 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.