MINOTAUROS

THE MINOTAUROS (or Minotaur) was a bull-headed monster born to Queen Pasiphae of Krete, daughter of the Sun God Helios. As punishment for some offence against the gods committed either by herself or her husband, she was cursed with the desire to be coupled with the king's finest bull. The Queen conscripted the great artisan Daidalos to assist her in the endeavour, and he built for her a hollow wooden cow, wrapped in a bovine skin and endowed with mechanical life. Hiding herself inside this contraption she conceived and bore a hybrid child, the bull-headed Minotauros. The creature resided in the twisting maze of the labyrinth, built by Daidalos, where he was offfered a regular sacrifice of seven youths and seven maids to satisfy his cannibalistic hunger. He was eventually destroyed by the hero Theseus with the help of King Minos' daughter, Ariadne. The Minotauros' proper name Asterion, "the starry one," suggests he was associated with the constellation Tauros. (SOURCE)