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The Minotaurus was a monster whose real name, in reality, was Asterios or Asterion.
He was not the son of Minosses, the legendary king if Crete in the II millennium B.C., although tha last believed it.

This is the story:
Minosses, to get the throne of Crete, said to his brothers that he had to be the new king because he had the favour of the Gods, that's to say, the best recommendations possible.

To show it, during a religious ceremony, he asked to Poseidon to let get out from the sea a bull , promising to sacrifice it to him.
Poseidon granted him, so that Minosses could have the throne; but then, he replaced the sacred bull with another one and this drove Poseidon furious, so that he made furious the bull that later escaped and was captured and healed by Heracles, who gave it back to Minosses.

But, at this point, Minosses' wife PASIFAE came on stage. She had to be, at least, rather vicious and bored by the everyday court life; in fact, she got a "crush" for the sacred bull and managed to make love with him; to this purpose, she made build a cow with wood and hide into it, waiting for the bull.
So, this made sex with Pasifae, believing to make it with a real cow.
The result of this "love" was a baby-monster with a bull head, the MINOTAUROS.

Minosses, believing that he was his son and that this was another punishment by Poseidon, he felt a deep shame for him; so, he made build by the genial inventor DEDALOS (ICAROS' father, I remember you) a great underground riddle and closed the Minotauros into it.
But Minosses felt a little love for him who was, anyway, his son, so, after having won Athens in war, he decided that, as a tribute, Athens citizens had to send to Crete every year 7 boys and 7 girls to offer as a meal to the Minotauros, because, you know, a son must be always well fed and have the best.

But, with the 3rd group of victims, the hero THESEOS reached Krete and he wasn't quite an easy meal.
ARIANNA (the first daughter of Minosse and Pasifae), falled in love with him, and helped him with the trick of the famous rope coil for not getting lost inside the labyrinth, Theseos killed the Minotauros with punches and blows and got out easily from the labyrinth, escaping from Crete with Arianna.

By another, more realistic version of this legend, the Minotauros was not a monster, but the head of Minosses Army, named TAUROS and was too powerful and influent, so that Minosses, to protect his throne, called Theseos to help him to kill his dangerous general.
Theseos killed Tauros and his reward was his marriage with Arianna, always Minosses' daughter.

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