He offered the Athenians peace, however, under the condition that Athens would send seven young men and seven young women every nine years to Crete to be fed to the Minotaur, a vicious monster.

He also created the Labyrinth on Crete, in which the Minotaur ( part man, part bull ) was kept.

On the strength of a passage in The Illiad, it has been suggested that the palace was the site of a dancing-ground made for Ariadne by the craftsman Daedalus, where young men and women, of the age of those sent to Crete as prey for the Minotaur, would dance together.

In Crete, the Minotaur was known by its proper name, Asterion, a name shared with Minos ' foster-father.

The slaying of the Minotaur by Theseus in that case indicates the breaking of Athenian tributary relations with Minoan Crete.

Minos then asked Athens to send seven boys and seven girls to Crete every nine years to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, the offspring from the zoophilic encounter of Minos ' wife Pasiphae with a certain bull that the king refused to sacrifice to Poseidon, which he had placed within a labyrinth he commanded his architect Daedalus to build.

Pasiphae, wife of King Minos of Crete, had several children before the Minotaur.

He then demanded that, at nine-year intervals, seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls were to be sent to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster that lived in the Labyrinth created by Daedalus.

Theseus is played by Bob Mathias in the 1960 film Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete, and by Tom Hardy in the 2006 film Minotaur.

Theseus had been sent to his overlord Minos of Crete as an offering to the Minotaur.

One legend has it that in the Heroic Age before the Trojan War, Theseus abandoned the princess Ariadne of Crete on this island after she helped him kill the Minotaur and escape from the Labyrinth.

In the myth, we are told that Athens sent seven young men and seven young women to Crete as human sacrifices to the Minotaur.

Icarus's father Daedalus, a talented and remarkable Athenian craftsman, built the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete near his palace at Knossos to imprison the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster born of his wife and the Cretan bull.

Some forms of Greek mythology associated the constellation with the tame white bull, in some versions Zeus in disguise, that seduced Europa and took her to Crete ( Minos ), whereas others associate it with the white bull that fathered the Minotaur.

Theseus then went to Crete where he killed the Minotaur with the help of Minos ' daughter Ariadne.

* Minotaur, The ( 1961 ) a. k. a. Theseus Against the Minotaur, a. k. a. The Warlord of Crete

* Minotaur, The ( 1961 ) a. k. a. Theseus Against the Minotaur, a. k. a. The Warlord of Crete

* Island of the Minotaur: Greek Myths of Ancient Crete ( 2003 )

Pathways began as a sequel to Bungie's Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete, before the developers created an original story.

See also " Minotaur and The Bull of Crete " ( below ) for a later incarnation to the Minoan Bull.

For the Greeks, the bull was strongly linked to the Bull of Crete: Theseus of Athens had to capture the ancient sacred bull of Marathon ( the " Marathonian bull ") before he faced the Bull-man, the Minotaur ( Greek for " Bull of Minos "), whom the Greeks imagined as a man with the head of a bull at the center of the labyrinth.

Often an image of the Minotaur appears in the centre of these mosaic labyrinths.

From Classical times through the Renaissance, the Minotaur appears at the center of many depictions of the Labyrinth.

He is constantly being crushed by enemies, but appears to be quite durable, because he survives being smashed by a Hydra, pummeled by a Minotaur with a giant war hammer, flattened by two walls, and blasted through two walls by the Hurricane Sword.

Mighty Minotaur appears as the first boss in the Sega Genesis adaption to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

William Blake's image of the Minotaur to illustrate Inferno XII

It has been proposed that Morax is related to the Minotaur which Dante places in Hell ( Inferno, Canto xii ).

The Minotaur is also the first infernal guardian whom Virgil and Dante come across within the walls of Dis ( the fallen angels, Erinyes, and the unseen Medusa were located on the city's defensive ramparts in Canto IX ).

The Minotaur seems to represent the entire zone of Violence similar to how Geryon represents Fraud in Canto XVI, and holds a similar role in that he is the gatekeeper for the entire seventh Circle.

The work which first established his fame at Rome was Theseus Vanquishing the Minotaur, now in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, in London.

This continued until Theseus killed the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne, Minos ' daughter.

Upon his departure, Aegeus told him to put up white sails when returning if he was successful in killing the Minotaur.

The next three British ships, Vanguard in the lead followed by HMS Minotaur and HMS Defence, remained in line of battle formation and anchored on the starboard side of the French line at 18: 40.

Nelson focused his flagship's fire on Spartiate, while Captain Thomas Louis in Minotaur attacked the unengaged Aquilon and Captain John Peyton in Defence joined the attack on Peuple Souverain.

Although Spartiate was outnumbered, it had been supported by the next in line Aquilon, which uniquely of the French van squadron was fighting only one opponent, Minotaur.

With his opponent defeated, Captain Thomas Louis then took Minotaur south to join the attack on Franklin.

On 14 August, Nelson sent Orion, Majestic, Bellerophon, Minotaur, Defence, Audacious, Theseus, Franklin, Tonnant, Aquilon, Conquérant, Peuple Souverain and Spartiate to sea under the command of Saumarez.

Some stories he refers to are the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the departure of the Argonauts, Theseus and the Minotaur, Ariadne ’ s abandonment, Tereus and Procne, as well as Protesilaus and Laodamia.

Her brothers were Aeetes, the keeper of the Golden Fleece and Perses, and her sister was Pasiphaë, the wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur.

In the story of the labyrinth Hellenes told, the Athenian hero Theseus is challenged to kill the Minotaur, finding his way with the help of Ariadne's thread.

Daedalus built the labyrinth for King Minos, who needed it to imprison his wife's son the Minotaur.

A cow-headed Hera, like a Minotaur would be at odds with the maternal image of the later classical period.

Ancient Rome | Roman mosaic picturing Theseus and the Minotaur.

Its function was to hold the Minotaur, a mythical creature that was half man and half bull and was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus.

Although early Cretan coins occasionally exhibit multicursal patterns, the unicursal seven-course " Classical " design became associated with the Labyrinth on coins as early as 430 BC, and became widely used to represent the Labyrinth – even though both logic and literary descriptions make it clear that the Minotaur was trapped in a complex branching maze.

By extension, in popular legend the palace is associated with the myth of the Minotaur.

File: Conímbriga minotauro. jpg | Minotaur in Labyrinth — a Roman mosaic at Conímbriga, Portugal

File: Minotaurus. gif | Minotaur at center of labyrinth, on a 16th-century gem.

* In the 2010 video game, God of War III ( which is loosely based on Greek mythology ), Daedalus and the Labyrinth are featured but instead of the Labyrinth imprisoning the Minotaur, it imprisons Pandora.