TheQuinotaur (Latin:Quinotaurus) is a mythicalsea creature mentioned in the 7th centuryFrankishChronicle of Fredegar. Referred to as "the beast ofNeptune which resembles a Quinotaur",[1] it was held to have fatheredMeroveus by attacking the wife of the Frankish kingChlodio and thus to have sired the line ofMerovingian kings.
The "bull with five horns" was likened by Pseudo-Fredegar- interpolatingGregory of Tours who authored an earlier record of the legend- to bothNeptune and theMinotaur, as it was both seaborne and taurine. It is not known whether one or both traits are original to the legend or if their combination is an accretion by one or both of the Christian authors.[2] The clericalLatinity of the name does not indicate whether it is a translation of some genuine Frankish creature or a coining.
The suggested rape and subsequent family relation of this monster attributed toFrankish mythology correspond to both the Indo-European etymology ofNeptune (according toJaan Puhvel, fromProto-Indo-European*népōts, "grandson" or "nephew", compare also theIndo-AryanApam Napat, "grandson/nephew of the water")[3] and to bull-related fertility myths inGreek mythology, where for example the princessEuropa was abducted by the godZeus, in the form of a white bull, that swam her toCrete; or to the very myth of theMinotaur, which was the product ofPasiphaë's, a Cretan Queen's, intercourse with a white bull, initially allotted to KingMinos, Pasiphaë's husband, as a sacrifice forPoseidon.
bistea Neptuni Quinotauri similis eam.