Editing Cretan Bull (section)

== Mythology ==
===Background===
[[File:Drachme from Larissa, around 420 BC depicting Heracles with the Cretan Bull.jpg|thumb|[[Ancient drachma]] from [[Larissa]], around 420 BC, depicting Heracles with the Cretan Bull. Now in the [[Palais de Rumine]], Lausanne, Switzerland]]
[[Minos]] was king in [[Minoan civilization|Crete]]. In order to confirm his right to rule, rather than any of his brothers, he prayed [[Poseidon]] send him a snow-white bull as a sign. Poseidon sent Minos the bull, with the understanding that the bull would be sacrificed to the god. Deciding that Poseidon's bull was too fine of a specimen to kill, Minos sent the bull to his herds and substituted another, inferior bull for sacrifice. Enraged, Poseidon had [[Aphrodite]] curse [[Pasiphaë]], the wife of Minos, causing her to fall in love with the bull. She subsequently gave birth to the half-man, half-bull, [[Minotaur]]. Poseidon passed on his rage to the bull, causing him to lay waste to the land.<ref>[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=NrIUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA32&dq=cretan+bull&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjyprjoit_KAhVJUJAKHY5hBkE4ChDoAQgbMAA#v=onepage&q=cretan%20bull&f=false Buenger, Theodore Arthur. ''Crete in the Greek Tradition'', University of Pennsylvania, 1915]</ref>

After consulting the oracle at Delphi, Minos had [[Daedalus]] construct the [[Labyrinth]] to hold the Minotaur.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/bull.html "The Cretan Bull", The Perseus Project, (Gregory R. Crane, ed.), Tufts University]</ref>

===The seventh labour of Heracles===
[[File:Herculean effort.jpg|thumb|Heracles performing one of his labors as he forces the Cretan Bull to the ground. The engraving was created by [[B. Picart]] in 1731.]]

[[Heracles]] was sent to capture the bull by [[Eurystheus]] as his [[Twelve Labours|seventh task]]. He sailed to [[Crete]], whereupon [[Minos]] gave Heracles permission to take the bull away<ref name="Apollod">Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' 2.5.7</ref> as he had been wreaking havoc on Crete by uprooting crops and leveling orchard walls. Heracles captured the bull, and then shipped him to Eurystheus in Tiryns. The bull later broke loose and wandered into [[Marathon, Greece|Marathon]], becoming known as the "Marathonian Bull".<ref name="Apollod" /> Eurystheus then sent Heracles to bring back the man-eating [[Mares of Diomedes]] (the next task).

===Capture by Theseus===
[[Androgeus (son of Minos)|Androgeus]], a son of Minos and Pasiphaë, competed in the games held by [[Aegeus]], [[King of Athens]]. He won all the games, but the bull, which broke free from his pen, rampaged through the city and trampled Androgeus. Devastated, Minos went to war with Athens and won. As punishment, the [[Athens|Athenians]] had to send [[Sacrificial victims of the Minotaur|several youths every 9 years]] to be devoured by the [[Minotaur]].

[[Theseus]] set to try to capture the bull. On the way to Marathon, Theseus sought shelter from a storm in the shack owned by an old lady named [[Hecale]]. She swore to make a sacrifice to [[Zeus]] if Theseus was successful in capturing the bull. Theseus did capture the bull, but when he returned to Hecale's hut, she was dead. Theseus built a [[deme]] in her honour. He then dragged the bull to Athens where he sacrificed him to [[Athena]] and/or [[Apollo (god)|Apollo]]. Theseus then went to Crete where he killed the Minotaur with the help of Minos' daughter [[Ariadne]].