Cretan bull

noun

Greek Legend.

1. a savage bull, captured on Crete by Hercules and allowed to roam near Marathon in Greece until captured by Theseus.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Cretan bull¹

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

In 1800, Benjamin Mosley of the Royal College of Physicians alluded to the story of the Minotaur—offspring of Queen Pasiphae and a Cretan Bull— warning “the human character may undergo strange mutations” thanks to exposure to cowpox.

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Belladonna takes a starring role in “The Cretan Bull”; nicotine turns out to be surprisingly deadly in “Murder in Three Acts”; phosphorus takes out a wealthy spinster in “Poirot Loses a Client” — and so on for 14 alphabetically organized toxins.

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Front panel from a sarcophagus with the Labours of Heracles: from left to right, the Nemean Lion, the Lernaean Hydra, the Erymanthian Boar, the Ceryneian Hind, the Stymphalian birds, the Girdle of Hippolyte, the Augean stables, the Cretan Bull and the Mares of Diomedes.

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Capture of the Cretan bull subsequently slain by Theseus at Marathon.

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Stain'd by the vanquish'd Cretan bull's black gore.

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