Archeologist SirArthur Evans used King Minos as the namesake for theMinoan civilization of Crete. TheMinoan palace atKnossos is sometimes referred to as thePalace of Minos though there is no evidence that Minos was a real person.[1]
17th-century engraving ofScylla falling in love with Minos
Minos appears in Greek literature as the king ofKnossos as early asHomer'sIliad andOdyssey.[2]Thucydides tells us Minos was the most ancient man known to build a navy.[3] He reigned over Crete and the islands of theAegean Sea three generations before theTrojan War. He lived atKnossos for nine years, where he received instruction fromZeus in the legislation he gave to the island. He was the author of the Cretan constitution and the founder of its naval supremacy.[3][4]
On theAthenian stage, Minos was one who had strong character, but was also a crueltyrant.[5] When Asterius died, Minos was boasting to himself that he deserved the rule while shunning the gods.[6] According to Homer, Minos conversed with Zeus every nine years, for educational purposes. Being the only one who received lessons from Zeus made Minos receive great praise.[7] However, he was the heartless exactor of the tribute of Athenian youths to feed to theMinotaur, in revenge for the death of his sonAndrogeus during a riot (seeTheseus).[8] While Minos had stern character and was the law of the land, he was also cruel; this made Minos one who was respected but also greatly feared.
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 by the name of Minos were assumed by later poets and rationalizing mythologists, such asDiodorus Siculus[9] andPlutarch - "putting aside the mythological element", as he claims - in his life of Theseus.[10]
According to this view, the first King Minos was the son of Zeus and Europa and the brother of Rhadamanthys andSarpedon. 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",[11] alongside his brother Rhadamanthys and half-brotherAeacus. The wife of this "Minos I" was said to beItone (daughter ofLyktos) or Crete (anymph or daughter of his stepfather Asterion), and he had a single son namedLycastus, his successor as King of Crete.
Lycastus had a son named Minos, after his grandfather, born by Lycastus' wife,Ida, daughter ofCorybas. "Minos II"—the "bad" king Minos—is the son of this Lycastus, and was a far more colorful character than his father and grandfather. This is the Minos in the myths ofTheseus,Pasiphaë, theMinotaur,Daedalus,Glaucus, andNisus. Unlike Minos I, Minos II fathered numerous children, includingAndrogeus,Catreus,Deucalion,[12]Ariadne,Phaedra, andGlaucus—all born to him by his wife, Pasiphaë. Through Deucalion, he was the grandfather of KingIdomeneus, who led the Cretans to theTrojan War.
By his wife,Pasiphaë (or some sayCrete), the daughter of the Sun (Helios), and mother of the Minotaur, he fathered Ariadne, Androgeus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Glaucus, Catreus,Acacallis, andXenodice. By anymph, Pareia, he had four sons, Eurymedon,Nephalion, Chryses, and Philolaus, whomHeracles killed in revenge for the murder of the latter's two companions. ByDexithea, one of theTelchines, he had a son calledEuxanthius.[13] By Androgeneia ofPhaistos, he had Asterion, who commanded the Cretan contingent in the war betweenDionysus and theIndians.[14] Also given as his children are Euryale, possibly the mother ofOrion withPoseidon,[15] and Pholegander,eponym of the islandPholegandros.[16] Minos, along with his brothers,Rhadamanthys andSarpedon, was raised by KingAsterion (or Asterius) of Crete. When Asterion died, his throne was claimed by Minos,[17] who, according to some sources, banished his brothers.
Asterion, king of Crete, adopted the three sons of Zeus and Europa: Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus. According to theOdyssey (Book XIX l. 203, as interpreted by Plato inLaws 624), Minos consulted with Zeus every nine years. He got his laws straight from Zeus himself. When Minos' son Androgeos won thePanathenaic Games, the king, Aegeus, sent him to Marathon to fight a bull, resulting in the death of Androgeos. Outraged, Minos went to Athens to avenge his son, and on the way, he camped at Megara, where Nisos lived. Learning that Nisos' strength came from his hair, Minos gained the love of Scylla and her aid in cutting off her father's hair so that he could conquer the city. After his triumph, he punished Scylla for her treachery against her father by tying her to a boat and dragging her until she drowned. On arriving in Attica, he asked Zeus to punish the city, and the god struck it with plague and hunger. An oracle told the Athenians to meet any of Minos' demands if they wanted to escape the punishment. 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 Pasiphaë with the Cretan Bull that the king refused to surrender to Poseidon) which he had placed within a labyrinth he commanded his architect Daedalus to build. The Minotaur was defeated by the hero Theseus with the help of Minos' daughter Ariadne.
Glaucus was playing with a ball[18] or mouse[19] and suddenly disappeared one day. TheCuretes told the Cretans, "A marvelous creature has been born amongst you: whoever finds the true likeness of this creature will also find the child."
Three times a day, the calf changed color from white to red to black.Polyidus of Argos observed the similarity to the ripening of the fruit of themulberry plant, and Minos sent him to find Glaucus.
Searching for the boy, Polyidus saw an owl driving bees away from a wine cellar in Minos' palace. Inside the wine cellar was a cask of honey, with Glaucus dead inside. Minos demanded Glaucus be brought back to life, though Polyidus objected. Minos ordered Polyidus to be entombed with the body. When asnake appeared nearby, Polyidus killed it immediately. Another snake came for the first, and after seeing its mate dead, the second serpent left and brought back anherb, bringing the first snake back to life. Following this example, Polyidus used the same herb to resurrect Glaucus.
Minos refused to let Polyidus leave Crete until he taught Glaucus the art ofdivination. Polyidus did so, but then, at the last moment before leaving, he asked Glaucus to spit in his mouth. Glaucus did so and forgot everything he had been taught.
Minos justified his accession as king and prayed toPoseidon for a sign. Poseidon sent a giant white bull out of the sea.[20] Minos was committed to sacrificing the bull to Poseidon[21] but then decided to substitute a different bull. Poseidon cursedPasiphaë, Minos' wife, in rage, with a mad passion for the bull. Daedalus built her a wooden cow, which she hid inside. The bull mated with the wooden cow, and Pasiphaë was impregnated by the bull, giving birth to a horrible monster, again named Asterius,[22] theMinotaur, half-man half bull. Daedalus then built a complicated "chamber that with its tangled windings perplexed the outward way"[23] called theLabyrinth, and Minos put the Minotaur in it. To make sure no one would ever know the secret of who the Minotaur was and how to get out of the Labyrinth (Daedalus knew both of these things), Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son,Icarus, along with the monster. Daedalus and Icarus flew away on wings Daedalus invented, but Icarus' wings melted because he flew too close to the sun. Icarus fell into the sea and drowned.
Amphora showing Theseus slaying the Minotaur, 460 BC. Ref:1837,0609.57.
Minos' sonAndrogeus won every game in a contest hosted byAegeas ofAthens. Alternatively, the other contestants were jealous of Androgeus and killed him. Minos was angry and declared war on Athens. He offered the Athenians peace if they sent Minosseven young men and seven virgin maidens to feed theMinotaur yearly (which corresponded directly to the Minoans' meticulous records of lunar alignments – a full moon falls on the equinoxes once every eight years). This continued untilTheseus killed the Minotaur with the help ofAriadne, Minos' lovestruck daughter.
Minos was also part of the KingNisus story. Nisus was King of Megara and was invincible as long as a lock of crimson hair still existed, hidden in his white hair. Minos attacked Megara, but Nisus knew he could not be beaten because he still had his lock of crimson hair.[24] His daughter,Scylla, fell in love with Minos and proved it by cutting the crimson hair off her father's head. Nisus died, and Megara fell to Crete. Minos spurned Scylla for disobeying her father. She 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. When he reached Camicus, Sicily, King Cocalus, knowing Daedalus would be able to solve the riddle, fetched the old man. He 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 tub, scalded him to death with boiling water.[25]
After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead inHades together with his half-brotherAeacus and his full-brotherRhadamanthus. Rhadamanthus judged the souls of Asians, Aeacus judged Europeans, and Minos had the deciding vote.[26]
On Cretan coins, Minos is represented as bearded, wearing adiadem, curly-haired, haughty, and dignified, like the traditional portraits of his reputed father, Zeus. He frequently occurs on painted vases and sarcophagus bas-reliefs, with Aeacus and Rhadamanthus as underworld judges and in connection with the Minotaur and Theseus.
Knosos - 400-350 BC - silver stater - head of Ariadne - Minos
InMichelangelo's famousfresco,The Last Judgment (located in theSistine Chapel), Minos appears as a judge of the underworld, surrounded by a crowd of devils. With his tail coiled around him and two donkey ears (symbol of stupidity), Minos judges the damned as they are brought down to hell (seeInferno, Second Circle).
In theAeneid ofVirgil, Minos was the judge of those who had been given the death penalty on a false charge - Minos sits with a huge urn and decides whether a soul should go toElysium orTartarus with the help of a silent jury. Radamanthus, his brother, is a judge at Tartarus who decides upon suitable punishments for sinners there.[28]
InDante Alighieri'sDivine Comedy storyInferno, Minos is depicted as having asnake-like tail. He sits at the entrance to the second circle in theInferno, which is the beginning of Hell proper. There, he judges the sins of each soul and assigns it to its appropriate punishment by indicating the circle to which it must descend. He does this by circling his tail around his body the appropriate number of times. He can also speak to clarify the soul's location within the circle indicated by the wrapping of his tail.[29]
^Powell, Barry B.Classical Myth. Second ed. With new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1998, p. 346.
^Powell, Barry B.Classical Myth. Second ed. With new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1998, p. 350.
^Plato, & Jowett, B. (1997).The dialogues of Plato. Thoemmes Press.
^Plutarch,Theseus §16 notes the discrepancy: "on the Attic stage Minos is always vilified... and yet Minos is said to have been a king and a lawgiver..."LemprièreA Classical Dictionary,s.v. "Minos" and "Minos II".
^Bibliotheke 3.1.3; compareDiodorus Siculus 4.77.2 andJohn Tzetzes,Chiliades i.479ff. Lactantius Placidus, commentary on Statius,Thebaid v.431, according to whom the bull was sent, in answer to Minos's prayer, not by Poseidon but by Jupiter.
^The act would have "returned" the bull to the god who sent it.
^Apparently a quotation, according toSir James George Frazer, (Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation, 1921), commenting onBibliotheke 3.1.4.
Apollodorus,Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Herodotus,Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley, Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
Homer,The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PhD in two volumes, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
Homer,The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
Thucydides,Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices, Volume 1., Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
Ziolkowski, Theodore,Minos and the Moderns: Cretan Myth in Twentieth-century Literature and Art. (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). Pp. xii, 173 (Classical Presences).
Kelides,YianniMinos SA: A study of the mind. (Minos SA University: I love Greece Club, 2000 BC). Pp. xii, 173 (Classical Presences).
