On the Minotaur

Anthologia Planudea 126 (author and date unknown)

The child who is also a bull, the finished-in-no-respect,
The denouncer of his mother’s lust, the human-mixed-with-beast,
The double nature, the bull-skulled, the confusion of two bodies,
Who was born neither as a cow nor as a man altogether.

ὁ παῖς ὁ ταῦρος, ὁ κατὰ μηδὲν ἐντελής,
ὁ τῆς τεκούσης τοῦ πάθους κατήγορος,
ὁ μιξόθηρ ἄνθρωπος, ἡ διπλῆ φύσις,
ὁ ταυρόκρανος, ἡ πλάνη τῶν σωμάτων,
ὃς οὔτε βοῦς πέφυκεν, οὔτ᾽ ἀνὴρ ὅλως.

The Minotaur, from a statue group representing his combat with Theseus. Roman copy after a lost Greek original by the sculptor Myron that was located on the Acropolis. Now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Photo credit: Marsyas/Wikimedia Commons.