What is Minos?
'''Minos''' was the [[mythical]] first king of [[Crete]], son of [[Zeus]] and [[Europa (mythology)|Europa]]. The following stories are [[mythological]], and have no real historical basis. 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]]. He once had a wife named [[Pasophae]]. Minos upset the [[Greek gods]] by cheating them in a sacrifice. He told [[Poseidon]] that he would sacrifice a beautiful bull that [[Poseidon]] gave him after he used it. Instead, he switched it with another bull. They punished him by having Pasophae fall in love with a bull. Pasophae asked [[Daedalus]] to help her, so Daedalus made a mechanical cow for her, and she got into it. The bull mated with the wooden cow and Pasophae had a child. It was the [[Minotaur]], half human, half bull. King Minos took the Minotaur and put it in a labrynth, or maze, built by Daedalus. When he was in possession of all of [[Crete]] he ordered that fourteen young people come to him to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. [[Theseus]] volunteered to be one of them, and went there with daughter, [[Ariadne]]. He killed the Minotaur in the labyrinth. The [[Minoan civilization]] was later named after him by [[Arthur Evans]]. Evans was the archaeologist who discovered and excavated the palace of [[Knossos]] in Crete.<ref>MacGillivray, Joseph Alexander 2000. Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the archaeology of the Minoan myth. New York: Hill and Wang</ref> == References == {{reflist}} * http://www.makrigialos.com/default.php?param=minos {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070904184708/http://www.makrigialos.com/default.php?param=minos |date=2007-09-04 }} * http://www.maicar.com/GML/Minos2.html * http://www.in2greece.com/english/historymyth/mythology/names/minos.htm [[Category:People in Greek mythology]]