What is the name of the man with the head of a bull? The answer to this question is simple and very concise. The man with the head of a bull is the Minotaur. He lived in the center of the maze, which was a complex structure designed by architect Daedalus and his son Icarus on the orders of King Minos. The Minotaur is once and for all destroyed by the Athenian hero Theseus.
Etymology
The word "minotaur" comes from the ancient Greek Μῑνώταυρος, a combination of the name Μίνως (Minos) and the noun ταύρος "bull", which translates as "bull of Minos." In Crete, the Minotaur was known by the name Asterion given to it by its parents.
The word "minotaur" was originally a noun in relation to this mythical figure. The use of the word “minotaur” as a common noun for the representatives of the generic species of creatures with the head of a bull developed much later, in the fantasy genre of the 20th century.
Story
After Minos ascended the throne of Crete, he competed with his brothers for the opportunity to single-handedly rule the island. Minos prayed to Poseidon, the sea god, that he would send him a snow-white bull as a sign of support (Cretan bull). He thought that Poseidon would not care if he left the white bull and sacrificed his oath. To punish Minos, Poseidon made Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, sincerely and passionately fall in love with a bull. Pasifaya told master Daedalus to make a wooden hollow cow so that she could climb into it and mate with a white bull.
The brainchild of this unnatural sexual act was the Minotaur. Pasifaya nursed him, but he grew and became fierce, being an unnatural descendant of a woman and a beast. He did not have a natural source of nutrition, and therefore he ate people. Minos, having received advice from the oracle at Delphi, ordered Daedalus to build a giant labyrinth to keep the Minotaur.
The minotaur is usually represented in classical art as a half-half-man. According to Sophocles, one of the figures adopted by the spirit of the Achelus River in the seduction of Dejanira is a man with the head of a bull. The Minotaur is mentioned in many legends and beliefs. Some apocryphal legends describe him as a winged man with the head of a bull.
Cultural context
From classical times to the Renaissance, the Minotaur appears at the center of many works of art. In the Latin treatise of Ovid about the Minotaur, the author did not specify which half was from the bull, and which was from the man, and some later images draw before us the unusual appearance of this monster with the head and body of a person on the body of the bull, which somewhat resembles a centaur. This alternative tradition has been preserved until the Renaissance and is still featured in some modern images, such as Steel Savage's illustrations for Edith Hamilton's Mythology.
Secret son
Androgeus, son of Minos, was killed by the Athenians, who envied the victories won at the Panathenaic festival. Other sources claim that he was killed at the Marathon by a Cretan bull, beloved of his mother, whom Aegeus, king of Athens, ordered to kill. Minos went to war in order to avenge the death of his son, and defeated her.
Catullus, in his essay on the origin of the Minotaur, refers to another version in which Athens was "forced to pay for the murder of Androgeus." Aegeus had to pay for his crime, sending young men and the best unmarried girls as victims for the Minotaur. Minos demanded that seven Athenian youths and seven maidens selected by lot be sent to the Minotaur every seven or nine years (according to some information, every year).
Theseus feat
When the third sacrifice approached, Theseus volunteered to kill the monster. He promised his father Aegeus that if he succeeds, he will return home under white sails. In Crete, the daughter of Minos Ariadne fell in love with Theseus at first sight and decided to help him navigate the maze. She gave him a ball of thread, which allowed him to find the right way back. Theseus killed the Minotaur with the sword of Aegeus and led the other Athenians out of the maze.
King Aegean, waiting for his son at Cape Sounion , saw the approach of a ship with black sails (the team simply forgot to hang white sails) and, assuming that his son was dead, committed suicide by throwing himself in a sea named in his honor. So Theseus became ruler.
Etruscan contribution
This purely Athenian view of the Minotaur as an antagonist to Theseus expresses the heroism and philanthropy of the Athenian people. The Etruscans, who linked Ariadne to Dionysus and not to Theseus, offered an alternative view of the Minotaur, which had never been in Greek art.
Contribution to Mythology and Culture
The struggle between Theseus and the monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull was often represented in Greek art. Knossos didrachm shows on one side a maze, on the other - a Minotaur surrounded by a semicircle of small balls, probably intended for stars; one of the monster's names was Asterion ("star").
Although the ruins of the palace of Minos in Knossos were discovered by archaeologists, the maze seems to have never been there. Some archaeologists have suggested that the palace itself was a source of a labyrinth myth. Homer, describing the shield of Achilles, noted that Daedalus had built a ceremonial dance floor for Ariadne, but he did not connect it with the same labyrinth.
Interpretations
Some modern mythologists consider the Minotaur a solar personification and a Minoan adaptation of Baal-Moloch of the Phoenicians. The assassination of the Minotaur by Theseus in this case indicates a break in Athenian ties with Minoan Crete.
According to A. B. Cook, Minos and the Minotaur are only different forms of the same character, representing the Cretan sun god, who depicted the sun as a bull. Many also believe that the whole monster story is an allegory of the bloody cults practiced in Crete in ancient times. Like it or not - it’s hard to say for sure now. Everyone chooses the version that is closer to him. The story of Talos, a Cretan copper man who heated himself to a hot state and squeezed strangers in his arms as soon as they landed on the island, probably has a similar origin. All these are traces of the Paleo-European cult of the bull, which existed throughout Europe before the invasion of our ancestors - Indo-Europeans. The bull is still a symbol of Crete.
The historical explanation of the myth dates back to when Crete was the main political and cultural hegemon in the Aegean. Since young Athens (and possibly other continental Greek cities) were vassals of Crete, it can be assumed that young men and women were given as a tribute to the hegemon for the purpose of sacrifice. This ceremony was performed by a priest putting on a mask of a bull. The man with the head of a bull in Egypt is one of the priests of Set. This often explains the origin of the myth.
When mainland Greece was liberated from Crete's domination, the Minotaur myth was mentioned in the context of separating the emerging Hellenic religious consciousness from Minoan beliefs.
In the Middle Age
The Minotaur (infamia di Creti, translated from Italian means “the shame of Crete”) appears briefly in “The Divine Comedy”, in “Song 12”, where Dante and his guide Virgil find themselves in the thick of boulders near the seventh circle of Hell.
Dante and Virgil in Hell meet a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull among the "people of blood" cursed for their cruel nature. Like other ancient characters, the Minotaur was reintroduced by the great Italian poet into medieval culture. Some commentators believe that Dante, in contrast to the classical tradition, gave the beast the head of a person on the body of a bull, although this view has already been found in medieval literature.
In his monologues, Virgil makes fun of the Minotaur to distract him, and reminds the Minotaur that he was killed by Theseus, Prince of Athens, with the support of the monster’s half-sister, Ariadne.
The Minotaur is the first hellish guard that Virgil and Dante meet in the walls of Dis. The bull-headed man seems to represent the entire area of Violence in Hell, while Gerion represents Fraud in Song XVI and performs the same role of gatekeeper for the entire Seventh Circle.