Minotaur

The Minotaur (real name Asterion) is a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. He is one of the most infamous monsters in Greek mythology and is currently reforming in Tartarus.
== Appearance ==
The Minotaur was seven feet tall, his arms and legs were like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine, his skin was vein-webbed. He wore no clothes except bright white Fruit of the Looms underwear. His top half was of coarse brown hair that started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders. His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as Percy Jackson's arm, he had snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and enormous black and white horns with points someone couldn't get from an electric sharpener.
From a distance, Percy thought the Minotaur was a huge guy, like a football player, with his top half being bulky and fuzzy. He mistook his horns for upraised hands, thinking he was holding a blanket over his head. But then he saw his huge meaty hands swinging at his sides, making him realize that the bulky and fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head was literally his head.
During the Battle of Manhattan, the Minotaur wore standard Greek battle gear from the waist down. This included a kiltlike apron of leather and metal flaps, bronze greaves covering his legs, and tightly wrapped leather sandals. His was head so large he should've toppled over just from the weight of his horns. He seemed to have grown three more feet after being reformed. A double-bladed axe was strapped to his back.
== Abilities ==
* Strength: The Minotaur is very strong, able to lift a car over its head and throw it across a small field.
* Regeneration: Being a monster, and therefore without a soul (despite being half-human), the Minotaur cannot be truly physically destroyed. After death, his essence descends into Tartarus were it will eventually reform.  
== Weapon ==
* Axe: In The Last Olympian, the Minotaur wielded a huge axe with blades in the shape of the Greek letter, Omega. Percy guessed that it was because it would be the last thing the Minotaur's enemies saw (as Omega is the last letter in the Classic Greek alphabet).
== Etymology ==
The Minotaur's name translates to "The Bull of Minos." The "mino" in "Minotaur" comes from King Minos' name. The "taur" means bull/cow.
== Trivia ==
* The proper name of the Minotaur, as revealed in Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes, was Asterion (or Asterios), meaning the starry one.
* Both the Minotaur and his father, the Cretan bull, were associated with the constellation Taurus.
* The name Minotaur, taur refers to Taurus the star sign of the bull. The name means The Bull of Minos, the Minotaur's step-father.
* There have been many different depictions of the Minotaur either having human feet or bull hooves.
* The Minotaur is the only known monster to come back in a different book after being completely destroyed independent of Gaea's help.
* In some versions of the myth, it is said that Poseidon in bull form is the Minotaur's father.
* In some version of the myth, Poseidon told Aphrodite to make Pasiphaë fall in love with the white bull, resulting in the birth of the Minotaur. This version is considered canon in Riordan's books, as of Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes.
* Theseus, also a son of Poseidon, fought the Minotaur. This could be why the Minotaur was the first monster Percy fought.
* The Minotaur appeared in the first and last book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. He is also carrying an axe in The Last Olympian shaped like an Omega, the last letter of the Greek Alphabet. This could be a reference to the Minotaur being the beginning and the end.
* May Castellan has a teeny Minotaur plush toy in a little Minotaur diaper on her front sidewalk.
* Excluding Alecto, the Minotaur is Percy Jackson's first monster he actively fought against. In an interview with Percy Jackson, he says it was the scariest moment in his life because he was unaware he was a demigod at that point and had nearly lost his mother.
== Gallery ==