Minotaur

The Minotaur was a creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man. Queen Pasiphae of Crete had coupled with a bull, sent by Zeus, which was the creation of the Minotaur. The Minotaur's propor name was Asterion, meaning 'the starry one', which suggests that he was associated with the constellation Tauros.

King Mino's was embarassed, but did not want to kill the monster, so he hid the monster in the Labyrinth constructed by Daedalus at the Minoan Palace of Knosses. Mino's was imprisoning his enemies in the Labyrinth so that the Minotaur could eat them. The Labyrinth was such a complicated construction that no one could ever find their way out alive.

The third year, Theseus, son of Aegeus decided to be one of the seven young men that would go to Crete, in order to kill the Minotaur and end the human sacrifices to the monster. Theseus announced to King Minos that he was going to kill the Monster, but Minos knew that even if he did manage to kill the Minotaur, Theseus would never be able to exit the Labyrinth.
Theseus met Princess Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, who fell madly in love with him and decided to help Theseus. She gave him a thread and told him to unravel it as he would penetrate deeper and deeper into the Labyrinth, so that he knows the way out when he kills the monster.
Theseus followed her suggestion and entered the labyrinth with the thread. Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur and save the Athenians, and with Ariadne’s thread he managed to retrace his way out.
Theseus took Princess Ariadne with him and left Crete sailing happily back to Athens.

Paintings:

TITLE: Theseus Killing the Minotaur
ARTIST: William Russell Flint
YEAR: 1924
Watercolour painting

This painting shows Theseus killing the Minotaur. The painter has used lots of clouds within the painting, perhaps representing the Gods of ancient Greece.

ARTIST: Picasso

Picasso had a strong interest in the Minotaur from Greek mythology. He has many paintings of this creature, in which I have posted a few below.



Film / Television Series:

Film - 'Minotaur'
2008

This film is about Theseus replacing one of the prisoners, with himself, and heading into the Labyrinth to slay the Minotaur.

TRAILER:



FULL MOVIE:

Documentary - 'Clash of the Gods: The Minotaur'
2013

This documentary of the Minotaur contains lots of information on the creature. It goes into detail about the myth and where he may have lived.

Music Video - 'Minotaur' by Thee Oh Sees
2013

This music video is a commical modern version of the greek mythical monster. It tells the story of what happened with Theseus and the Minotaur in a funny concept.

Books:

TITLE: Shadow of the Minotaur

AUTHOR: Alan Gibbons

DATE: 2010

TITLE: Theseus and the Minotaur

AUTHOR: Hugh Lupton

DATE: 2013

TITLE: Greek Myths

AUTHOR: Marcia Williams

DATE: 2006

Photography:

TITLE: Minotaur

PHOTOGRAPHER: Pepeyn Langedijk

YEAR: 2006

Firstly, this photographer has a lot of amazing work on their blog of different types of creatures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/pepeyn/

This photograher has used photoshop to merge an actual bulls head onto a male human in post production.

Other photographers work includes:

Below is the first moodboard in which I have created for the Minotaur. I have included the images that I thought would work well for his final look. I love the idea of using a model with a dark hair colour and applying extensions and mesh to create huge bull horns. Also, I would quite like to create very dark eye makeup that is very extravagant. I have added glitter and sequins to the mood board as I may find these useful when desinging the makeup. I have also included jewellery to start thinking about the styling side of the character.