King MinosMinoan King of the Labyrinth? King Minos Μίνως The legends of King Minos are incredibly twisted and convoluted. This is the way of history when the stories started as far back as 2000 BC in Crete.
The legend of the half-man half-bull who was the Minotaur and the dark mysterious cavern under the palace called the Labyrinth seem to be Greek legends concocted well after the Minoan civilisation. Part of these stories is the legend of a King who kept the Minotaur and who ruled at Knossos.
His wife was Pasiphaë, his children were Ariadne, Androgeus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Glaucus, Catreus, Acacallis and Xenodike. Or his wife was Crete, daughter of Asterion, who raised Minos in Zeus' absence, who was a nymph. The Minotaur was kept by Minos in the Labyrinth, which was built by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus.
One thing we do know is that the ruins at Knossos were discovered in 1878 by the Cretan Minos Kalokairinos who began excavations. They were later fully excavated by Sir Arthur Evans. It is Evans who started to use the term 'Minoan' to describe the society whose palace he had uncovered. So little is known for sure, and what we do know is skewed by years of stories and half-truths. We do know that bulls held a prominent place in ancient Crete, as the bull leaping frescoes show us. One of the most beautiful frescoes uncovered at Knossos shows a young man in what could be a ceremonial stance, he is known as the Prince of the Lilies. This is a controversial reconstruction of many shards.  Below is a video of the Palace of Knossos as it stands today:
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Was Knossos ruled by a King or perhaps a Queen as depicted in this fresco (right), known as the Minoan Lady.
