Circe

by

Madeline Miller

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Circe makes teaching easy.

The Minotaur Character Analysis

The Minotaur, a man-eating monster that craves human flesh, was born after Pasiphaë had sex with a sacred bull. The Minotaur is Pasiphaë’s way to gain fame among gods and men, and it also serves as her “whip to use against her husband Minos.” Minos hates Pasiphaë, and the two of them are always looking for ways to exercise power over the other. With the Minotaur, Pasiphaë has another way of making Minos fear her power. Because Daedalus helped Pasiphaë become impregnated by the bull, Daedalus feels guilt for all the deaths that the Minotaur causes.

The Minotaur Quotes in Circe

The Circe quotes below are all either spoken by The Minotaur or refer to The Minotaur. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power, Fear, and Self-Preservation Theme Icon
).
Chapter 11 Quotes

[Pasiphaë’s] words were falling on my head like a great cataract. I could scarcely take them in. She hated our family? She had always seemed to me their distillation, a glittering monument to our blood’s vain cruelty. Yet it was true what she said: nymphs were allowed to work only through the power of others. They could expect none for themselves.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Pasiphaë, The Minotaur, Minos
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Circe LitChart as a printable PDF.
Circe PDF

The Minotaur Quotes in Circe

The Circe quotes below are all either spoken by The Minotaur or refer to The Minotaur. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power, Fear, and Self-Preservation Theme Icon
).
Chapter 11 Quotes

[Pasiphaë’s] words were falling on my head like a great cataract. I could scarcely take them in. She hated our family? She had always seemed to me their distillation, a glittering monument to our blood’s vain cruelty. Yet it was true what she said: nymphs were allowed to work only through the power of others. They could expect none for themselves.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Pasiphaë, The Minotaur, Minos
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis: