In Greek mythology, Minos( or ; Greek: Μίνως, Minōs) is a king of Crete, son of
Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys
and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus' creation, the labyrinth, to be
eaten by the Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in the
underworld. The Minoan civilization of Crete has been named after him by the
archaeologist Arthur Evans. By his wife, Pasiphaë, he fathered Ariadne,
Androgeus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Glaucus, Catreus, Acacallis and Xenodice. By a
nymph, Pareia, he had four sons, Eurymedon, Nephalion, Chryses and
Philolaus, who were killed by Heracles in revenge for the murder of the
latter's two companions; and by Dexithea, one of the Telchines, he had a
son called Euxanthius. By Androgeneia of Phaestus he had Asterion, who commanded
the Cretan contingent in the war between Dionysus and the Indians. Also given as
his children are Euryale, possibly the mother of Orion with Poseidon, and
Pholegander, eponym of the island Pholegandros.
Minos, along with his brothers, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon, was raised by
king Asterion of Crete. When Asterion died, his throne was claimed by Minos
who banished Sarpedon and, according to some sources, Rhadamanthys too.
Etymology Minos is the Cretan word for "king", or,
by a euhemerist interpretation, the name of a particular king that was
subsequently used as a title. There is a name in Minoan Linear A mi-nu-te that
may be related to Minos. According to La Marle's reading of Linear A, which have
been heavily criticised as arbitrary we should read mwi-nu ro-ja on a Linear A
tablet. The royal title ro-ja is read on several documents, including on stone
libation tables from the sanctuaries, where it follows the name of the main
god, Asirai. La Marle suggests that the name mwi-nu is expected to mean
'ascetic' as Sanskrit muni, and fits this explanation to the legend about
Minos sometimes living in caves on Crete. If royal succession in Minoan
Crete descended matrilinearly— from the queen to her firstborn daughter— the
queen's husband would have become the Minos, or war chief. Some scholars see a
connection between Minos and the names of other ancient founder-kings, such as
Menes of Egypt, Mannus of Germany, and Manu of India, and even with Meon of
Phrygia and Lydia, Mizraim of Egypt in the Book of Genesis and the Canaanite
deity Baal Meon. The literary Minos
Minos appears in Greek literature as the king of Knossos as early as Homer's
Iliad and Odyssey. Thucydides tells us Minos was the most ancient man known to
build a navy. He reigned over Crete and the islands of the Aegean Sea three
generations before the Trojan War. He lived at Knossos for periods of nine
years, where he received instruction from Zeus in the legislation which he
gave to the island. He was the author of the Cretan constitution and the founder
of its naval supremacy. On the Athenian stage Minos is a cruel
tyrant, the heartless exactor of the tribute of Athenian youths to feed to
the Minotaur; in revenge for the death of his son Androgeus during a riot.
= Later rationalization= To reconcile the contradictory aspects
of his character, as well as to explain how Minos governed Crete over a period
spanning so many generations, two kings of the name of Minos were assumed by
later poets and rationalizing mythologists, such as Diodorus Siculus
and Plutarch— "putting aside the mythological element", as he claims— in
his life of Theseus. According to this view, the first King Minos was the son
of Zeus and Europa and brother of Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon. This was the
'good' king Minos, and he was held in such esteem by the Olympian gods that,
after he died, he was made one of the three 'Judges of the Dead', alongside
his brother Rhadamanthys and half-brother Aeacus. The wife of this
'Minos I' was said to be Itone or Crete, and he had a single son named Lycastus,
his successor as King of Crete. Lycastus had a son named Minos, after
his grandfather, born by Lycastus' wife, Ida, daughter of Corybas. This 'Minos
II'— the 'bad' king Minos— is the son of this Lycastus, and was a far more
colorful character than his father and grandfather. It would be to this Minos
that we owe the myths of Theseus, Pasiphaë, the Minotaur, Daedalus,
Glaucus, and Nisus. Unlike Minos I, Minos II fathered numerous children,
including Androgeus, Catreus, Deucalion, Ariadne, Phaedra, and Glaucus — all born
to him by his wife Pasiphaë. Through Deucalion, he was the grandfather of
King Idomeneus, who led the Cretans to the Trojan War.
= Possible historical element= Doubtless there is a considerable
historical element in the legend, perhaps in the Phoenician origin of
Europa; it is possible that not only Athens, but Mycenae itself, were once
culturally bound to the kings of Knossos, as Minoan objects appear at
Mycenaean sites. Minos himself is said to have died at
Camicus in Sicily, whither he had gone in pursuit of Daedalus, who had given
Ariadne the clue by which she guided Theseus through the labyrinth. He was
killed by the daughter of Cocalus, king of Agrigentum, who poured boiling water
over him while he was taking a bath. Subsequently his remains were sent back
to the Cretans, who placed them in a sarcophagus, on which was inscribed:
"The tomb of Minos, the son of Zeus." The earlier legend knows Minos as a
beneficent ruler, legislator, and suppressor of piracy. His constitution
was said to have formed the basis of that of Lycurgus for Sparta. In
accordance with this, after his death he became judge of the shades in the
underworld. In later versions, Aeacus and Rhadamanthus were made judges as
well, with Minos leading as the "appeals court" judge.
The mythological Minos Asterion, king of Crete, adopted the
three sons of Zeus and Europa, Minos, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthus. According to
the Odyssey he spoke with Zeus every nine years or for nine years. He got his
laws straight from Zeus himself. When Minos' son Androgeos had won the
Panathenaeic Games the king, Aegeus, sent him to Marathon to fight a bull,
resulting in the death of Androgeos. Outraged, Minos went to Athens to avenge
his son, and on the way he camped at Megara where Nisos lived. Learning that
Nisos' strength came from his hair, Minos gained the love of Scylla and her
aid in cutting off her father's hair so that he could conquer the city. After
his triumph, he punished Scylla for her treachery against her father by tying
her to a boat and dragging her until she drowned. On arriving in Attica, he asked
Zeus to punish the city, and the god struck it with plague and hunger. An
oracle told the Athenians to meet any of Minos' demands if they wanted to escape
the punishment. 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. The Minotaur was defeated by the
hero Theseus with the help of Minos' daughter Ariadne.
= Glaucus= One day, Glaucus was playing with a ball
or mouse and suddenly disappeared. The Curetes told the Cretans "A marvelous
creature has been born amongst you: whoever finds the true likeness for this
creature will also find the child." Polyidus of Argos observed the
similarity of a newborn calf in Minos' herd, colored white and red and black,
to the ripening of the fruit of the bramble plant, and so Minos sent him to
find Glaucus. Searching for the boy, Polyidus saw an
owl driving bees away from a wine-cellar in Minos' palace. Inside the wine-cellar
was a cask of honey, with Glaucus dead inside. Minos demanded Glaucus be
brought back to life, though Polyidus objected. Minos shut Polyidus up in the
wine-cellar with a sword. When a snake appeared nearby, Polyidus killed it with
the sword. Another snake came for the first, and after seeing its mate dead,
the second serpent left and brought back an herb which brought the first snake
back to life. Following this example, Polyidus used the same herb to resurrect
Glaucus. Minos refused to let Polyidus leave
Crete until he taught Glaucus the art of divination. Polyidus did so, but then,
at the last moment before leaving, he asked Glaucus to spit in his mouth.
Glaucus did so, and forgot everything he had been taught.
= Poseidon, Daedalus and Pasiphaë= Minos justified his accession as king
and prayed to Poseidon for a sign. Poseidon sent a giant white bull out of
the sea. Minos was committed to sacrificing the bull to Poseidon, but
then decided to substitute a different bull. In rage, Poseidon cursed Pasiphaë,
Minos' wife, with zoophilia. Daedalus built her a wooden cow, which she hid
inside. The bull mated with the wooden cow and Pasiphaë was impregnated by the
bull, giving birth to a horrible monster, again named Asterius, the
Minotaur, half man half bull. Daedalus then built a complicated "chamber that
with its tangled windings perplexed the outward way" called the Labyrinth, and
Minos put the Minotaur in it. To make sure no one would ever know the secret
of who the Minotaur was and how to get out of the Labyrinth, Minos imprisoned
Daedalus and his son, Icarus, along with the monster. Daedalus and Icarus flew
away on wings Daedalus invented, but Icarus' wings melted because he flew too
close to the sun. Icarus fell in the sea and drowned.
= Theseus= Minos' son Androgeus won every game in a
contest hosted by Aegeas of Athens. Alternatively, the other contestants
were jealous of Androgeus and killed him. Minos was angry and declared war on
Athens. He offered the Athenians peace if they sent Minos seven young men and
seven virgin maidens to feed the Minotaur every year. This continued
until Theseus killed the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne, Minos' lovestruck
daughter. = Nisus=
Minos was also part of the King Nisus story. Nisus was King of Megara, and he
was invincible as long as a lock of crimson hair still existed, hidden in
his white hair. Minos attacked Megara but Nisus knew he could not be beaten
because he still had his lock of crimson hair. His daughter, Scylla, fell in love
with Minos and proved it by cutting the crimson hair off her father's head.
Nisus died and Megara fell to Crete. Minos spurned Scylla for disobeying her
father. She was changed into a shearer bird, relentlessly pursued by her
father, who was a falcon. = The death of Minos=
Minos searched for Daedalus by traveling from city to city asking a riddle; he
presented a spiral seashell and asked for it to be strung all the way through.
When he reached Camicus, Sicily, King Cocalus, knowing Daedalus would be able
to solve the riddle, fetched the old man. He tied the string to an ant, which
walked through the seashell, stringing it all the way through. Minos then knew
Daedalus was in the court of King Cocalus and demanded he be handed over.
Cocalus managed to convince him to take a bath first; then Cocalus' daughters
and Daedalus, with Minos trapped in the bath, scalded him to death with boiling
water. After his death, Minos became a judge of
the dead in Hades together with Aeacus and Rhadamanthus. Rhadamanthus judged
the souls of Asians, Aeacus judged Europeans, and Minos had the deciding
vote. Minos in art
On Cretan coins, Minos is represented as bearded, wearing a diadem, curly-haired,
haughty and dignified, like the traditional portraits of his reputed
father, Zeus. On painted vases and sarcophagus bas-reliefs he frequently
occurs with Aeacus and Rhadamanthus as judges of the underworld and in
connection with the Minotaur and Theseus.
In Michelangelo's famous fresco, The Last Judgment, Minos appears as judge of
the underworld, surrounded by a crowd of devils. With his tail coiled around him,
Minos judges the damned as they are brought down to hell.
= In poetry= In the Aeneid of Virgil, Minos was the
judge of those who had been given the death penalty on a false charge - Minos
sits with a gigantic urn, and decides whether a soul should go to Elysium or
Tartarus with the help of a silent jury. Radamanthus, his brother, is a judge at
Tartarus who decides upon suitable punishments for sinners there.
In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy story Inferno, Minos is depicted with having a
snake-like tail. He sits at the entrance to the second circle in the Inferno,
which is the beginning of Hell proper. Here, he judges the sins of each soul
and assigns it to its rightful punishment by indicating the circle to
which it must descend. He does this by circling his tail around his own body
the appropriate number of times. He can also speak, to clarify the soul's
location within the circle indicated by the wrapping of his tail.
= In books= Minos appeared as an antagonist against
Percy Jackson in The Battle of the Labyrinth, the fourth book in the Percy
Jackson series by Rick Riordan. Minos appeared to be helping the character
Nico di Angelo raise his sister, who died in The Titan's Curse. It was later
revealed that he was working with Luke Castellan to destroy Olympus. He
revealed that he only helped Nico to trick him into killing Daedalus so he
would come back instead of Bianca. King Minos and the Minotaur appear in In
the Grip of the Minotaur by Farnham Bishop and Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, a
novel which was serialized in Adventure magazine in 1916. Set around 1400 B.C.,
it tells the story of a group of Northmen who visit the ancient
Mediterranean on a trading mission and become embroiled in intrigues between
the rising power of Troy and the mistress of the Mediterranean, Crete.
Brodeur was a professor at Berkeley who translated Prose Edda by Snorri
Sturluson and was a well-known Beowulf scholar. The novel was printed in book
form for the first time in 2010 by Black Dog Books.
In Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, the story of Minos and the
Minotaur is referenced several times, both accurately and inaccurately, when
Zampanó discusses the thematic similarities between it and the house's
labyrinth. Minos appears as a sympathetic character
in Mary Renault's "The King Must Die". Slowly succumbing to the rages of
leprosy, he hides his face by wearing a bull mask. Having no heir but an
illegitimate stepson nicknamed "The Minotaur", he sees in captive Theseus a
future king and husband to his daughter, Ariadne.
See also Minos, a dialogue attributed to Plato
Notes References
Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James
George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard
University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Herodotus, Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley, Cambridge.
Harvard University Press. 1920. Homer, The Iliad with an English
Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes, Cambridge, MA., Harvard
University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two
volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William
Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Hyginus, Gaius Julius, The Myths of
Hyginus. Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas
Press, 1960. Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Biography and Mythology, London. "Minos 1.", "Minos 2."
Thucydides, Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal
analysis, notes, and indices, Volume 1., Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford.
Clarendon Press. 1881. Ziolkowski, Theodore, Minos and the
Moderns: Cretan Myth in Twentieth-century Literature and Art..
Pp. xii, 173. Kelides,Yianni Minos SA: A study of the
mind.. Pp. xii, 173. External links
Media related to Minos at Wikimedia Commons
The death of Minos in Sicily