Which image of the Minotaur is scarier/better?

[Kyriakos]

There are two images, differing considerably, about what a Minotaur supposedly looked like.

The first, and more known overall is that of the ancient Greek legend, where the Minotaur is a being with the body of a man and the head of a tauros (bull).

But there is another one, appearing in Dante's Divine Comedy. In that the Minotaur has the body of a bull and the head of a man.

I recently came upon this bit of information while reading Borges, the Argentinian writer, and i found it to be very interesting. I am not sure why Dante has a different version of this being, and would not make haste to attribute it to lack of knowledge. Maybe he had the view that his own version looked more profound, scarier, or more symbolic of something.

Anyway, here you can discuss which of the two forms seems better/more interesting or just plain scarier, to you, the ancient Greek or Dante's.

Poll will be up in a minute, but i hope there can be some discussion too, not only voting

 

[Lillefix]

Bull with the head of a man sounds like some kind of failure of genetic engineering, while the other one sounds more like a carnival costume. The one with the body of a man is probably more dangerous since it can follow you places where a bull couldn't. But that's not what would scare me. I'm more scared by the thought of a human turning into something like that(like in the Fly) than that it actually chases me. And a human face is much more expressive than a bull's face, so I would find that more scary. But not in the sense that the old Greeks would find it scary.

 

[Kyriakos]

It does appear (Dante's version) to be a bit more horrifying, due to the reason you mentioned. But obviously it did not reach the public imagination in the way the original depiction did.
Also i guess you know how the minotaur came to be; Poseidon commanded king Minos to sacrifice a bull to his name, but Minos was captivated by the bull's beauty and instead killed another one in its place. Poseidon became enraged with this mockery and made Minos' wife, queen Pasiphae, fall in love with a bull.
Enter Daedalus, who build the replica of a cow for Pasiphae to lure the bull with and have intercourse with it. The sole offspring was the minotaur

I sometimes wonder if in some dark period of mankind such experiments did not indeed happen; i mean even today it is not known probably what the result of such an intercourse would be, how the offspring would look. Maybe in some dark era it was practiced, for whatever reason.

 

[Civ'ed]

Man with head of bull, because, y'know, it's supposed to be like that.

 

[Maimonides]

I've never heard the the bull-with-a-man's-head version before. That just invokes a silly image. Man with a bull's head is MUCH better. When in doubt, stick to the original.

 

[Lillefix]

Man with head of bull, because, y'know, it's supposed to be like that.

I think this is more valid:

Bull with the head of a man, because it's not supposed to be like that.

I sometimes wonder if in some dark period of mankind such experiments did not indeed happen; i mean even today it is not known probably what the result of such an intercourse would be, how the offspring would look. Maybe in some dark era it was practiced, for whatever reason.

Cows and humans are too different to mix in the old fashion way, but it's not impossible that humans and chimpanzees or gorillas could have sterile children. Now that's sounds quite scary.

 

[FredLC]

Well, the divine comedy is a book that aimed at subverting standards of knowldge and expectations about what (and who) would actually be found in hell... so I guess a reversed Minotaur makes a lot of thematic sense.

Anyway, the classic portrait seens to me more terrifying, a better suited descriptions of the insanity withing humanity; all our craftness, but the mind of a brute and dangerous animal. I don't find it suprisinf that Ariadiny uses a trick to take Teseu out of the labiryint - in ultimate analisys, the triumphy of a human head (ergo, humane toughts) over brute beastly strengh is the ultimate point of the allegory.

Regards .

 

[Chukchi Husky]

The Assyrians had an image that was a bull with eagle wings and a man's head.

 

[Kyriakos]

Well, the divine comedy is a book that aimed at subverting standards of knowldge and expectations about what (and who) would actually be found in hell... so I guess a reversed Minotaur makes a lot of thematic sense.

Anyway, the classic portrait seens to me more terrifying, a better suited descriptions of the insanity withing humanity; all our craftness, but the mind of a brute and dangerous animal. I don't find it suprisinf that Ariadiny uses a trick to take Teseu out of the labiryint - in ultimate analisys, the triumphy of a human head (ergo, humane toughts) over brute beastly strengh is the ultimate point of the allegory.

Regards .

Nice reflection

One could say that this is a motif found in a number of myths, such as the Odyssey where Odysseus blinds the Cyclops, the latter symbolizing not only brute strength but obvious lack of civilization (the island of the Cyclopai was wild; no farming existed, they lived in family units etc)

At other times though we see beings which symbolize intelligence, be guarded by brutes,such as in the myth of the punishment of Prometheus, where two titans, representing the old order, guard him.

 

[Kyriakos]

The Assyrians had an image that was a bull with eagle wings and a man's head.

Interesting, iirc i had seen that image. Any idea as to what its origins where?

 

[red_elk]

Remind me of this:

 

[Kyriakos]

Nice I suspect this is depicting man as able to act as cruelly as a beast, and beast able to feel emotions attributed commonly to humans.

 

[Verarde]

Man with bull head sounds better, as well as more in line with the Greek mythology I've learned.

 

[red_elk]

Nice I suspect this is depicting man as able to act as cruelly as a beast, and beast able to feel emotions attributed commonly to humans.

I think the picture is related to Hinduism and karma.
As for Minotaur, the bull with human head looks scarier, but I'd choose man with bulls head as better depiction.

 

[timtofly]

I think that the Greeks were the ones getting it wrong. Every one knows that the heart of the beast is what gives strength and the mind of a human gives it inteligence. The body would never have been that of a man.

Would Eve have been decieved by the face of a hideous beast? This beast had the body of a "dragon", but the face must have been somewhat human, due to the fact that it did converse with her. (I know I am being a little literal (speculative) here)

This beast was part of the "cattle" group, and was cursed into crawling upon it's belly as a reptile. So either Eve and the "serpent" started the ball rolling, or the Jews borrowed it like some here confess they did. I tend to believe that the subtle "serpent" was the first version of this minotaur and the scarriest would be the Greek version, because it is just not even natural nor efficient, but it is sure ugly.

The retelling of this story from generation to generation is going to add bits and pieces to it. Eve and Adam sorta got the short end of the stick between this "war" between the "Minatour" and God.

 

[jtb1127]

I have to go with the crowd on this one. He is typically represented with a bull head and I think it has a much better effect that way.

 

[Artifis]

You have to understand why a human body with a man's head is so much more evocative.

Normal Minotaur:

Not-so-normal Minotaur:

The representation of strength is so much clearer when you have a muscular torso because that's what we're used to. Most representations of the minotaur are of a hugely muscular bare-chested man with a bull's head. There's a certain level of sexual appeal and male masculinity. I think that there's a subconscious level of identification with the raw machismo embodied by the Minotaur we know so well.

As for the bull with a man's head.. Well.. There's nothing much we can identify with this creature. It just seems.. Weird.. More like a nightmare creature really. Scarier, but in the "I'm that creature you encounter deep in the woods" way, instead of the "I'm gonna come and rip you apart way".

 

[carmen510]

I'm more scared by the thought of a human turning into something like that(like in the Fly) than that it actually chases me. And a human face is much more expressive than a bull's face, so I would find that more scary.

That reminds me a lot of Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.

 

[pob]

It's odd that the bull with the head of a man seems so weird when a centaur does not.

 

[Kyriakos]

This is William Blake's depiction of the Minotaur in Dante's Hell:

Spoiler :

Interestingly this appears to be a third version, since it seems that it has the lower body of a bull, the upper body of a man except the head is probably also of a bull, or a hybrid.