| MINOS:
Minos is a judge of the dead according to both Greek and Roman legend.
The underworld lord is derived from tales of a vicious king infamous for his
tyranny. King Minos forced captured warriors and other prisoners to
fight bulls in his labyrinth, a maze on the isle of Crete, for his
amusement. They were not expected to survive the ordeal but to provide
a good show for the king as their bodies were torn to bloody ribbons by the
beasts. According to the tales, the vile king is eventually killed by
one of his prisoners and thus became an overlord in HADES.
Minos appears in a number of works of art
and literature. He is named as one of the judges of the underworld in
the ancient GORGIAS by Plato. In Dante's DIVINE COMEDY: THE
INFERNO, he sits at the entrance of hell and determines to which circle
of the abyss damned souls will be sent. Minos is similarly represented
in the ODYSSEY, Homer's epic account of a supernatural journey, and
in Virgil's AENEID. Art scholars identify Minos in RODIN's
sculpture GATES OF HELL and in MICHELANGELO's LAST JUDGMENT.
Stephen King's 1994 novel ROSE MADDER
alludes to the ancient Minos as a bloodthristy bull at the center of a
subterranean maze. The malicious beast displays a callous disregard
for human feelings and a disturbing capacity for cruelty. In a climax
reminiscent of Greek epic quests, King Minos is challenged by the story's
heroine in a grisly confrontation of brute force and blind faith.
(o)
Resource List - all entries are taken verbatim from the
original source:
(o) "The Encyclopedia of Hell."
Miriam Van Scott. St. Martin's Press. ©1998
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