Xulos has a minion!

the Bitter Minotaur

An ancient Greek myth speaks of the mighty Minotaur, a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man. He was born as a punishment from the mighty gods, and locked away in a hidden labyrinth build by a wicked king.

The story of the Minotaur begins on the island Crete. The old king Asterion had died and left the throne to his three sons: Rhadamanthus en Sarpedon and Minos. All three brothers wanted to rule, but Minos desired the throne more than life itself. But before he could ascend the throne, he had to get rid of his brothers before they got rid of him. Through a wicked scheme he banished his brothers to the edges of the kingdom and claimed throne. But even after he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos grew suspicious. What if his brothers returned and claimed the throne for themselves? The only way to be sure no one would ever dare to question his reign was to get the approval of the gods themselves!

Minos prayed to the god Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of support. He had promised to sacrifice the bull to show honor to Poseidon, but decided to keep it instead because of its beauty. Minos thought Poseidon wouldn’t care if he kept the white bull and sacrificed one of his own bulls instead. But the king couldn’t have been more wrong. Poseidon’s wife Aphrodite was deeply insulted by Minos’s betrayal. As a punishment she made Minos’s wife Pasiphaë fall deeply in love with the snow-white bull. This is how the Minotaur was born.

The Minotaur was loved by his mother Pasiphaë, but King Minos hated his illegitimate son. It was nothing but an insult to his reign as a king! He was the king of kings and even the gods should pay respect to him! That filthy beast had to disappear for once and for all! But Minos didn’t know what to do with this beast, as killing it could cause more punishment from Aphrodite and even as a small child it was too strong for any regular prison. Unable to solve this problem the king asked the Delphi oracle for help. The wise and powerful oracle told him to construct a gigantic labyrinth to hold the Minotaur…

And so the king began to build the labyrinth in secret, for he knew that his wife would never allow him to take her beloved child away. When the labyrinth was finished, the king sneaked into his wife’s bedroom and grabbed the Minotaur while he was sleeping.The young Minotaur was thrown into the newly build labyrinth, while the gates were hastily locked behind him. The young child felt lost and abandoned in his stone prison. Clinging to his blanket, he began to roam the many corridors in search of his beloved mother. As the years past the young Minotaur grew stronger and bitterer. The Minotaur still wanders through his prison in search of his mother, attacking all who dare enter Minos’s labyrinth…