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Rhadamanthus, a MythSource painting
Greek

Rhadamanthus

The Fair-Haired · The Just · Judge Of The Dead

01Identity

Rhadamanthus in Greek tradition

Judgment in Hades is assigned to Rhadamanthus in later Greek tradition, where he sits with Minos and declares the torments awaiting guilty souls. He is also remembered as a Cretan king and lawgiver who later lived in exile in Boeotia after killing a kinsman. Unlike Minos, whose judgement of the dead is already found in Homer, Rhadamanthus is placed in Elysium in Homer and becomes an underworld judge in later accounts.

Top questions

The quick answers

  • Who is Rhadamanthus?

    Rhadamanthus is a Greek being associated with judgment of the dead; justice and law; Cretan kingship and governance; the underworld tribunal; and the afterlife of the blessed.
    Source

    Source

    • The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)
    • The Greek Myths

  • What is Rhadamanthus associated with?

    Rhadamanthus is associated with judgment of the dead; justice and law; Cretan kingship and governance; the underworld tribunal; and the afterlife of the blessed.
    Source

    Source

    • The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)
    • The Greek Myths

  • What family links are recorded for Rhadamanthus?

    Father: Hephaestus, Mother: Europa, Spouse: Alkmene, 3 children, 2 siblings.
02Family

Rhadamanthus’s family, at a glance

HephaestusZeusEuropa
RhadamanthusMinosSarpedon

with Alkmene

ErythrusGortysOenopion
03The names

The names Rhadamanthus answers to

Rhadamanthys

Alternate Greek transliteration of the name

SourceThe Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

Judge Of The Dead

Underworld judge who assesses the deceased

SourceThe Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

Judge In Hades

Judge serving in the Greek underworld

SourceThe Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

Cretan Lawgiver

Ancient lawgiver associated with Crete

SourceThe Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

04The myths

The myths of Rhadamanthus

2 myths, with sources recorded for each.

The Birth and Upbringing of Rhadamanthus

Zeus took Europa across the sea to Crete in the form of a bull. There he lay with her, and she gave birth to three sons: Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon. Zeus then left Europa. In one account, he had first approached her as a gentle bull among the cattle, allowing her to climb onto his back before carrying her from the shore. In another, he appeared as a docile bull whose breath smelled of roses.

Europa became the wife of Asterion, the ruler of the Cretans. The marriage produced no children. Asterion therefore adopted Europa’s three sons and raised them as his own. He made them his heirs. Rhadamanthus grew up in Crete with Minos and Sarpedon, under Asterion’s care.

The brothers later quarrelled over a beautiful boy. One account names him Miletus, the son of Apollo and the nymph Areia. Miletus favoured Sarpedon, and Minos gained the upper hand in the conflict. Miletus left Crete and went to Caria, where he founded the city of Miletus. Sarpedon also left Crete and became an ally of Cilix in his war with the Lycians. Another account says that the brothers quarrelled over Atymnios, the son of Zeus and Cassiepeia. These events followed the brothers’ upbringing under Asterion.

The Birth and Upbringing of Rhadamanthus, a MythSource painting of the scene

3 sources· checked 2026-08-18

  1. 1The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)T1
  2. 2Homer, OdysseyT1

    Quote

    “Rhadamanthus, son of Zeus, dwells in Elysium, where mortals live the easiest life, free from snow, storm and rain.”

    Homer, Odyssey

  3. 3The Greek MythsT1

Rhadamanthus Becomes Judge of the Dead

After Rhadamanthus died, Zeus appointed him as one of the judges of the dead because of his incorruptible justice in life. He joined Minos and Aeacus in the Underworld, where newly arrived ghosts came before them at the place where three roads met. Rhadamanthus judged the Asiatics, Aeacus judged the Europeans, and difficult cases were referred to Minos.

The judges examined each ghost and directed it towards its proper destination. Those who had lived neither virtuously nor wickedly went to the Asphodel Meadows. The evil were sent to the punishment-field of Tartarus. The virtuous were directed to the orchards of Elysium, which lay near Hades’s dominions but outside them. Elysium was ruled by Cronus and was a land of perpetual day, where its inhabitants could choose to be reborn on earth.

Rhadamanthus had earlier fled to Boeotia after killing a kinsman. He lived in exile at Ocaleae and later married Alcmene, the mother of Heracles, after the death of her first husband, Amphitryon. Some accounts instead place the marriage in Tartarus, after Rhadamanthus had received his office as judge. His tomb and Alcmene’s were shown at Haliartus, near a plantation of canes brought from Crete.

The tradition of Rhadamanthus as a judge differs between sources. Homer presents Minos judging the dead, while Rhadamanthus lives eternally in Elysium. Plato is the first surviving source to place Rhadamanthus with Minos as a judge in Hades, probably preserving an earlier tradition associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries. Other accounts describe Rhadamanthus as judging the dead alongside Minos and Aeacus, with each judge assigned different cases.

Rhadamanthus Becomes Judge of the Dead, a MythSource painting of the scene

3 sources· checked 2026-08-18

  1. 1The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)T1
  2. 2Homer, OdysseyT1

    Quote

    “Rhadamanthus, son of Zeus, lives in Elysium, while Minos sits among the dead, holding a golden sceptre and judging them.”

    Homer, Odyssey

  3. 3The Greek MythsT1

Also mentioned in

Stories elsewhere on MythSource that mention Rhadamanthus, each on that figure’s page.

Continue the road

More of Rhadamanthus’s family, sourced

HephaestusFatherZeusFather