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The Cretan Bull |
As the seventh labor, Heracles was ordered by Eurystheus to fetch the raging Cretan bull. According to one myth, this was the bull that had carried Europe across the sea; according to another, it was the bull that was sent up from the sea by Poseidon, the moody god of the Seas, when King Minos had promised to sacrifice to him whatever appeared from the sea. Minos, however, dazzled by its beauty, sent the bull to join his herds and sacrificed another in its place. In anger, Poseidon punished Minos for his disobedience and turned the bull mad, so mad that fire was coming out of his nostrils.
Heracles sailed to Crete where he asked help from Minos but Minos denied. So Heracles confronted the bull all by himself and finally managed to capture him and bring him to Eurystheus in Mycenae. Eurystheus wanted to sacrifice the bull to Hera, the Queen of the gods, but Hera resented Heracles and refused the offering, so Eurystheus gave the bull back his freedom. This way, the Cretan Bull wandered around Sparta and throughout Arcadia and arrived in Marathon, where it became the Marathonian Bull and kept harassing the inhabitants. While at Marathon, it was slain by the hero Theseus.
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