiction that it less commonly know is that of the version that appeared during the middle ages. The creature had the head of a man and body of a bull some what similiar and remeniscent of the centaur and some experts have observed.

The Minotaur is a creature of legend and seems to have made itself very prominent throughout history staking it's biggest claim of territory in the ancient city of Crete. But as well all know, legends sometimes fade out and become stories. More than likely the creature never truly existed and a personal opinion on the matter is that the the "creature" may have been a form of propaganda used by Minos to help control his subjects. Some is fact and some is subject to interpretation but one thing is clear, that this great beast may or may not have ever actually existed.