In order to confirm his right to rule, rather than any of his brothers, he prayed Poseidon send him a snow-white bull as a sign.

Enraged, Poseidon had Aphrodite curse Pasiphaë, the wife of Minos, causing her to fall in love with the bull.

He won all the games, but the bull, which broke free from his pen, rampaged through the city and trampled Androgeus.

Bernard Clive Dietrich notes that the most important animal in the Neolithic shrines at Çatalhöyük was the bull.

[5] The palace at Knossos displays a number of murals depicting young men and women vaulting over a bull.

While scholars are divided as to whether or not this reflects an actual practice, Barry B. Powell suggests it may have contributed to the story of the young Athenians sent to the Minotaur.

[6] McInerney observes that the story of Pasiphaë and the Cretan Bull was not written until after Crete had come under Greek control.