The Minotaur was one of the most important mythological figures in the Greek tradition. His description tells us that he was a being with the body of a man and the head of a bull, while his story tells us that he was relegated to guarding the labyrinth on the island of Crete, a labyrinth to which groups of individuals regularly arrived who, unable to find the exit, they were devoured by him. The Minotaur takes its name from the expression “bull of Minos”, being Minos one of the kings of the island and who gave its name to the Minoan culture that lived there before the arrival of the Greeks.
According to mythological legend, the Minotaur appears as a punishment for King Minos of Crete. Having promised the god Poseidon to sacrifice a bull in his honor in exchange for protection against the attack of possible invaders and not fulfilling the promise because of the beauty that such a bull possessed, the sea god caused Minos’s wife, Pasiphae, to fall in love with the animal and had a loving encounter with him. From this encounter the Minotaur would be born, a monster half man and half bull. The Minotaur would be confined to a labyrinth specially built by him not only as a show of disdain for King Minos, but mainly to contain his ever-increasing savagery.
The labyrinth of Minos was located near the Palace of Knossos where the king resided with his court. To keep it within this space, groups of Athenians dominated by the Minoan civilization were regularly sent to this territory under the slogan that whoever could get out of the labyrinth was free. Whoever won’t make it, would inevitably be devoured by the beast. It was not until the appearance of Theseus, son of Poseidon, that this situation would not be reversed. To ensure his victory, Theseus received from his beloved, Ariadne, a thread that allowed her to make the journey knowing that she would have the way back in her hands. In a tough and very fierce confrontation, Theseus was able to heroically kill the Minotaur and find the way out of the labyrinth, thus becoming one of the Athenian heroes.
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