Minotaur

The Minotaur was a creature from Greek mythology, typically depicted as having the head of a bull and the body of a man, or, less frequently, the body of a bull and the head of a man. The most famous Minotaur was the offspring of Pasiphaë, wife of King Minos of Crete, and a Cretan bull.

Confined within the Labyrinth, a complex maze designed by the architect Daedalus, the Minotaur was fed a regular supply of Athenian youths and maidens as tribute. This tribute was a consequence of Minos’s victory in a war against Athens.

Eventually, the Athenian hero Theseus volunteered to be one of the tributes and, with the help of Ariadne, Minos's daughter, who gave him a ball of thread to navigate the Labyrinth and a sword, he slew the Minotaur. Theseus followed the thread to the center of the Labyrinth, killed the Minotaur, and then followed the thread back out, escaping the maze.

The myth of the Minotaur has been interpreted in various ways, ranging from a symbol of brute force and barbarity to a representation of internal human struggles with bestial impulses. The Labyrinth itself is often seen as a metaphor for the complexities of the human mind. The Minotaur remains a potent symbol in literature, art, and popular culture, continuing to be referenced and reimagined in contemporary works.