MINOTAUR	BIOGRAPHY
Created by George Pérez after Greek myth

The Minotaur; Art by Jamie Tolagson

PERSONAL DATA

Status: Deceased
Marital Status: Presumably single
Known Relatives: Pasiphae (mother, deceased); a white bull (father, deceased); King Minos (stepfather, deceased); Ariadne (half-sister, deceased); Theseus (former brother-in-law, deceased)
Base of Operation: Formerly the Labyrinth of Knossos, Crete; formely the Greek underworld; later the Labyrinth strip club, Indianapolis
Gender: Male
Eyes: Black
Hair: Brown
Distinguishing Features: The Minotaur had a human body and a bull's head, fur, feet and tail.
First Appearance: Wonder Woman Vol. 2 #13 (February 1987)
Creators: George Pérez after Greek myth

Why did King Minos shut me away when I was little? Why did Mother call me bad and tell me go when she saw how I played with the littles. I thought because I was different but I see now. Why did it take so long to see? I am the same as these littles. Only their horns do not show. They hide them. When I find out how I will hide mine too.

OVERVIEW

In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was the half-man, half-bull of Greek myth who was imprisoned within the great Labyrinth of Knossos, Crete.

HISTORY

The Minotaur is a creature from Greek myth with a man's body and a bull's head, who was imprisoned within the great Labyrinth of Knossos by King Minos of Crete. Many years earlier, the newly crowned King Minos payed to Poseidon, god of the sea, to send him a white bull as a sign of approval. Minos was supposed to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, but instead decided to keep it and offer another bull to the sea god. Enraged, Poseidon punished Minos by having his wife Paisphae fall in love with the bull and copulate with it. Pasiphae gave birth to a monster, a man with a bull's head and a craving for human flesh.

King Minos instructed the craftsman and inventor Daedalus to build a great Labyrith adjacent to the royal castle and imprisoned the Minotaur within it. There, the Minotaur hunted and devoured the unlucky people who were sacrificed to him. Daedalus and his son Icarus where also imprisoned with the Minotaur to keep them from betraying the secrets of the Labyrinth. Daedalus constructed artificial wings for himself and his son in order to escape, but the venture ended in tragedy because of Icarus' hubris. Icarus flew too high, and as a result, the wax in his wings melted and he fell to his death.

The Minotaur spent many years within the labyrinth. It is not known for how long, but when the time traveller Chronos (Walker Gabriel) made a quick stop there (reportedly in 1351 B.C.), the Minotaur was skulking in the shadows. Years later, Theseus, prince of Athens, Greece, came to Knossos to kill the Minotaur. (Theseus' arrival is generally placed around 1200–1000 B.C., which would make Walker Gabriel's account inaccurate.)

Theseus sought to end the suffering of the Athenians. The city regularly paid tribute to King Minos in the form of seven boys and seven girls to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Theseus voluntered to be sacrificed and was sent to Crete. He charmed King Minos' daughter Ariadne into helping him, and she gave him a ball of yarn to use for backtracing his steps within the great labyrinth. And then Theseus killed the beast. Or so legend has it. But it seems as if the Minotaur was not killed after all, and that his demise was a fabrication of Theseus. The Minotaur used Ariadne's ball of yarn to find his way out of the labyrinth and nearly beat his half-sister to death before he fled Crete.

He wandered the world, seeking out the Sphinx of Thebes and killing it when it could not give him answers to his existential ponderings. When he arrived in the "witch province" of Thessaly, the Minotaur summoned the witch goddess Hecate. The Minoatur was taken to by Hecate to another time and place where he could blend in. She brought him to the modern-day slum of Indianapolis, an American city maze where he was hardly noticed. As time went by, he appeared to be human to the general population, and he built a new labyrinth behind the facade of a strip club to which he lured his victims.

Ever restless, he somehow made his way doen to the underworld found behind Doom's Doorway on Themyscira, where he was seemingly killed by a cyclops during Wonder Woman's so-called 'Challenge of the Gods.' The Minotaur survived and made his way back to his strip club.

To this club came teenage runaway Tyler in search for her older sister, who had worked at the club. She was accompanied by the young English mage Tim Hunter, but it was not until the Minotaur discovered that Tyler was pregnant that he paused and gave Tyler the opportunity to shoot him through the heart. It remains to be seen whether the Minutaur is truly dead this time.

There have been other minotaurs on Earth, but any connection to this Minotaur has yet to be established.

POWERS AND WEAPONS

The Minotaur is superhumanly strong and has sharp bull's horns which can be used as offensive weapons. He seems to be extremely long-lived, perhaps even immortal. Savage and cruel, he seems to be on an intellectual level lower than the average man. His weak spot is his mother and other's like her, which enabled the pregnant teenager Tyler to finally kill him.

Physically, he is a cross between man and bull. Most of his body is humanoid, although very hairy. His head, hind legs and tail are those of a bull. He is capable of human speech.

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of Minotaur in chronological order click here