In Greek mythology, Poseidon sent the bull connected with the Minotaur’s birth.
King Minos prayed for a sign that would confirm his right to rule Crete. Poseidon answered by sending a magnificent white bull from the sea. Minos was supposed to sacrifice the animal, but he kept it instead, choosing another bull for the ritual.
The deception angered Poseidon. In the best-known version, the god caused Pasiphae, Minos’s wife, to fall in love with the bull. With Daedalus’s help, Pasiphae approached it, and the resulting offspring was the Minotaur.
This episode explains why the creature has both human and bovine features. Poseidon is the sea god, but he is also strongly associated with horses, earthquakes, and bulls. Zeus is frequently confused with him because both are major Olympian gods, yet Zeus does not send the bull in the Minotaur’s origin story.