It was not unusual for creatures to play a role in the mythological tales of ancient Greece. In most cases though these creatures were monsters that appeared in a single story, monsters like the Chimera or the Sphinx. The Cretan Bull is one creature though whose story intertwines with many others.

Minos and the Cretan Bull

In popular versions, the story of the Cretan Bull starts quite obviously on Crete. Minos was arguing with his brothers, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthys, about which of them was to succeed their stepfather, Asterion, as king of Crete. To aide his case Minos prayed to the gods, and Poseidon answered his prayers by sending a magnificent bull from the seas.

With the gods apparently on his side, Minos became king of Crete, but he neglected to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, and instead sacrificed a lesser beast. In retribution for the snub, Poseidon had the original bull turn wild, and also had Aphrodite make Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, fall in love with it.

With the assistance of the noted inventor Daedalus, Pasiphae would eventually mate with the beast that was now known as the Cretan Bull; and from the coupling came a son, Asterion, who would grow up to become the Minotaur.

The Cretan Bull would then go on to ravage Crete, destroying crops and buildings.

Heracles and the Cretan Bull

Subsequently, the Cretan Bull would then appear in the story of the Greek hero Heracles. Heracles was undertaking his twelve labours, as set by King Eurystheus, when the seventh task was given. It was a relatively simple one, when compared with some that had gone before it. The task was to capture the Cretan Bull, and bring it back to Tiyrns.

King Minos was only too glad to be rid of the beast, and it was a simple task for Heracles to strangle the bull into submission. Heracles and the Cretan Bull returned to Tiryns, and King Eurystheus wished to sacrifice the bull to his benefactor, Hera. Hera though would not accept the sacrifice that would bring renown to Heracles, and so the Cretan Bull was simply released into the wild.

The bull would wander through Sparta and Arcadia, before settling in Marathon, where, now known as the Marathonian Bull, would inflict the same damage as it had done on Crete.

Theseus and the Marathonian Bull

When Aegeus was King of Athens he held a series of games to which people from all over the ancient world attended. One competitor was Androgeus, the son of Minos, and Androgeus would win every title going. Androgeus was killed though, either at the hands of Athenians angry at his success, or when Aegeus dispatched the Cretan prince to rid Marathon of the bull. In either case the death of Androgeus would start a war with Crete, a war which Athens would lose. Defeat meant that Athens would have to send youths every nine years to Crete to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, the offspring of the Marathonian Bull.

Years later Theseus would arrive at the court of Aegeus; Theseus being the unrecognised son of Aegeus. The only person who recognised Theseus for who he was, was Medea the new wife of Aegeus. Seeking to protect her own son’s inheritance, Medea had Aegeus set Theseus the task of ridding Marathon of the bull.

Theseus, like Heracles before him, had no problem in capturing the Marathonian Bull, and Theseus would return to Athens with the bull in tow. Finally, many years after it should have died, the Bull was finally sacrificed to the gods.

Theseus would also be responsible for killing the Cretan Bull’s only known offspring, the Minotaur, when he travelled to Crete as part of the sacrificial group.

The story of the Cretan Bull, or Marathonian Bull, is intriguing because of the relatively long life of a creature that should have been immediately sacrificed. Historically, the Greek mythological tales that incorporate the bull are also important because it shows the reverence associated with the bull in Crete, and the wider area of Greece in antiquity.