Minotaur

                               

                                                                                                   

                                                                 
                     

                                                  Dimensions height 56 cm

                                                                    width 20 cm

                                                                    depth  5 cm




          "In Greek mythology, the Minotaur (Ancient Greek: Μῑνώταυρος [miːnɔ̌ːtau̯ros], Latin: Minotaurus, Etruscan Θevrumineś), was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man^[1] or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull".^[2] He dwelt at the center of the Cretan Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction^[3] designed by the architect Daedalus and his sonIcarus, on the command of King Minos of Crete. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus."

"The term Minotaur derives from the Ancient Greek Μῑνώταυρος, a compound of the name Μίνως (Minos) and the noun ταύρος "bull", translated as "(the) Bull of Minos". In Crete, the Minotaur was known by its proper name, Asterion,^[4] a name shared with Minos' foster-father.^[5]"

"The Minotaur is commonly represented in Classical art with the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull. One of the figurations assumed by the river god Achelous in wooing Deianira is as a man with the head of a bull, according to Sophocles' Trachiniai."

"From Classical times through the Renaissance, the Minotaur appears at the center of many depictions of the Labyrinth.^[8] Ovid's Latin account of the Minotaur, which did not elaborate on which half was bull and which half man, was the most widely available during the Middle Ages, and several later versions show the reverse of the Classical configuration, a man's head and torso on a bull's body, reminiscent of a centaur.^[9] This alternative tradition survived into the Renaissance, and still figures in some modern depictions, such as Steele Savage's illustrations for Edith Hamilton's Mythology (1942)."




                                  

Minotaur bust, (National Archaeological Museum of Athens)




                            

The Minotaur in the Labyrinth, engraving of a 16th-century CE gem in the Medici Collection in the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence




                             

The bronze "Horned God" from Enkomi, Cyprus