26 Facts About Minos

In Greek mythology, Minos was a King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa.

Minos appears in Greek literature as the king of Knossos as early as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Minos lived at Knossos for periods of nine years, where he received instruction from Zeus in the legislation which he gave to the island.

Minos was the author of the Cretan constitution and the founder of its naval supremacy.

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.

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Lycastus had a son named Minos, after his grandfather, born by Lycastus' wife, Ida, daughter of Corybas.

Unlike Minos I, Minos II fathered numerous children, including Androgeus, Catreus, Deucalion, Ariadne, Phaedra, and Glaucus—all born to him by his wife Pasiphae.

Minos himself is said to have died at Camicus in Sicily, where he had gone in pursuit of Daedalus, who had given Ariadne the clue by which she guided Theseus through the labyrinth.

Minos was killed by the daughter of Cocalus, king of Agrigentum, who poured boiling water over him while he was taking a bath.

Minos's constitution was said to have formed the basis of that of Lycurgus for Sparta.

Outraged, Minos went to Athens to avenge his son, and on the way he camped at Megara where Nisos lived.

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.

Minos demanded Glaucus be brought back to life, though Polyidus objected.

Minos refused to let Polyidus leave Crete until he taught Glaucus the art of divination.

Minos justified his accession as king and prayed to Poseidon for a sign.

Minos was committed to sacrificing the bull to Poseidon, but then decided to substitute a different bull.

Minos offered the Athenians peace if they sent Minos seven young men and seven virgin maidens to feed the Minotaur every year .

Minos attacked Megara but Nisus knew he could not be beaten because he still had his lock of crimson hair.

Minos's was changed into a shearer bird, relentlessly pursued by her father, who was a falcon.

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.

Minos 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.

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.

In Michelangelo's famous fresco, The Last Judgment, Minos appears as judge of the underworld, surrounded by a crowd of devils.

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Minos can speak, to clarify the soul's location within the circle indicated by the wrapping of his tail.