MINOS, MYNOS. Minos was the royal title of the kings of Crete. The first Minos, son of Jupiter and Europa, was brother of Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon and became judge of the Underworld (Met IX.440-442; Aeneid VI.431-433; Inf V.4, 17). The second Minos, grandson of Jupiter, was Pasiphae's husband and father of Androgeus, Ariadne, and Phaedra. When Minos beseiged Alcathoe, Scylla, the king's daughter, fell in love with him. To win his love, she cut off her father's purple lock, on which the safety of the kingdom depended. Minos won the battle but recoiled from Scylla because she betrayed her father (Met VIII.6-151; OM VIII.1-352). After his son Androgeus was killed at Athens, Minos attacked the city. Winning this war, he imposed a tribute of seven Athenian youths and seven Athenian girls, who were sent every ninth year to feed the Minotaur (a beast half man, half bull), which was kept in the labyrinth. Theseus joined the group of youths in the third tribute. With Ariadne's help, he slew the Minotaur (Met VIII.152-183; OM VIII.1083-1394; Machaut, Le Jugement dou roy de Navarre, 2707-2768).

When Troilus thinks that Criseyde is dead, he pulls out his sword to send his soul to wherever the judgment of Minos sees fit, Tr IV.1184-1188. This "juge infernal, Mynos, of Crete kyng" also appears in LGW 1886-1938. Chaucer has combined the two kings into one, influenced perhaps by glosses on the Metamorphoses or from Boccaccio's De genealogia deorum gentilium XI.26. [Adriane: Androgeus: Mynotaur: Nysus: Phasipha: Silla]

Minos appears once medially, Tr IV.1188; Mynos, the OF variant, appears once initially, LGW 1894, and thirteen times medially, LGW 1886, 1900, 1906, 1911, 1915, 1922, 1924, 1928, 1936, 1938, 1949, 1964, 2042.