MINOTAUR
This sculpture relates the myth of the Minotaur, a white bull sent to King Minos by the god Poseidon for sacrifice. The king, instead of sacrificing the bull, kept it alive and as a punishment the god made Minos' wife, Pasiphae, fall in love with the animal whom she lured to her nest disguised as a cow. Her child by the bull was shut up in the labyrinth. When the Athenians killed Minos' son, Androgeos, the king demanded that seven Athenian youths and seven maidens be sent to be devoured by the Minotaur. The Athenian hero Theseus volunteered to go, and with the help of Ariadne (daughter of Minos and Pasiphae), killed the monster. The sculpture captures the dramatic mating between the bull and Pasiphae. The tail of Poseidon's dolphin forms the genitalia of the willing beast penetrating the woman. To the right Theseus battles the Monster and rescues a horrified maiden trapped in its horns. A kneeling youth is crashed at the bottom; he becomes Ariadne's crown and/or string of jewels which will guide Theseus out of the labyrinth. The youth-crown-jewels become king Minos and his wife grieving at the thought of their daughter being devoured by the Minotaur. The battle of Theseus and the beast together with the maiden, the youth, the jewels, the king, and the queen, form a labyrinth throughout the entire work.
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