In Greek mythology, King Minos ruled Crete, the island associated with the Minotaur.
Crete is the largest Greek island and the setting for the royal court of Minos in the myth. The Minotaur was born to Pasiphae, Minos’s wife, and the bull sent by Poseidon. Minos commissioned the Labyrinth to contain the creature.
The myth is closely linked with Knossos, an important Bronze Age settlement on Crete. Ancient writers and later traditions associated the Labyrinth with the palace at Knossos, whose complicated plan may have helped inspire the story. Archaeology, however, cannot demonstrate that a literal Minotaur or mythical maze existed there.
Crete also has a major place in other Greek myths. Zeus was said to have been hidden there as an infant, and the island was connected with the birth of several Cretan rulers. The Minotaur story therefore combines mythic events with a real and culturally important Mediterranean island.