In Greek mythology, what was the Minotaur’s body usually described as?

In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was usually described as having a human body with a bull’s head.

This hybrid form is the defining physical feature of the Minotaur. The Greek name means “Bull of Minos,” and classical and later artistic traditions commonly represent the creature as a muscular human figure topped by a bull’s head. That image became especially influential in vase painting, sculpture, manuscript art, and modern fantasy illustration.

The story’s parentage explains the mixture: Pasiphae was human, while the Cretan Bull was an animal sent by Poseidon in the myth’s most familiar form. Modern artists sometimes reverse the proportions or depict a fully bull-like monster, but those are adaptations rather than the standard literary description. The Minotaur is also distinct from ordinary bull-headed deities and from the centaur, whose human and animal parts are arranged differently.