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In [[Greek mythology]], the '''BUTTOTAUR''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|aɪ|n|ə|t|ɔː}},<ref name="collins_english">{{cite web BUTTERBUTTERBUTTERBUTTERBUTTER |
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In [[Greek mythology]], the '''Minotaur''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|aɪ|n|ə|t|ɔː}},<ref name="collins_english">{{cite web |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/minotaur |title=English Dictionary: Definition of Minotaur |publisher=Collins |accessdate=20 July 2013}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɪ|n|ə|ˌ|t|ɔr}};<ref name="collins_american">{{cite web |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/american/minotaur |title=American English Dictionary: Definition of Minotaur |publisher=Collins |accessdate=20 July 2013}}</ref> {{lang-grc|Μῑνώταυρος}} {{IPA-el|miːnɔ̌ːtau̯ros|}}, {{lang-la|Minotaurus}}, [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] ''Θevrumineś''), was a creature with the head of a [[Cattle|bull]] on the body of a man<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Minotaur "Minotaur"] at dictionary.reference.com</ref> or, as described by Roman poet [[Ovid]], "part man and part bull".<ref>''semibovemque virum semivirumque bovem'', according to [[Ovid]], ''[[Ars Amatoria]]'' 2.24, one of the three lines that his friends would have deleted from his work, and one of the three that he, selecting independently, would preserve at all cost, in the apocryphal anecdote told by [[Albinovanus Pedo]]. (noted by J. S. Rusten, "Ovid, Empedocles and the Minotaur" ''The American Journal of Philology'' '''103'''.3 (Autumn 1982, pp. 332-333) p. 332.</ref> He dwelt at the center of the [[Cretan]] [[Labyrinth]], which was an elaborate [[maze]]-like construction<ref>Labyrinth patterns as painted or inscribed do not have dead ends like a maze; instead, a single path winds to the center, where, with a single turn, the alternate path leads out again. See Kern, ''Through the Labyrinth'', Prestel, 2000, Chapter 1, and Doob, ''The Idea of the Labyrinth'', Cornell University Press, 1990, Chapter 2.</ref> designed by the architect [[Daedalus]] and his son [[Icarus]], on the command of [[Minos|King Minos]] of [[Crete]]. <!-- (this is discussed more critically below) The historical site of [[Knossos]], with over 1300 maze like compartments<ref>C. Michael Hogan. 2007. [http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10854/knossos.html#fieldnotes ''Knossos fieldnotes'', The Modern Antiquarian, ed. Julian Cope]</ref> is identified as the site of the labyrinth.--> The Minotaur was eventually killed by the Athenian hero [[Theseus]]. |
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The term Minotaur derives from the [[Ancient Greek]] {{lang|grc|Μῑνώταυρος}}, a [[compound (linguistics)|compound]] of the name {{lang|grc|Μίνως}} ([[Minos]]) and the noun {{lang|grc|ταύρος}} "bull", translated as "(the) Bull of Minos". In Crete, the Minotaur was known by its proper name, [[Asterion]],<ref>Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 31. 1</ref> a name shared with Minos' foster-father.<ref>The Hesiodic ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' fr. 140, says of Zeus' establishment of Europa in Crete: "...he made her live with Asterion the king of the Cretans. There she conceived and bore three sons, Minos, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthys."</ref> |
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"Minotaur" was originally a proper noun in reference to this mythical figure. The use of "minotaur" as a common noun to refer to members of a generic race of bull-headed creatures developed much later, in 20th-century fantasy genre fiction. |
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==Birth and appearance== |
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[[File:Gehörnter Gott, Enkomi.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The bronze "Horned God" from [[Enkomi]], Cyprus]] |
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After he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos competed with his brothers to rule. Minos prayed to [[Poseidon]] to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of support (the [[Cretan Bull]]). He was to kill the bull to show honor to Poseidon, but decided to keep it instead because of its beauty. He thought Poseidon would not care if he kept the white bull and sacrificed one of his own. To punish Minos, [[Aphrodite]] made [[Pasiphaë]], Minos' wife, fall deeply in love with the bull. Pasiphaë had the archetypal craftsman [[Daedalus]] make a hollow wooden cow, and climbed inside it in order to mate with the white bull. The offspring was the monstrous Minotaur. Pasiphaë nursed him in his infancy, but he grew and became ferocious, being the unnatural offspring of man and beast, he had no natural source of nourishment and thus devoured man for sustenance. Minos, after getting advice from the oracle at [[Delphi]], had Daedalus construct a gigantic labyrinth to hold the Minotaur. Its location was near Minos' palace in [[Knossos]]. |
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Nowhere has the essence of the myth been expressed more succinctly than in the ''[[Heroides]]'' attributed to [[Ovid]], where Pasiphaë's daughter complains of the curse of her unrequited love: "The bull's form disguised the god, Pasiphaë, my mother, a victim of the deluded bull, brought forth in travail her reproach and burden."<ref>Walter Burkert notes the fragment of [[Euripides]]' ''The Cretans'' (C. Austin's frs. 78-82) as the "authoritative version" for the Hellenes.</ref> Literalist and prurient readings that emphasize the machinery of actual copulation may, perhaps intentionally, obscure the [[Mystical marriage|mystic marriage]] of the god in bull form, a Minoan ''mythos'' alien to the Greeks.<ref>See R.F. Willetts, ''Cretan Cults and Festivals'' (London, 1962); Pasiphaë's union with the bull has been recognized as a mystical union for over a century: F. B. Jevons ("Report on Greek Mythology" ''Folklore'' '''2'''.2 [June 1891:220-241] p. 226) notes of Europa and Pasiphaë, "The kernel of both myths is the union of the moon-spirit (in human shape) with a bull; both myths, then, have to do with a sacred marriage."</ref> |
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The Minotaur is commonly represented in Classical art with the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull. One of the figurations assumed by the [[river god]] [[Achelous]] in wooing [[Deianira]] is as a man with the head of a bull, according to [[Sophocles]]' ''[[Women of Trachis|Trachiniai]]''. |
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From Classical times through the Renaissance, the Minotaur appears at the center of many depictions of the Labyrinth.<ref>Several examples are shown in Kern, ''Through the Labyrinth'', Prestel, 2000.</ref> Ovid's Latin account of the Minotaur, which did not elaborate on which half was bull and which half man, was the most widely available during the Middle Ages, and several later versions show the reverse of the Classical configuration, a man's head and torso on a bull's body, reminiscent of a [[centaur]].<ref>Examples include illustrations 204, 237, 238, and 371 in Kern. ''op. cit.''</ref> This alternative tradition survived into the Renaissance, and still figures in some modern depictions, such as Steele Savage's illustrations for [[Edith Hamilton]]'s ''Mythology'' (1942). |
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==Theseus and the Minotaur== |
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[[File:Minotaur-at-Greek-pavilion-Expo-88.jpg|thumb|left|[[Rhyton]] in the shape of a bull's head, [[Heraklion Archaeological Museum]]; shown here at the Greek pavilion at [[Expo '88]]]] |
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[[Androgeus#Son of Minos|Androgeus]], son of Minos, had been killed by the [[Athens|Athenians]], who were jealous of the victories he had won at the [[Panathenaic Games|Panathenaic festival]]. Others say he was killed at [[Marathon, Greece|Marathon]] by the [[Cretan bull]], his mother's former taurine lover, which [[Aegeus]], king of Athens, had commanded him to slay. The common tradition is that Minos waged war to avenge the death of his son and won. [[Catullus]], in his account of the Minotaur's birth,<ref>[http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e64.htm Carmen 64].</ref> refers to another version in which Athens was "compelled by the cruel plague to pay penalties for the killing of Androgeos." Aegeus must avert the plague caused by his crime by sending "young men at the same time as the best of unwed girls as a feast" to the Minotaur. Minos required that [[Sacrificial victims of Minotaur|seven Athenian youths and seven maidens]], drawn by lots, be sent every seventh or ninth year (some accounts say every year<ref>[[Servius]] on ''[[Aeneid]]'', 6. 14: ''singulis quibusque annis'' "every one year". The annual period is given by J. E. Zimmerman, ''Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', [[Harper & Row]], 1964, article "Androgeus"; and H. J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Greek Mythology'', Dutton, 1959, p. 265. Zimmerman cites Virgil, Apollodorus, and Pausanias. The nine-year period appears in Plutarch and Ovid.</ref>) to be devoured by the Minotaur. |
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When the third sacrifice approached, [[Theseus]] volunteered to slay the monster. He promised to his father, Aegeus, that he would put up a white sail on his journey back home if he was successful and would have the crew put up black sails if he was killed. In Crete, Minos' daughter [[Ariadne]] fell madly in love with Theseus and helped him navigate the labyrinth. In most accounts she gave him a ball of thread, allowing him to retrace his path. Theseus killed the Minotaur with the sword of Aegeus and led the other Athenians back out of the labyrinth. On the way home, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of [[Naxos (island)|Naxos]] and continued. He neglected, however, to put up the white sail. King Aegeus, from his lookout on Cape [[Sounion]], saw the black-sailed ship approach and, presuming his son dead, committed suicide by throwing himself into the [[Aegean Sea|sea that is since named after him]].<ref>Plutarch, ''Theseus,'' 15—19; [[Diodorus Siculus]] i. I6, iv. 61; ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]]'' iii. 1,15</ref> This act secured the throne for Theseus. |
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==Etruscan view== |
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[[File:Pasiphae Minotauros Cdm Paris DeRidder1066 detail.jpg|thumb|[[Pasiphaë]] and the Minotaur, [[Attica|Attic]] red-figure [[kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]] found at Etruscan [[Vulci]] ([[Cabinet des Médailles]], [[Paris]])]] |
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This essentially Athenian view of the Minotaur as the antagonist of Theseus reflects the literary sources, which are biased in favour of Athenian perspectives. The Etruscans, who paired Ariadne with Dionysus, never with Theseus, offered an alternative Etruscan view of the Minotaur, never seen in Greek arts: on an Etruscan red-figure wine-cup of the early-to-mid fourth century Pasiphaë tenderly cradles an infant Minotaur on her knee.<ref>The wine cup is illustrated in Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling, ''Etruscan Mythology'' (Series The Legendary Past, British Museum / [[University of Texas at Austin]]) 2006, fig.29 p. 44 ("early fourth century") ([http://bama.ua.edu/~ksummers/cl222/LECT14/sld029.htm on-line illustration]).</ref> |
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==Interpretations== |
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[[File:Theseus Minotaur Ramey Tuileries.jpg|thumb|left|[[Theseus]] fighting the Minotaur by [[Jean-Etienne Ramey]], marble, 1826, [[Tuileries Gardens]], [[Paris]]]] |
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The contest between Theseus and the Minotaur was frequently represented in [[Greek art]]. A Knossian [[Greek drachma|didrachm]] exhibits on one side the labyrinth, on the other the Minotaur surrounded by a semicircle of small balls, probably intended for stars; one of the monster's names was [[Asterion]] ("star"). |
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The ruins of Minos' palace at Knossos have been found, but the labyrinth has not. The enormous number of rooms, staircases and corridors in the palace has led some archaeologists to suggest that the palace itself was the source of the labyrinth myth, an idea generally discredited today.<ref>Sir Arthur Evans, the first of many archaeologists who have worked at Knossos, is often given credit for this idea, but he did not himself believe it; see David McCullough, ''The Unending Mystery'', Pantheon, 2004, p. 34-36. Modern scholarship generally discounts the idea; see Kern, ''Through the Labyrinth'', Prestel, 2000, p. 42-43, and Doob, ''The Idea of the Labyrinth'', Cornell University Press, p. 1990, p. 25.</ref> Homer, describing the [[shield of Achilles]], remarked that the labyrinth was [[Ariadne]]'s ceremonial dancing ground. |
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Some modern mythologists regard the Minotaur as a solar personification and a Minoan adaptation of the [[Baal]]-[[Moloch]] of the [[Phoenicia]]ns. The slaying of the Minotaur by Theseus in that case indicates the breaking of Athenian tributary relations with [[Minoan civilization|Minoan Crete]]. |
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[[Image:Minotaurus.gif|thumb|right|The Minotaur in the [[Labyrinth]], engraving of a 16th-century CE gem in the Medici Collection in the [[Palazzo Strozzi]], Florence<ref>[[Paolo Alessandro Maffei]], ''Gemmae Antiche'', 1709, Pt. IV, pl. 31; Hermann Kern, ''Through the Labyrinth'', Prestel, 2000, fig. 371, p. 202): Maffei "erroneously deemed the piece to be from [[Classical antiquity]]".</ref>]] |
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According to [[Arthur Bernard Cook|A. B. Cook]], ''Minos'' and ''Minotaur'' are only different forms of the same personage, representing the [[Solar deity|sun-god]] of the Cretans, who depicted the sun as a bull. He and [[James George Frazer|J. G. Frazer]] both explain Pasiphaë's union with the bull as a sacred ceremony, at which the queen of Knossos was wedded to a bull-formed god, just as the wife of the [[Tyrant]] in Athens was wedded to [[Dionysus]]. E. Pottier, who does not dispute the historical personality of Minos, in view of the story of [[Phalaris]], considers it probable that in Crete (where a bull-cult may have existed by the side of that of the [[labrys]]) victims were tortured by being shut up in the belly of a red-hot [[brazen bull]]. The story of [[Talos]], the Cretan man of [[brass]], who heated himself red-hot and clasped strangers in his embrace as soon as they landed on the island, is probably of similar origin. |
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A historical explanation of the myth refers to the time when Crete was the main political and cultural potency in the Aegean Sea. As the fledgling Athens (and probably other continental Greek cities) was under tribute to Crete, it can be assumed that such tribute included young men and women for sacrifice. This ceremony was performed by a priest disguised with a bull head or mask, thus explaining the imagery of the Minotaur. It may also be that this priest was son to Minos.{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}} |
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Once continental Greece was free from Crete's dominance, the myth of the Minotaur worked to distance the forming religious consciousness of the Hellene ''[[Polis|poleis]]'' from Minoan beliefs. |
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==The Minotaur in Dante's ''Inferno''== |
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[[File:Blake Dante Hell XII.jpg|thumb|[[William Blake]]'s image of the Minotaur to illustrate ''Inferno'' XII]] |
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The Minotaur (''infamia di Creti'', "infamy of Crete"), appears briefly in [[Dante|Dante's]] ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', in Canto 12 (l. 12–13, 16–21), where Dante and his guide [[Virgil]] find themselves picking their way among boulders dislodged on the slope, and preparing to enter into the [[#Seventh_Circle_.28Violence.29|Seventh Circle]] of Hell.<ref>The traverse of this circle is a long one, filling Cantos 12 to 17.</ref> |
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Dante and Virgil encounter the beast first among the "men of blood": those damned for their violent natures. Many commentators believe that Dante, in a reversal of classical tradition, bestowed the beast with a man's head upon a bull's body.<ref>Inferno XII, Verse Translation by Dr. R. Hollander, p. 228 commentary</ref> |
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{{Col-begin|width=75%}} |
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{{Col-break|width=45%}} |
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:'''''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', Canto XII, lines 16–20''' |
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:Lo savio mio inver' lui grido: "Forse |
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:tu credi che qui sia 'l duca d'Atene, |
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:che sú nel mondo la morte ti porse? |
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:Pártiti, bestia, ché questi non vene |
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:ammaestrato da la tua sorella, |
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:ma vassi per veder la vostre pene." |
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{{Col-break|width=45%}} |
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:'''English translation''' |
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:My sage cried out to him: "You think, |
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:perhaps, this is the Duke of Athens, |
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:who in the world put you to death. |
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:Get away, you beast, for this man |
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:does not come tutored by your sister; |
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:he comes to view your punishments." |
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{{Col-end}} |
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In these lines Virgil taunts the Minotaur in order to distract him, and reminds the Minotaur that he was killed by [[Theseus|Theseus the Duke of Athens]] with the help of the monster's half-sister [[Ariadne]]. The Minotaur is the first infernal guardian whom Virgil and Dante encounter within the walls of Dis.<ref>The fallen angels, the Erinyes [Furies], and the unseen Medusa were located on the city's defensive ramparts in Canto IX.</ref> The Minotaur seems to represent the entire zone of [[#Seventh_Circle_.28Violence.29|Violence]], much as [[Geryon]] represents Fraud in Canto XVI, and serves a similar role as gatekeeper for the entire seventh Circle.<ref>Boccaccio Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine commentary</ref> |
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[[Giovanni Boccaccio]] writes of the Minotaur in his literary commentary of the Commedia: "When he had grown up and become a most ferocious animal, and of incredible strength, they tell that Minos had him shut up in a prison called the labyrinth, and that he had sent to him there all those whom he wanted to die a cruel death".<ref>Boccaccio's Expositions on Dante's Comedy, University of Toronto Press, 30 Nov 2009</ref> [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]], in his own commentary,<ref>Bennett, Pre-Raphaelite Circle, 177-180.</ref><ref>Dante Family letters Rossetti Archive http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/pr5246.a43.vol2.rad.html</ref> compares the Minotaur with all three sins of violence within the seventh circle: "The Minotaur, who is situated at the rim of the tripartite circle, fed, according to the poem was biting himself (violence against oneself) and was conceived in the 'false cow' (violence against nature, daughter of God)." |
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Virgil and Dante then pass quickly by to the [[centaur]]s (Nessus, Chiron, Pholus, and Nessus) who guard the [[Phlegethon|Flegetonte]] ("river of blood"), to continue through the seventh Circle.<ref>Beck, Christopher, "Justice among the Centaurs," Forum Italcium 18 (1984): 217-29</ref> |
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This unusual association of the Minotaur with Centaurs, not made in any Classical source, is shown visually in William Blake's rendering of the Minotaur (''illustration'') as a kind of taurine centaur himself. |
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==Popular culture== |
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* In an episode in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' titled 'If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?', the [[Riddler]] recreates the Minotaur's labyrinth as one of his riddles to be solved by [[Batman]] and [[Robin (comics)|Robin]] for saving a businessman's life. The maze has a robotic Minotaur in its center, which provides the final riddle for solving the maze. |
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* The Minotaur appears in the [[Percy Jackson and the Olympians]] books ''[[The Lightning Thief]]'' and ''[[The Last Olympian]]'' and also the first book's film adaption ''[[Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief]]''. |
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* A minotaur, or minotaur-like creature, appeared in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' stories ''[[The Mind Robber]]'' (1968) ''[[The Time Monster]]'' (1972), ''[[The Horns of Nimon]]'' (1979) and "[[The God Complex]]" (2011). The [[Fourth Doctor]] also claims to have given Theseus the ball of string to navigate the labyrinth. |
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* In ''[[American Horror Story: Coven]]'', [[Delphine LaLaurie]] tortures her houseboy, Bastien, for having sex with one of her daughters. The sadistic slave-owner attaches the severed head of a bull to his body, explaining that ever since she was a little girl she has had a fascination with the Minotaur of Greek myth, and is thrilled at the opportunity to finally have one of her own. |
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* ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'' by [[C. S. Lewis]] includes a race of Minotaurs who are followers of the [[White Witch]]. |
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* [[Jorge Luis Borges]]'s short story "[[The House of Asterion]]" (collected in ''[[The Aleph (short story collection)|The Aleph]]'') tells the Minotaur's story. |
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* [[Mark Z. Danielewski]]'s novel ''[[House of Leaves]]'' features both the labyrinth and the Minotaur as prominent themes. |
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* Director Shin Sang-ok's monster film ''[[Pulgasari]]'' features a gigantic minotaur. |
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*The novel ''Death's Shadow'' in [[Darren Shan]]'s series ''[[The Demonata]]'' mentions the Minotaur, saying that it raised Beranabus, who wept over its dead body after it was slain by Theseus. |
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*In the film 'Fellini Satyricon' Encolpio is pursued by a man with a bull's head-mask through a labyrinth. He is watched by a crowd who chant/laugh in a heavily stylized manner. This affectation seems to echo the Roman 'Laughing festival' and when the Minotaur/man spares Encolpio because of Encolpio's pleas that he is a student, the idea, that the intervention of Religious ritual can help Man's soul triumph over the brute force of the Earth, is supported. |
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==See also== |
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{{multicol}} |
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*[[Apis (Egyptian mythology)]], the Egyptian god is often depicted as a bull, or bull-headed man |
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*[[Bull-Leaping Fresco]] |
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*[[Mahishasura]] - Buffalo headed Asura |
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*[[Shedu]], in Mesopotamian mythology, had a bull body and a human head |
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*[[Minoan Bull-leaper]] |
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*[[Minotaur (film)|''Minotaur'' (film)]] |
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{{multicol-break}} |
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*[[Molech]] or [[Ba'al]] is worshipped in the Middle East and depicted as a man with the head of a bull |
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*[[Nandi (bull)]], a bull that serves Lord Shiva in Hindu mythology |
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*[[Sarangay]], a creature resembling a bull with a huge muscular body and a jewel attached to its ears |
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*[[Races and factions of Warcraft#Tauren|Tauren]], a fictional bovine species from the ''Warcraft'' franchise |
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*[[Ushi-oni]], another bull-headed monster; from Japanese folklore |
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{{multicol-end}} |
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==Notes== |
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{{Reflist|2}} |
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==References== |
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*[http://www.theoi.com/Ther/Minotauros.html Minotaur in Greek Myth] source Greek texts and art. |
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==External links== |
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*{{Wiktionary-inline|Minotaur}} |
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*{{Commons category inline|Minotaur}} |
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[[Category:Cretan mythology]] |
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[[Category:Greek legendary creatures]] |
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[[Category:History of Crete]] |
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[[Category:Labours of Theseus]] |
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[[Category:Mythological bovines]] |
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[[Category:Mythological human hybrids]] |
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[[Category:Anthropomorphic animals]] |
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[[Category:Cattle in art]] |
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[[Category:Monsters]] |
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In Greek mythology, the BUTTOTAUR (/ˈmaɪnətɔː/,<ref name="collins_english">{{cite web BUTTERBUTTERBUTTERBUTTERBUTTER