Minos

Minos went to war against Sarpedon and gained the upper hand. The brothers had quarrelled over Miletos, a beautiful boy who was the son of Apollo and Areia, daughter of Cleochos. Miletos favoured Sarpedon, so Minos drove him from Crete. Miletos sailed to Caria, where he founded the city and kingdom of Miletos, naming it after himself. The country had previously been called Anactoria. It had been ruled by the giant Anax and his son Asterius.

Sarpedon fled to Cilicia in Asia Minor. He became an ally of Cilix, who was at war with the Lycians. Together they conquered them, and Sarpedon became their king. Another account says that they conquered the Milyans. Zeus granted Sarpedon the privilege of living for three generations. In one tradition, the kingdom later took the name Lycia after Lycus, who had taken refuge with Sarpedon after being banished from Athens by Aegeus.

Minos’s claim to the throne was accepted by the Cretans, except Sarpedon. In another account, Minos prepared a sacrifice and prayed for a bull to rise from the sea. A dazzling white bull appeared, but Minos kept it among his herds and sacrificed another bull instead. Sarpedon maintained that Asterios had intended to divide the kingdom equally among his three heirs. Minos had already divided Crete into three parts and chosen a capital for each.

Europa was their mother. Zeus had carried her to Crete in the form of a bull. Asterios, her husband and ruler of the Cretans, raised Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys, and made them his heirs. Herodotus gives a shorter version, in which Minos won a fight for the throne and expelled Sarpedon and his followers. Another account names Atymnios, son of Zeus and Cassiepeia, as the boy over whom the brothers quarrelled.

As Minos besieged Nisa, Scylla saw him, the enemy commander, and fell in love with him. She decided to win him by giving him the purple lock of hair on her father Nisus’s head. The lock protected Nisus’s life and the security of his kingdom. Scylla considered the betrayal, then chose to end the war by surrendering her father and her city to Minos.

At night, she entered Nisus’s chamber and cut away the lock. She also took the keys of the city gate, opened it, and escaped. She went to Minos’s camp and offered him the severed hair in return for his love. Minos was horrified by her act. He refused to accept her and would not take her to Crete, because he hated the killing of a parent. He ordered fair terms for the defeated city and prepared to leave.

Scylla followed the departing fleet. She leapt into the sea and seized the stern, or the rudder of Minos’s ship, as it moved away. Nisus, whose soul had become a sea eagle or an osprey, swooped down upon her. He attacked her with talons and a hooked beak, preventing her from climbing aboard. Terrified, Scylla let go and drowned.

Her soul was then said to have become the ciris bird, known for its purple breast and red legs. Other accounts say that Minos ordered her drowning, or that she became a fish called ciris rather than the bird. The city of Nisa was later called Megara, in honour of Megareus, a son of Nisus.

Minos attacked Athens with a fleet after the death of his son, Androgeus. He had already captured Megara, which was ruled by Nisos, son of Pandion. Minos demanded satisfaction for Androgeus’s death. He ordered the Athenians to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete every nine years. If they refused, he threatened to destroy the city. In another account, Athens could not be captured, so Minos prayed to Zeus for vengeance. Famine and plague struck the city, and an oracle instructed the Athenians to grant Minos whatever penalty he chose.

Androgeus had been visiting Athens during the Panathenaic games, where he defeated the other competitors. Aegeus then sent him against the bull of Marathon, which killed him. Another account says that Androgeus was travelling to Thebes for games held in honour of Laius when rival competitors ambushed and murdered him. In either version, Minos received news of his son’s death while he was sacrificing to the Graces on Paros. He cast away his garland and silenced the flutes, though he completed the sacrifice.

The youths and maidens were sent to Crete as a penalty for Androgeus’s death. There they were given to the Minotaur, which devoured them. The Minotaur was a bull-headed creature born to Pasiphaé, Minos’s wife, and a beautiful bull. Poseidon had given the bull to Minos so that he would sacrifice it, but Minos kept it instead. As punishment, Poseidon caused Pasiphaé to fall madly in love with the bull. The Minotaur was confined in the Cretan Labyrinth, whose winding passages made escape impossible. The tribute continued until Theseus later brought it to an end.

Newly arrived ghosts were judged each day by Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aeacus at a place where three roads met. Rhadamanthys tried Asiatics, and Aeacus tried Europeans. Both referred difficult cases to Minos. Each verdict sent the dead along one of the three roads. Those who were neither virtuous nor evil went to the Asphodel Meadows. The evil went to the punishment field of Tartarus. The virtuous went to the orchards of Elysium.

Elysium lay near Hades’s dominions, but remained separate from them. In one telling, Cronus ruled it. In another, Rhadamanthys ruled it. Perpetual day filled the land, and cold and snow never came. Games, music, and revels continued there. Its inhabitants could choose rebirth on earth. Another description placed a golden palace of Hades and Persephone before the Elysian Fields. The happy shades received a kindly greeting there before they entered the fields. Meadows, brooks, flowers, and birds filled the region. The shades followed the pursuits they had enjoyed on earth. A warrior found horses, chariots, and arms. A musician found a lyre. A hunter found a bow and quiver. Lethe, the stream of oblivion, dispelled care and produced forgetfulness.

In one telling, Minos judged in Hades and continued his earthly function among the dead, while Rhadamanthys lived in Elysium. In another, Rhadamanthys sat as a judge with Minos, and Aeacus completed the group. The three judges were mortal sons of Zeus.

Britomartis fled from Minos across craggy mountains and level plains. She was a daughter of Leto, a close companion of Artemis, and kept the goddess’s hounds on a leash. She had also invented hunting nets. For nine months she hid from Minos beneath thick leaved oak saplings in the water meadows. At last, in desperation, she threw herself into the sea. Fishermen hauled her to safety. Artemis then made her divine under the name Dictynna. On Aegina she was worshipped as Aphaea, because she had vanished. At Sparta she was called Artemis, Lady of the Lake. On Cephallonia she was Laphria, while the Samians used her true name in their invocations.

Minos also lay with the nymph Paria, whose sons colonised Paros and were later killed by Heracles. Androgeneia, the mother of the lesser Asterius, was another of his partners. His many affairs enraged Pasiphae, who placed a spell on him. Whenever he had intercourse with another woman, harmful creatures emerged from his body. The women involved died from the affliction.

Procris survived. She had fled Athens after being caught with Pteleon, who had given her a golden crown, and came to Crete. Minos offered her a fast running dog and a javelin that never missed, gifts attributed to Artemis. Procris accepted them, then gave Minos a drink made from the Circaean root to prevent the curse from harming her. She lay with him and lived. Afterwards, fearing Pasiphae, she returned to Athens. The sources differ on whether Minos gave her the dog and javelin after the cure or whether she obtained them as the price of the remedy.