Minotaur

The Minotaur (Ancient Greek: Μινώταυρος, Mīnṓtauros), also called Asterion, was a legendary creature in Greek mythology combining human and bovine features. Classical sources describe it as having a bull's head and tail with a human body, though the Roman poet Ovid simply characterized it as a hybrid being that was part man and part bull.

The creature lived at the heart of the Labyrinth, an intricate maze constructed by Daedalus and his son Icarus at King Minos's command on the island of Crete. Every nine years, Athens was forced to send fourteen young nobles—seven males and seven females—to be sacrificed to the Minotaur as punishment for the death of Minos's son Androgeos.

The creature's reign of terror ended when the Athenian hero Theseus volunteered to enter the Labyrinth. With the aid of Ariadne, King Minos's daughter, who provided him with a thread to mark his path, Theseus succeeded in finding his way through the maze, slaying the Minotaur, and escaping.