The Minotaur. Painting by Maggie Hambling. |
Minotaur (MIN-uh-tawr). A monster, half-man, half-bull, that devoured sacrificial victims thrown into the Labyrinth. Born of Queen Pasiphae's god-inflicted infatuation with a bull, the Minotaur was eventually killed by Theseus. The monster is generally depicted as having the head of a bull and the body of a man. But in the Middle Ages, artists portrayed a man's head and torso on a bull's body. |