Minos
Greek · demigod · heroic age · Recorded classification
Half-Olympian son of Zeus by Europa; legendary king of Crete and lawgiver. The Homeric tradition treats him as a long-reigning sovereign who held audiences with Zeus in a cave on Mt. Ida every nine years for renewal of laws (Od. 19.179: "ennēōros"). Husband of Pasiphae; (paternal-) father of Ariadne, Phaedra, Androgeos, Glaucus, Catreus; legal father of the Minotaur. Antagonist of Theseus in the Athenian-tribute episode. After death became one of the three judges of the dead.
Parentage
Children
Domains
- kingship of Crete thalassocracy
- underworld judge
Powers
- Judge the souls of the dead
- Receive laws in converse with Zeus
Epithets
- Μίνως ὀαριστὴς Διός 'Minos the confidant of Zeus' — Homer's phrase for the king who conversed with Zeus every nine yearsHomer, Odyssey 19.178-179 (primary)
- Μίνως ὀαριστής Διός 'Minos the confidant of Zeus' — the Homeric phrase making him Zeus's intimate every ninth yearHomer, Odyssey 19.178-179 (primary)
Relations
- sibling: RhadamanthusHom. Il. 14.321-322 (primary)
- sibling: Sarpedon (Cretan)Apollod. 3.1.1-2 (primary)
- spouse: Pasiphae (queen of Crete, daughter of Helios and the Oceanid Perseis; mother of the Minotaur by the Cretan Bull; not registered under strict rule) · GreekMother of the Minotaur, Ariadne, Phaedra, Androgeos, Catreus, Glaucus, Deucalion, Acacallis, Xenodice. The canonical-foundational dynastic union of the Olympian-Zeus line through Minos and the Helios-Perseis line through Pasiphae.Apollod. 3.1.2 (primary)
- father of: Ariadne (daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, helped Theseus escape the Labyrinth; not registered as Pasiphae-line cascade) · GreekApollod. 3.1.2; Hes. Theog. 947 (primary)
- father of: Phaedra (daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, second wife of Theseus; not registered as Pasiphae-line cascade) · GreekApollod. 3.1.2 (primary)
- father of: Androgeos (son of Minos and Pasiphae; not registered as Pasiphae-line cascade) · GreekApollod. 3.1.2, 3.15.7 (primary)
- father of: Catreus (son of Minos and Pasiphae; not registered as Pasiphae-line cascade) · GreekApollod. 3.1.2, 3.2.1-2 (primary)
- father of: Glaucus son of Minos (son of Minos and Pasiphae, drowned in honey and resurrected; not registered as Pasiphae-line cascade) · GreekApollod. 3.1.2, 3.3.1-2 (primary)
- father of: Deucalion son of Minos (son of Minos and Pasiphae, father of Idomeneus; not registered as Pasiphae-line cascade) · GreekApollod. 3.1.2, 3.3.1 (primary)