Minotaur
The Greek mythical creature with a man's body and a bull's head, kept in the Labyrinth of Crete.
Also: Minotauros, Asterion
In Greek myth, King Minos of Crete was sent a fine white bull by Poseidon to sacrifice, but kept it for himself. In punishment his wife Pasiphae was made to fall in love with the bull, and bore the Minotaur, part man and part bull. The craftsman Daedalus built the Labyrinth to hold it, and Athens was made to send young men and women to be fed to it, until the hero Theseus, helped by the thread that Minos's daughter Ariadne gave him, found his way in, killed it and found his way out again. The myth is often linked to Minoan bull rituals and to the many rooms and corridors of the palace at Knossos.