Asterion

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Asterion (the Minotaur) was a creature of Greek mythology that was part man and part bull. King Minos of Crete had asked the sea god Poseidon to send him a bull as a sign of his favor, and Minos would sacrifice it for Poseidon. Poseidon sent the bull, but King Minos kept the bull and sacrificed a substitute. To punish King Minos, Poseidon caused King Minos’s wife, Pasiphae, to fall in love with the bull and mate with him. The child she bore was the minotaur, who became ferocious and began eating humans. King Minos kept the Minotaur in a labyrinth (a maze so complex it is nearly impossible to escape) and sent live humans into the labyrinth for him to eat until the hero Theseus, using a ball of thread to find his way back out, entered the labyrinth and killed the Minotaur with a sword he had hidden in his clothing.

Synonyms:
minotaur
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