The Minotaur—whose real name was Asterion, meaning "the starry one"—was a man-eating monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull. How's that for an image? Well, hey it's not his fault. His mom, Queen Pasiphae of Crete, was cursed to fall in love with a magical bull sent from the sea by Poseidon. See, her husband, King Minos, offended the sea god, so he thought this would be the best way to get revenge (and he was kind of right—canoodling with a bull? ew). Born out of a very troubled relationship, Asterion was such a problem child that Minos (not his biological dad, mind you) ordered the genius Daedalus to build an inescapable Labyrinth to imprison the bull-boy. Nightmare! The Minotaur spent his life trapped in the Labyrinth, dining on whatever human sacrifices Minos decided to chuck in there at him, until the monster was finally slain by the Athenian hero Theseus. Sad end to a pretty sad life.