by Max Teslya

Created on: September 19, 2010   Last Updated: September 20, 2010

In Ancient Greek Mythology, monsters such as the Minotaur and the Medusa, terrorized the land and scared people. Few warriors were brave enough to challenge these terrifying beasts, but only great heroes prevailed. The great Minotaur caused much damage to the people of Crete before the great hero Theseus killed him.

The Minotaur was a beast of great monstrosity feared by all and avoided. It had the body of a man but the head of a bull. The Minotaur stood ten feet tall and had the strength of seven men. Its anger was fierce and feared by everyone for miles around.

The Minotaur was born because of the foolishness of King Minos of Crete and Queen Pasiphaë. Back when Minos was still a prince, he was competing with his brothers for the throne. To prove that he was worthy enough to be king, Minos prayed to Poseidon to send a white bull. To please Poseidon, Minos promised to sacrifice the bull when he was king. Poseidon was pleased with the promise and sent the bull. As the bull made its way to Minos the next morning, the people made him king because they saw he was honored by the gods. As king, Minos changed his mind about the promise and decided not to sacrifice the bull because he thought it was so beautiful and decided to keep it as a sign of his power. When Poseidon realized that a mere mortal broke a promise to a god, he was furious. Poseidon decided to punish Minos and asked Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to make Queen Pasiphaë fall in love with the white bull. With a passion she couldn’t control, Queen Pasiphaë went to the brilliant inventor, Daedalus, and asked him to build a hollow bull for her to hide in. Daedalus complied and gave it to Queen Pasiphaë who then snuck out at night with the disguise and mated with the bull. Little did she know that she would give birth to a mutant child.

When the Minotaur was born all were horrified at the sight of the ugly and terrifying thing. Even as a child the Minotaur was hideous and ferocious. He had no friends while he was growing up because all ran at the sight of the beast. Lonely and laughed at, the Minotaur’s anger grew, and all were fearful. To save his kingdom from being destroyed, King Minos ordered Daedalus to build a complex maze where there was only one exit that was impossible to find. In the center of the maze was where the Minotaur would stay, and every few days, a man or a woman from the island of Athens entered and either died looking for the exit, or was eaten

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