Minotaur

In Greek mythology, the Minotaur looks like a monster with a human body and the head of a bull. His mother was Pásifaé (wife of the Cretan king Minos) and his father was a white bull.

After the birth of the Minotaur, King Minos built the intricate Labyrinth, where he imprisoned his stepson. And he had his wife cunningly killed.

Androgeos, the son of King Minos, was killed in the war between Crete and Athens. After Athens fell, the king of Minoa ordered Athens to send seven girls and seven boys to Crete every year. They would be locked in a labyrinth to be killed by the Minotaur.

One day, the hero Theseus, son of the Athenian king Aigeas, volunteered to join the unfortunates, because he wanted to rid Athens of this punishment. The Cretan king received the hero kindly, but warned him that even if he succeeded in killing the Minotaur, he would still not get out of the labyrinth. On the eve of the journey to the labyrinth, the king's daughter Ariadne (with the help of the goddess Aphrodite) fell in love with Theseus. Their feelings were mutual, and so Ariadne gave Théséseus a magic sword and a ball of thread that he would untangle on the way to get out of the labyrinth.

In the morning, after entering the labyrinth, the hero found the Minotaur and after a hard fight killed it. Thanks to the thread, he then safely left the labyrinth itself. The king thanked him and abolished the annual sacrifice. Ariadne then wanted to sail away with Theseus, but the goddess Athena forbade her to do so, and instead of leaving, Ariadne became the wife of the god Dionysus. So Théseus returned alone. But he forgot to take down the black sails on the ship to announce his death, and his father Aigeus threw himself into the sea in grief and died.

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