a king and lawgiver of Crete, was the son of Lycastus, and is sometimes confounded with another Cretan monarch of the same name, who was the son of Jupiter and Europa, and one of the judges in the infernal regions. He married Pasiphaë, the daughter of Sol, and became by her the father of Catreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, Androgeus, Acalle, Xenodice, Ariadne, and Phaedra. According to the prevailing legend, he aspired to the vacant throne of Crete on the death of King Asterius. To prove to the people that his claims were favoured by the gods, he asserted that he could obtain from Neptune whatever he might choose to ask. He prayed that the god might send forth a bull from the sea. His prayer was granted, and the crown in consequence was immediately yielded up to him. But since the bull was not sacrificed to Neptune, as Minos had vowed, the god in revenge infected Pasiphaë with a passion for the brute. The queen concealed herself in a wooden cow constructed for the purpose by Daedalus, and thus became the mother of the Minotaur. This monster, who had, according to some, the head of a man on the body of a bull, and according to others, the head of a bull on the body of a man, was imprisoned by the king in the famous labyrinth. Minos is said to have been the master of a powerful fleet. With this he wasted the Greek islands of the Aegean, and cleared the neighbouring seas of pirates. He also sailed to Athens, and in revenge for the supposed murder of his son Androgeus, forced the Athenians to send him annually seven youths and seven maidens as food for the Minotaur. His next expedition was made to Sicily in pursuit of Daedalus. There he is reported to have been deceitfully put to death by Cocalus the Sicilian king. The legislative code of Minos is said to have been framed with the advice of Jupiter, and to have been the model of the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus.