Q 01/05

The Minotaur is classically shown with the body of a man and the head of which animal?

A) A bull

B) A goat

C) A lion

D) A horse

Answer · why

A) A bull

Ovid's vaguer 'part man and part bull' led some medieval artists to reverse it, putting a man's head on a bull's body.

Q 02/05

The Minotaur was held on which island?

A) Crete

B) Sicily

C) Rhodes

D) Cyprus

Answer · why

A) Crete

The Labyrinth was said to stand near the royal palace at Knossos.

Q 03/05

What was the Minotaur's own name in Crete?

A) Asterion

B) Talos

C) Androgeus

D) Catreus

Answer · why

A) Asterion

It means 'star', and he shared it with the king who had raised Minos as a foster-son.

Q 04/05

What does the name 'Minotaur' literally mean?

A) Bull of Minos

B) Beast of the maze

C) Son of the sea

D) Star of Crete

Answer · why

A) Bull of Minos

It compounds the king's name with tauros, the Greek word for bull.

Q 05/05

Who was the Minotaur's mother?

A) Pasiphaë

B) Europa

C) Ariadne

D) Scylla

Answer · why

A) Pasiphaë

In some tellings she was also a sorceress who cursed her unfaithful husband to ejaculate scorpions and serpents.