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Minotaur
The Labyrinth of Crete
Danger Level: 7/10
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Abilities
Superhuman StrengthLabyrinth NavigationBerserker Rage
Lore & Legend
Asterion in the House of the Double Axe
Pasiphae, cursed by Poseidon, bore a bull-headed son whom Minos hid in Daedalus's labyrinth. Athens sent youths and maidens as tribute until Theseus, with Ariadne's thread, killed the creature. Apollodorus and Plutarch give the political frame: Cretan thalassocracy remembered as a cannibal tax.
The name Minotauros is 'bull of Minos'; Asterion is the rarer personal name.
Primary Sources
“And she gave birth to Asterius, who was called the Minotaur. He had the face of a bull, but the rest of his body was human.”