Its location was near Minos' palace in Knossos. Minos, following advice from the oracle at Delphi, had Daedalus construct a gigantic Labyrinth to hold the Minotaur. As the unnatural offspring of a woman and a beast, the Minotaur had no natural source of nourishment and thus devoured humans for sustenance.

Pasiphaë nursed the Minotaur but he grew in size and became ferocious. Pasiphaë had the craftsman Daedalus fashion a hollow wooden cow, which she climbed into in order to mate with the bull. To punish Minos, Poseidon made Minos' wife Pasiphaë fall in love with the bull. Minos believed that the god would accept a substitute sacrifice. Minos was to sacrifice the bull to honor Poseidon, but owing to the bull's beauty he decided instead to keep him. Minos prayed to the sea god Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull as a sign of the god's favour. The bronze 'Horned God' from Enkomi, CyprusĪfter ascending the throne of the island of Crete, Minos competed with his brothers as ruler. The following can be found in dictionaries: / ˈ m aɪ. The use of 'minotaur' as a common noun to refer to members of a generic 'species' of bull-headed creatures developed much later, in 20th-century fantasy genre fiction.Įnglish pronunciation of the word 'Minotaur' is varied. 'Minotaur' was originally a proper noun in reference to this mythical figure. In Etruscan, the Minotaur had the name Θevrumineś. In Crete, the Minotaur was known by the name Asterion, a name shared with Minos' foster-father. The word minotaur derives from the Ancient Greek Μῑνώταυρος, a compound of the name Μίνως ( Minos) and the noun ταῦρος 'bull', translated as '(the) Bull of Minos'.

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