Minotaur Trivia
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56 free Minotaur trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Minotaur trivia for anyone who loved the Greek myths as a kid or rediscovered them through Percy Jackson and Assassin's Creed. The quiz starts with the story everyone half-remembers - Poseidon's white bull, Pasiphaë and the wooden cow, Daedalus building the Labyrinth at Knossos, the Athenian youths sent as tribute, Theseus and Ariadne's ball of thread, the black sail that killed King Aegeus - and then digs into the details: the monster's real name Asterion, what 'Minotaur' actually means, how many victims were sent and how often, and what the ancient writers disagreed about. It also covers the wider cast (Minos, Icarus, Phaedra, the Cretan Bull that Heracles carried off), the archaeology of Knossos and Arthur Evans, the difference between a labyrinth and a maze, and the Minotaur's long afterlife in Dante's Inferno, Borges, Picasso's Minotauromachy, Mary Renault, Narnia, Dungeons & Dragons and the films Immortals and Wrath of the Titans. Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our Greek mythology and Poseidon quizzes.
30 of 56 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In the usual telling, what relation was Ariadne to the Minotaur?
Half-sister
Half-sister: both were born to Minos's queen, so when Ariadne helped Theseus through the Labyrinth, she doomed her own half-brother.
Q 02Which English word once meant a ball of thread, like the one Theseus followed out of the Labyrinth?
Clue
Clue: it began as clew, a ball of thread, and because Theseus's thread guided him out of the maze, the word came to mean anything that points the way.
Q 03What was the Minotaur's own name in Crete?
Asterion
It means 'star', and he shared it with the king who had raised Minos as a foster-son.
Q 04What does the name 'Minotaur' literally mean?
Bull of Minos
It compounds the king's name with tauros, the Greek word for bull.
Q 05Who was the Minotaur's mother?
Pasiphaë
Pasiphaë: in one telling she put a charm on her unfaithful husband so that any other woman he took to bed died.
Q 06Which god sent Minos the snow-white bull that started the whole affair?
Poseidon
Poseidon: Minos had prayed for the bull as a sign of divine favour while he competed with his brothers to rule Crete.
Q 07How did Minos offend the god who sent him the bull?
He kept it instead of sacrificing it
He kept it instead of sacrificing it, offering another bull in its place, and in most tellings the god took revenge by making Minos's queen desire the bull.
Q 08In Hyginus's telling, which goddess cursed Minos's queen for neglecting her rites?
Aphrodite
Aphrodite: her revenge was to fill the queen with desire for a bull, and the Minotaur was born of that union.
Q 09What did Daedalus build so that Minos's queen could approach the bull?
A hollow wooden cow
A hollow wooden cow: Daedalus covered it with a real cow's hide and set it in the bull's meadow, and the bull took it for a real cow.
Q 10Whose advice led Minos to lock the Minotaur away in the Labyrinth?
An oracle
An oracle: Minos shut the creature away 'in compliance with certain oracles', and he also wanted his family's shame hidden from sight.
Q 11Which novel's author named the myth of Athens sending seven youths and seven maidens to the Minotaur as an influence?
The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games: Suzanne Collins said that even as a child she could see how ruthless it was to make Athens hand over its own children.
Q 12Athens' tribute of youths to the Minotaur was punishment for the death of which son of Minos?
Androgeus
Androgeus: Minos blamed Athens for his death and made war on it, and famine and plague struck the city until it agreed to pay.
Q 13What colour sail did Theseus promise to hoist on the way home if he had succeeded?
White
White: Theseus had set out under a black sail, and in most tellings he forgot to change it on the way home.
Q 21In most tellings, what held Daedalus's wings together?
Beeswax
Beeswax: when Icarus flew too near the sun it melted, and he fell into the sea.
Q 22What riddle did Minos set while searching for Daedalus?
Thread a string through a spiral seashell
Thread a string through a spiral seashell: Daedalus got an ant to pull the thread through, and the solved shell told Minos where he was hiding.
Q 23What role did King Minos take in the underworld after his death?
A judge of the dead
A judge of the dead: Michelangelo painted Minos in the Last Judgment with the face of a papal official who had called its nudes disgraceful.
Q 14What did King Aegeus do when he saw his son returning under the wrong sail?
Leapt to his death
Leapt to his death: some say from the Acropolis, others into the sea that is traditionally said to take his name, the Aegean.
Q 15Why did Daedalus have to flee Athens for Crete?
He had attacked his nephew
He had attacked his nephew: jealous that the boy had invented the saw, Daedalus threw him from the Acropolis, and an Athenian court convicted him.
Q 16On which island did Theseus leave Ariadne behind on his way home?
Naxos
Naxos: in some tellings Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne there and carried her off, so Theseus sailed home without her.
Q 17Which constellation was said to be Ariadne's crown, set in the sky by Dionysus?
Corona Borealis
Corona Borealis: in one telling the crown's gold and gems glowed so brightly that Theseus found his way out of the Labyrinth by its light.
Q 18Which sister of Ariadne later became Theseus's wife?
Phaedra
Phaedra: she later fell for Theseus's son Hippolytus, and her false accusation led Theseus to pray for the young man's death.
Q 19What relic did the Athenians preserve that became a famous puzzle about identity?
Theseus's thirty-oared ship
Theseus's thirty-oared ship: the Athenians swapped its rotting planks for new ones, so philosophers argued over whether it was still the same ship.
Q 20What did Aegeus hide under a rock for his son to claim once he could lift it?
A sword and sandals
A sword and sandals: when Theseus grew up he heaved the rock aside, took them and set out for Athens to find his father.
Q 24Minos was the son of Zeus and which princess, whom Zeus carried off in the form of a bull?
Europa
Europa: Zeus became a tame bull, and once she climbed onto his back he swam off with her across the sea to Crete.
Q 25Which man of bronze was said to guard Crete by running around it three times a day?
Talos
Talos: he pelted any vessel that came near with stones, and he stopped even the Argonauts from landing until he was killed.
Q 26Which archaeologist began excavating the Palace of Minos at Knossos in 1900 and popularised the term 'Minoan'?
Arthur Evans
Arthur Evans: yet a Cretan, Minos Kalokairinos, had first dug there more than twenty years earlier.
Q 27Which Lydian word for a double-edged axe has traditionally been linked to the origin of 'labyrinth'?
Labrys
Labrys: the double axe was a sacred symbol at Knossos, so the Labyrinth may mean 'palace of the double axe', though some linguists call the link speculative.
Q 28A famous fresco at Knossos shows young men and women doing what with a bull?
Leaping over it
Leaping over it: Minoan art shows acrobats taking the bull head-on and vaulting over its horns.
Q 29What feature marks the 'Classical' labyrinth on Cretan coins?
A single path with no branches or dead ends
A single path with no branches or dead ends: yet in most tellings Theseus needed Ariadne's thread to find his way back out.
Q 30Which French cathedral's nave floor holds a labyrinth laid in the early 1200s?
Chartres
Chartres: the faithful walked its winding path, and some may even have followed it on their knees while praying.