Who hasn’t heard of the labyrinth or the Minotaur? But how many are familiar with the story of the king who ruled during the time of the Minotaur and its surrounding events? The ruler was King Minos, and he ruled over Crete until he was murdered.
Minos is the son of Zeus and Europa. When Europa became the bride of Asterius, the king of Crete, Asterius adopted Minos and his brothers, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon. Asterius, however, never had a son of his own, so when he died, the land of Crete became contestable. Minos declared that the gods backed his claim to the throne.
Minos and the Bull
To prove his claim to the throne, Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a bull from the sea, promising to sacrifice it to Poseidon. Poseidon obliged, but when a beautiful white bull appeared out of the waves, Minos found the bull too beautiful to have slaughtered and instead sacrificed another bull in its place.
Displeased by the broken vow, Poseidon placed Minos’s wife, Pasiphae, under a spell that made her passionate for the white bull that was not sacrificed. She had Daedalus, an artist and craftsman exiled in Crete, make for her a hollow, wooden bull covered in hide as a disguise. This coupling resulted in the birth of a monster with the body of a man, and the head of the bull. This monster is known as Minotaur, which means Bull of Minos.
The Labyrinth
To contain the beast, Minos had Daedalus build a maze, and the Minotaur was placed at the center. After the death of Minos son at the hands of the Athenian king, seven Athenian youths were sent into the labyrinth – killed by the Minotaur. This ritual was carried out every nine years until one of Minos’s daughters, Ariadne fell in love with Theseus, an Athenian youth sacrificed to the Minotaur, helping him out of the labyrinth with an enchanted piece of thread that has been come to be known as Ariadne’s thread.
The thread was made by Daedalus, so when Ariadne fled with Theseus and Minos found out, he was greatly displeased. Minos shut Daedalus into the labyrinth. This is where Daedalus invented the wings which brought the ill-fated Icarus to his end. But Daedalus escaped to Cocalus, and Minos, determined to exact revenge, appealed to the king of Cocalus to surrender Daedalus. The daughters of the king murdered Minos with scalding water after he had determined that Daedalus was indeed hiding in Cocalus.
Interpreting the Myth of Minos
A theme that seems to prevail in the myth of Minos is that of promise as well as the consequences of breaking promises. Minos is punished for his broken vow to Poseidon with Pasiphae’s infidelity. It is said, however, that Minos himself committed infidelity on his wife so often that she bewitched him so that his ejaculate became comprised of snakes and scorpions.
One could take away from this myth that every action comes with a consequence. When Minos, hungry for vengeance against Daedalus, leaves his kingdom in search of his enemy, he finds himself conquered. So the myth of Minos teaches one the importance of keep promises, and also warns against the dangers of seeking vengeance.
Sources
- March, Jenny. Cassell’s Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Cassell: London, 2001.
Joshua Benson - As a librarian and student of literature, I delight in the facilitation of knowledge to the eager reader.
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