List of Minotaur references in popular culture

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The Minotaur of Greek mythology is a common figure in pop culture.

Contents 1 Poetry 2 Fiction 3 Illustrated Fiction 4 Visual Art 5 Music 6 Television 7 Film 8 Video Games 9 Role Playing Games 10 Toys

[edit] Poetry

• Ted Hughes wrote a poem titled "The Minotaur", the title alluding to the destruction his ex-wife Sylvia Plath's father caused in her life.

[edit] Fiction

• Jorge Luis Borges's short story "La casa de Asterión (The House of Asterion)" features a story from the Minotaur's perspective.
• In the Divine Comedy Dante and Virgil confront "the infamy of Crete" at the entrance to the seventh circle of Hell. Dante knew the mythological monster from the Ars Amatoria by Ovid, where it is simply described as half-man, half-bull, and the poet could not possibly have seen the Minotaur's images from the ancient Greek iconography. Although the monster is never explicitly described by Dante, the use of verbs seems to imply the poet imagined it with the body of a bull and a human head.
• In Mary Renault's The King Must Die minotaurs are merely men wearing bull's head masks.
• The second part of David Gemmell's The Lion of Macedon historic fantasy, The Dark Prince, features a sympathetic minotaur.
• Thomas Burnett Swann's Minotaur Trilogy depicts the last two survivors of an ancient race of intelligent minotaurs dwelling in the forests of ancient Crete alongside other mythological creatures.
• The minotaur plays a pivotal role in Mark Z. Danielewski's book House of Leaves, although it is never directly seen. Which in turn inspired the name of the English rock band Minotaur! Explode!
• Steven Sherrill's 2000 novel The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break has the minotaur working as a cook in North Carolina where he lives in a trailer.
• Minotaurs are members of the White Witch's army in C. S. Lewis' fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia.
• The 8th Xanth book, Crewel Lye features a race of "cow-boys" and "cow-girls" who are humans with the heads of cattle.
• The Minotaur is mentioned in Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex as the play that sparked the simultaneous fertilization of two main characters.
• The Minotaur is one of the main (though for the most part, unseen) antagonists in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. He is introduced as being a Hannibal Lecter-esque serial killer, imprisoned in an unpublished fantasy novel rather than a Labyrinth.
• Michael Ende uses both the Minotaur and its labyrinth as starting and closing points in his book The Mirror in the Mirror.
• Victor Pelevin has retold the myth of Minotaur in his 2006 short novel The Helmet of Horror.
• In his Series Monsters of Mythology, Bernard Evslin retells the story of the Minotaur in his own book.
• The Minotaur (named as Asterion) is a major character in the epic fantasy series The Troy Game, by Australian author Sara Douglass where he initially plays the main antagonist of the story. This Minotaur is based closely on the one featured in the popular mythical tale of Ariadne and Theseus.
• A Minotaur (also named Asterion) is one of the primary characters in Karen Russell's short story "from Children's Reminiscences of the Westward Migration" found in her 2006 debut short-story collection, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.
• In 'The Minotaur in Pamplona', Rhys Hughes enters the Minotaur as a contestant in the encierro of San Fermín with subsequent confusion as to what side he is on.
• Esther Tusquet's novel "El mismo mar de todos los veranos" features references to the Minotaur, Ariadne, and Theseus as compared to the protagonist's story.

[edit] Illustrated Fiction

• In Wonder Woman a Minotaur battles the Amazon in the storyline Challenge of the Gods. Later in the series Ferdinand, another form of Minotaur called a Kythotaur, works at the Themysciran Embassy as a chef.

• In chapter 2 of Gunnerkrigg Court, Annie and Kat search the school library for Minotaur-related books for a student presentation, but instead find the Minotaur himself hidden in a labyrinth under a library wing. The Minotaur speaks to the class, giving a highly revisionist account of Theseus as a belligerent drunken guest at the young Minotaur's own birthday party. [1]

• The webomic Elkiablo regularly features the Minotaur in various roles.[2][3][4]

[edit] Visual Art

• The Minotaur appears in many works by Pablo Picasso, particularly in the 1930s. Some of these show him raping and killing, but in other pictures he is depicted as a lover rather than a monster, appearing to be in a consensual relationship with a woman.
• The Minotaur is a recurring character in Stanley Donwood's artwork.
• Gustave Doré portrays the Minotaur in his illustrations of the Divine Comedy.

[edit] Music

• The Artist Minotaur plays the leading role of the murderer in David Bowie's album Outside.

• The Incredible String Band recorded a song entitled, "The Minotaur's Song" on the album The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter.

• An image of a crying Minotaur drawn in a cartoonish style appears in the CD booklet and promotional materials for Radiohead's Amnesiac album, as well as in official band merchandise from that era in general.

[edit] Television

• In Digimon, a particular digimon is made to look like a Minotaur, Minotarumon
• The Minotaur appears in two episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
• Minotaurs appear on three different, although seemingly unrelated occasions in Doctor Who.
• In the anime Melody of Oblivion, Horu the monster is depicted in many ways that implies that he is, in fact, the Minotaur.
• In Class of the Titans, Cronus has a scientist create clones of the Minotaur from the bones of the original one, only for them to escape into the city's subway tunnels.
• In Power Rangers: Mystic Force, the Green Ranger's symbol is a minotaur.
• In the anime Ulysses 31, although mainly based on Homer's Odyssey, Theseus and the Minotaur appears in one episode.
• In an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, Batman and Robin are held captive in a maze and must face a robotic minotaur.
• An episode of The Godzilla Power Hour features a statue of the Minotaur that comes to life.
• In the television series Power Rangers: Mystic Force and parent Super Sentai Series Mahou Sentai MagiRanger, a minotaur appears as part of the Mecha. They are known as the Mystic Minotaur and MagiTaurus.
• The guardian of the scrolls of Thieves from The Mummy (the TV series) is the Cretan Minotaur
• The DuckTales episode Raiders of the Lost Harp featured a giant Minotaur statue that came to life when the harp that it guarded was claimed by Scrooge.

[edit] Film

• Three minotaurs appeared in Monkeybone.
• The 2006 film Minotaur loosely followed the original stories, taking many liberties.
• In Federico Fellini's movie Satyricon, minotaurs are men wearing bull's head masks.
• Terry Gilliam's movie Time Bandits features a minotaur.
• Takashi Miike's 2003 film Gozu features a Minotaur-like character ('Gozu' literally means 'cow head' in Japanese).
• Minotaurs appear in the movie version of The Chronicles of Narnia, and one acts as the general of the White Witch's army.

[edit] Video Games

• Intellivision featured a Dungeons and Dragons cartridge entitled Treasure of Tarmin in which the minotaur guarded the player's ultimate quest and had to be defeated.
• In Doom by id Software, the Baron of Hell and Hell Knight enemies are based on the minotaur form.
• In the game Mega Man Zero 4, one of the Ragnarok Agents is a minotaur called "Mino Magnus"
• The game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete takes place in the labyrinth, but the minotaur is never seen.
• In Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, one of the bosses Wario faces is a minotaur.
• Minotaurs are frequently bosses in the Castlevania video game series.
• LucasArts's Herc's Adventures game for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn featured a segment in the labyrinth of Knossos, where the Minotaur awaited as a boss fight.
• The Minotaur is one of the few boss fights in the Playstation 2 game God of War.
• Minotaurs are available as myth units in Age of Mythology. Also, Kamos is a pirate Minotaur and an enemy.
• Minotaurs appear as "The Brothers" in Final Fantasy VIII.
• In the Final Fantasy XI expansion pack Chains of Promathia, one of the earliest boss monsters is a minotaur in name only.
• In Heroes of Might and Magic minotaurs and minotaur kings are powerful creatures that heroes can use in their army.
• Minotaurs appear throughout Vagrant Story as mini-bosses.
• A Minotaur occurs as a boss in Spartan: Total Warrior.
• A segment of the game King's Quest VI involves escaping from the Labyrinth and defeating the Minotaur.
• Minotaurs are featured in the game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
• Minotaurs appear in the The Chronicles of Narnia video game.
• A minotaur is one of the beast forms on the Altered Beast game for the PS2
• Minotaurs can appear in NetHack, especially in maze-type levels.
• In the computer games Heretic and Hexen: Beyond Heretic, minotaurs appear as an enemy (Heretic) or ally (Hexen) known as the Maulotaur.
• They appear as a race in Areena, a small Finnish gladiator-managing game series.
• Valus, the first colossus encountered in the Playstation 2 game Shadow of the Colossus has a representation of a minotaur.
• Raven Software's Heretic features the Maulotaur, a minotaur with a massive hammer that can shoot fire, as the boss of the second episode.
• In the game Gauntlet: Legends, you are able to upgrade the Warrior character to a Minotaur via a secret challenge.
• A minotaur is one of the many characters in the Puyo Puyo and Madou Monogatari series of games.
• In the Mortal Kombat series, a curse was placed on the Centaurian race, transforming them into Minotaurs, however, in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the Centaurian character Motaro appears as a Minotaur but he resembles a Satyr more than a Minotaur.
• In Empire Earth, one of the futuristic cyber robots is named Minataur
• Minotaurs are a sentient race capable of language in the Quest for Glory universe. The most notable individual is Toro, the benevolent and steadfast friend of Elsa von Spielburg.

[edit] Role Playing Games

As a race of monsters rather than a unique creature, minotaurs feature in some fantasy role-playing games.

• Minotaurs are featured in Dungeons & Dragons.
• In Warhammer Fantasy Battles, minotaurs are part of the Beasts of Chaos army.
• The card game Magic: The Gathering features minotaurs as being both savage (the Hurloon minotaurs) and tribal yet somewhat cultured (the Talruum).
• In the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game, the card "Battle Ox" is a Minotaur.
• World of Warcraft features minotaurs as the tribal bovine humanoids known as the Tauren.
• In the online game Shadowbane, players are able to assume the role of a minotaur.
• Guild Wars contains minotaurs as a strong enemy race in many different locations with many different breeds.
• Mazes and Minotaurs The Original Heroic Adventure Roleplaying Game, is a retro-RPG that speculates on what role-playing games would be like if they had originally been based on Greek-era miniature combat games instead of Medieval-era RPGs.
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a modern RPG from the popular The Elder Scrolls series features differing types of minotaurs as a combatable enemy that players of varying levels may fight.
• Minotaurs appear in the Security Stronghold in the online MMORPG RuneScape.
• Tibia (computer game) is an MMORPG featuring many kinds of minotaurs as enemy units, and even has a city where minotaurs live called Mintwallin.
• Minotaur appears as a boss and a Guardian Force in Final Fantasy VIII for PSX and Computer.
• Minotaurs appear in Champions: Return to Arms as a very powerful enemy.

[edit] Toys

• Minotaur is Monster in My Pocket #64, and associated with the evil monsters in the comic book. It also makes an appearance in the associated video game.
• In 2006, the Four Horsemen created the "FANtastic Exclusive," an action figure voted on by fans. The character chosen was a minotaur known as Xetheus: Champion of Mynothecea. They also offered five Minotaur Soldiers and a Royal Guardsman figure, each with a unique color scheme.