Minotaur Coloring Pages
Imagine a maze so twisty that even the man who built it barely found his way out. Now imagine something with the head of a bull is waiting for you inside! That's the Minotaur, the most famous monster from the island of Crete. Our Minotaur coloring pages have him roaring and charging and prowling the maze with a torch. There are a few cute ones for little colorers too.
Jump to: A Bull from the Sea | The Labyrinth | Theseus | More Minotaurs
A Bull from the Sea
King Minos of Crete asked the sea god Poseidon for a sign that he should be king. Poseidon sent a beautiful white bull walking up out of the waves. Minos was supposed to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon. He liked it so much that he kept it and offered a plainer bull instead.
That was a big mistake. Poseidon put a curse on Minos's wife, Queen Pasiphaë, and her son was born with a man's body and a bull's head. Stories say his real name was Asterion, which means "starry one." Everyone else called him the Minotaur, the bull of Minos.
Lost in the Labyrinth
Minos didn't know what to do with a son who grew bigger and fiercer every year. So he asked his inventor Daedalus to build a prison nobody could escape. Daedalus made the Labyrinth, a maze of tunnels under the palace. It was so tangled that he could barely find his own way out when he finished!
The Minotaur lived down there in the dark. Every few years the city of Athens had to send seven young men and seven young women into the maze. None of them ever came back out.
Theseus and the Thread
Prince Theseus of Athens decided enough was enough. He volunteered to go into the Labyrinth himself and face the monster. Minos's daughter Ariadne slipped him a ball of thread. He tied one end by the door and unrolled it as he went. Theseus beat the Minotaur and followed the thread all the way back out.
More Minotaurs
