Minotaur

Asterion, the Bull of Minos — a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull, born when Poseidon cursed Queen Pasiphaë with lust for the white bull Minos had refused to sacrifice. Daedalus built a hollow wooden cow for her and, after the birth, a vast maze beneath the palace of Knossos from which no man could find the way out. Every nine years Athens sent seven youths and seven maidens as tribute, to be driven into the Labyrinth and eaten. Theseus volunteered himself among the third tribute, slew the Minotaur with his bare hands (or with a short sword hidden by Ariadne), and followed her thread back to the entrance.

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