Legends of Rega: Asterion, the First Minotaur
Asterion. The First Minotaur. In the original myth, Asterion was
named for Minos' foster father. Asterion was the child of a divine white
bull sent by Poseidon as a sign of favor to Minos, intended for sacrifice.
Instead, Minos kept the bull, and as a punishment, Poseidon made his
wife, Pasiphae, fall in love with it. Asterion was the result. His unnatural
appetite for human flesh lead to his imprisonment in the Labyrinth,
where tribute of youths from other nations, like Athens, was used to sate
his hunger, until he was slain by Theseus.
Imagine being consigned to the dark, and given no love all your life, due
to the sins of a man who isn't even your father...
In Rega, Asterion was engendered by a bull demon sent by Rixa
to punish the King of Koreta for his hubris. That King had turned his
back on the bright gods, but not turned to Interitus' dark brood either,
believing that man could equal the gods. Rixa sent the bull demon who
made the King himself pregnant with Asterion. The King barely survived
the birth, and Asterion was consigned to the darkness of the Labyrinth
just as in our myths. Unlike in ancient Greece and Crete...no hero ever
killed him. The Labyrinth was sealed off with magic and stone, and
Asterion may still be trapped within. The King himself *was* killed by a
hero named Dikastis, a descendant of Magnus, and his godless reign and
sacrifice of thinking beings ended.
