Isaac Asimov's Worlds of Fantasy. Book 6: Mythical Beasties

Minotaur

A bull cult is not an uncommon thing among primitive agricultural peoples. The bull is a strong symbol of masculinity and it is through his matings with cows that generations of cattle to supply beef, milk, cream, cheese, butter, and leather can be maintained-to say nothing of the patient farm work performed by oxen.

The legend of the golden calf during the Exodus was an attempt to establish a bull cult by Israelites tired of dealing with an invisible God. When Israel broke away from the Davidic dynasty, it established a bull cult within its own borders to discourage its people from worshiping at Solomon's temple in Jerusalem.

The best-known bull cult of ancient times is that of early Crete, which has left us paintings of games and rituals involving bulls. While we don't know all the details of the Cretan cults, it would not be surprising if gods were sometimes portrayed as humans with the heads of bulls, and if human beings were sacrificed to the bull god.

The ancient Greeks, gathering some details of the Cretan civilization that had preceded theirs, added to it out of their own excellent imaginations. Minos, the king of Crete {Minos is a general title for the Cretan kings, like Pharaoh for the king of Egypt), was supposed to sacrifice a beautiful bull to Poseidon, god of the sea. He didn't want to and chose a less attractive bull instead. In punishment, Poseidon caused Minos' queen, Pasiphae, to fail in love with the bull, and, in consequence, she gave birth to a bull-headed monster, the Minotaur (from Greek words meaning • -Minos Minos hid it in a labyrinth and. after a war with Athens sent young Athenians into the labyrinth as food for the Minotaur. The Athenian prince Theseus came with the third group and killed the Minotaur. The following story is a modern reminiscence of the myth.