Minos

Family: Crete · Role: king · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 1

At Phalerum, Theseus sailed to avenge the death of Androgeos, Minos’s son. Minos took Theseus and the other boys to Crete; later, after Poseidon sent a bull into Cretan territory, it reached Marathon and killed Androgeos. Minos then sailed to Athens, believing the Athenians had a hand in his son’s death, and secured an annual tribute of seven maidens and seven boys for the Minotaur.

Minos slew Nisus at Megara, and Megareus died fighting on Nisus’s side. When he conquered Nisæa and Megara through Scylla’s treason, he refused to marry her despite his promise and ordered her thrown overboard. He was also enamoured of Peribœa and Britomartis; Britomartis escaped him, while Artemis made her a goddess.

Minos was described as “the bosom-friend of great Zeus.” Dædalus fled to Crete and made works of art for him, but after Dædalus was imprisoned for treason against Minos, he escaped to Cocalus in Sicily. Minos’s children included Asterion, Catreus, Phædra, and Acacallis.