post #327440 post #1277554

The Minotaur was a half-man, half-bull hybrid creature in Greek mythology. After King Minos of Crete slighted the god of the sea Poseidon by not sacrificing a beautiful bull the god had provided for the purpose, Poseidon called upon Aphrodite, goddess of love, to cast a spell on King Minos' wife, Pasiphaë, to fall in love with this Cretan Bull in revenge. Thanks to the help of the genius inventor Daedalus, Pasiphaë disguised herself as a fake cow and seduced the Bull, only to later give birth to the Minotaur (his proper name was Asterion). Growing up, Asterion frequently raged across the land, laying waste to Crete until Minos imprisoned it in the nearly inescapable Labyrinth, also built by Daedalus, and fed it seven Athenian men and women every nine years. The Minotaur was then slain by the Greek hero Theseus, putting an end to its terrible existence. The Minotaur was likely a mythologized take on masks worn by priests of a Cretan bull cult that had a bad habit of sacrificing humans in its ceremonies. The Minotaur is one of the earliest examples of anthropomorphic characters.

The appearance of the Minotaur varies in popular culture. Some sources depict it as having a bull's head, tail, and human feet or hooves, whilst others depict it having a horned human or vaguely humanoid head and with a centauroid like lower body (although, technically, this latter depiction is a bucentaur rather than a minotaur proper).
Another thing that may vary is how many Minotaurs exist. Some world settings depict only one minotaur, whilst others depict a full race of them (male and female), who are either savage and warlike or peaceful and civilized.

Much like the werewolf tag, the distinction between an anthro bull and a minotaur can be tricky. At the very least, if a character has a bovine head and the body of a human (no fur), they're a minotaur.

Most minotaurs on e621 will be anthro, but those depicted as having a bovine head on an otherwise human body should be tagged with animal_humanoid and animal_head.
Examples:
post #1180834 post #3541617

Not to be confused with:

• taur