The Minotaur in Dante’s Inferno

by Elinor Hickey and Emma Sawin

The Minotaur is a figure in Greek mythology most famous for its death at the hands of the Athenian hero Theseus.  Born from a union of King Minos’s wife Pasiphaë and a sacred bull of Poseidon, the Minotaur was hidden away in a Labyrinth built by Daedalus and sentenced to a life outside humanity.  It is described in Ovid’s Metamorphoses as a man with the head of a bull, indicating its uncanniness and its inability to be civilized.  The Minotaur is a wild, uncontrollable force, a man-eater, and its cross-species status is what makes it monstrous.

The character of the Minotaur appears in Dante’s Inferno in the seventh circle of Hell, where the purveyors of violence are punished.  Inferno is the first part of the Divine Comedy and was written in the 14th century: Dante himself is a character, lost along the road, and must travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven to find his way again.  Dante’s guide is the Roman poet Virgil.  They encounter the Minotaur, described as “the infamy of Crete,” when they reach the Phlegethon, a river of blood guarded by centaurs.  Virgil taunts the Minotaur, saying, “Perchance thou deem’st/The King of Athens here, who, in the world/Above, thy death contriv’d.  Monster! avaunt!/He comes not tutor’d by thy sister’s art,/But to behold your torments is he come.”  The Minotaur reacts to the mention of Theseus, “Like to a bull, that with impetuous spring/Darts, at the moment when the fatal blow/Hath struck him, but unable to proceed/Plunges on either side.”  His distracted rage allows Virgil and Dante to pass.  This representation of the Minotaur emphasizes his animalistic characteristics, and although Dante never specifies whether the beast is meant to have the head of a bull or the head of a man, his “bestial rage” is both terrifying and debilitating: his personification and his punishment.

Dante’s Inferno has its own illumination in the text, but other artists have taken it upon themselves to portray the scene.  The original illustration shows the Minotaur as a creature with the torso and head of a man and the body of a bull.  The face on the human head appears very simplistic and perhaps even innocent, making the character strangely relatable in contrast to the description in the text.  Whether or not this can be considered an error is unclear, but the association with the centaurs is strong: although the Minotaur and the centaurs do not work together directly, they occupy the same space in Hell as sentries against the souls immersed in the river of blood.  In later illustrations of this scene, artists vary in their portrayal of the Minotaur as part human and part bull. In the 1700’s the artist William Blake shows the monster with a bull’s head, a human torso, and a bull’s lower body (image). The bull’s head emphasizes the Minotaur’s bestial temperament, while the human torso on a bull’s shoulders draws a connection with the centaurs.  In 1857 the artist Gustave Dore returns to a portrayal of the monster with a bulls head and an entire human body. However, in his illustration the Minotaur is shown as a giant, adding to the sense of threatening monstrosity.  The portrayal of the Minotaur in Dante’s Inferno is a personification of rage, terror, and a lack of self-control.  Dante demonizes the Minotaur by placing him in Hell, and emphasizes his role by associating him directly with Violence.  Visual representations of the scene draw on both his physical and temperamental characteristics to create a symbol of man’s bestial nature and his struggle to control it.

Works Cited

Alighieri, Dante. “Canto XII.” Inferno. Project Gutenberg. 7 Aug. 2004. Web. 1 Apr. 2011.  <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8789/8789-h/8789-h.htm&gt;.

Anonymous. Illustration in Dante. Divine Comedy: Folio P. 017. Digital image. ArtSTOR. ArtSTOR. Web. 1 Apr. 2011. <http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=8zxLfDwqIjsiQi85eTx9RH0iV3k%3D&userId=gjJAdTIn&zoomparams=&gt;

Blake, William. Dante Illustration: The Minotaur. Digital image. ArtSTOR. ArtSTOR. Web. 1 Apr. 2011. <http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=8DdCYyk7MTk%2FKCo0Y1N7R3spXXoseVt%2B&userId=gjJAdTIn&zoomparams=&gt;

Doré, Gustave. Minotaur. Digital image. Danteworlds. The University of Texas at Austin. Web. 1 Apr. 2011. <http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/gallery/0915minotaur.jpg&gt;.

Raffa, Guy P. “Dante’s Inferno – Circle 7 – Cantos 12-17.” Danteworlds. The University of Texas at Austin. Web. 01 Apr. 2011.  <http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/circle7.html#minotaur&gt;.

Tambling, Jeremy. “Monstrous Tyranny, Men of Blood: Dantes and “Inferno” XII.”  Modern Humanities Research Association 98 (2003): 881-97. JSTOR. Web. 1 Apr. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3737931&gt;.