January
06
/ 2018
When we think of Minos, two images immediately come to mind: (1) the legendary and cruel tyrant of Crete who demanded the tribute of Athenian youths to feed to the Minotaur in the Labyrinth and (2) a judge of the Underworld as depicted in both Virgil’s Aeneid and also in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy story, the Inferno. For the purpose of this article, we will focus on the former rather than the latter. Who was King Minos? According to both Greek myth and legend, Minos was an ancient king of the Greek island of Crete, situated in the Mediterranean Sea just South of the Greek mainland. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"44650","attributes":{"alt":"‘There Minos stands’ – Canto V, line 4. (Public Domain) Gustave Doré's illustration of
