Cretan Bull

Minos, the king of Crete, prayed to Poseidon to send him a bull so he could honour and sacrifice to the sea god. Poseidon answered the king's prayer by sending a beautiful, white bull from the sea. However, Minos broke his word to the god, refusing to sacrifice the beautiful bull to Poseidon.

What was special about the Cretan Bull was its ability to walk on the water surface.

Poseidon punished Minos by making the king's wife Pasiphaë (Pasiphae), the daughter of the sun god Helius, to fall in love with the bull. Pasiphaë copulated with the Cretan Bull, and gave birth to a monstrous offspring called a Minotaur. The Minotaur had the body of a man but a head of a bull. Minos confined the monster in the Labyrinth.

Later, Heracles had to perform his seventh labour, which was to fetch the Cretan Bull for his cousin Eurystheus. Minos, who was embarrassed about the incident with his wife and the bull, was eager to give the bull away to Heracles. Heracles brought the bull to Greece by riding on its back as it swam to Tiryns.

After this task was completed, Heracles released the bull into the country, and it roamed until it arrived at the plain of Marathon in Attica. Afterwards, the bull was renamed to the Marathonian Bull.

Aegeus, the king of Athens, sent Androgeus the son of Minos to confront the bull, and he was killed. His death was the source of the war between Crete and Athens. Winning the war, Minos forced Aegeus to pay a tribute every nine years. Minos demanded seven youths and seven maidens as tribute. The Athenian youths and maidens were left in the Labyrinth to feed his monster, the Minotaur, offspring of the Cretan (Marathonian) Bull.

After Theseus became king, the hero decided to get rid of the bull that still ravaged the plain of Marathon. Theseus killed the Marathonian Bull.