MIN 
Minos, with a view of giving greater authority to his 
Saws, retired into a cave at Crete, where he feigned that 
Jupiter, his father, dictated them to him, and every time 
he returned from the cave he announced feme new law. 
Hence Homer (OdylT. xix.) gives him the title of Jupiter’s 
difciple, Aio( pvycthu o ccgnm, which is thus expreffed by 
Horace, “ Et Jovis arcanis Minos admiffus.” Jofephus 
is the only ancient writer who fays that Minos had re¬ 
ceived his laws from Apollo, and that he had travelled to 
Delphi to receive them from that god. (Lib. ii. contra 
Appian.) This Jewifh writer owns, that Minos was the 
only one among the ancients who deferved to be com¬ 
pared to Mofes. If we give credit to Huetius, Minos 
was the fame with Mofes, and he alleges that they lived 
about the fame time. But the opinion of the learned pre¬ 
late is contradifted by the decifive teftimony of all anti- 
tiquity; nor is the parallel which he has ingenioufly 
drawn between thefe eminent lawgivers fufficient to con¬ 
vince impartial and candid inquirers. Banier allows, that 
fome confufed knowledge of the laws of Mofes furnilhed 
Minos with a model for thofe of Crete. Minos, after 
having governed his fubjefts with a mild and gentle fway, 
died in Crete; and, being interred there, had this epitaph 
inferibed upon his tomb, MINOS TOY AIOS TA<J> 02 , Mi¬ 
nos Filius Jovis Sepulchrum; when in procefs of time the 
name of Minos was defaced, and there remained only the 
two laft words of the epitaph, the Cretans gave out that 
this was the tomb of Jupiter. This infeription, it is faid, 
was defaced by the malice of the Cretans, who boafted 
of poffeffing the tomb of the father of the gods, whom 
they pretended to have brought up in his infancy. Ac¬ 
cordingly, Callimachus, in a Hymn addrefl'ed to Jupiter, 
iharply reproaches them on this account; for he fays 
to the following purpofe: “ The Cretans are always liars, 
lince they vaunt that they have thy tomb, O great king, 
who livell for ever!” To this paffage the apoftle alludes, 
when he upbraids the fame people, in the words of Calli¬ 
machus, with the vice of lying. Tit. i. 12. 
MI'NOS II. was a fon of Lycaftes, the fon of Minos I. 
and king of Crete. He married Pafiphae, the daughter 
of Sol and Perfeis, and by her had many children. He 
increafed his paternal dominions by the conqueft of the 
neighbouring iflands; but he fhowed himfelf cruel in the 
war which he carried on again It the Athenians, who had 
put to death his fon Androgeus. He took Megara by 
the treachery of Scylla; and, not fatisfied with a viftory, 
he obliged the vanquifhed to bring him yearly to Crete 
feven chofen boys, and the fame number of virgins, to 
be devoured by the Minotaur. This bloody tribute was 
at laft abolifhed when Thefeus had deftroyed the monfter. 
When Daedalus, whofe induftry and invention had fa¬ 
bricated the labyrinth, and whofe imprudence in addling 
Pafiphae in the gratification of her unnatural defires had 
offended Minos, fled from the place of his confinement 
with wings, and arrived lafe in Sicily, the incenfed mo¬ 
narch purified the offender, refolved to punilh his infide¬ 
lity. Cocalus, king of Sicily, who had liofpitably re¬ 
ceived Daedalus, entertained his royal guelt with diffem- 
bled friendlhip; and, that he might not deliver to him a 
man whofe ingenuity and abilities he lb well knew, he 
put Minos to'death. Some fay that it was the daughters 
of Cocalus who put the king of Crete to death, by de¬ 
taining him fo long in a bath that he fainted, after which 
they lfiffocated him. Minos died about thirty-five years 
before the Trojan war. He was father of Androgeus, 
Glaucus, and Deucalion ; and two daughters, Phaedra 
and Ariadne. Many authors have confounded the two 
monarchs of this name, the grandfather and the grand- 
fon; but Homer, Plutarch, and Diodorus, prove plainly 
that they were two different perfons. 
MI'NOS, a fmall ifland near the coafl of South Caro¬ 
lina. Lat. 35. 48. N. Ion. 78. 38. W. 
MI'NOS, a town on the north coafl of the ifland of 
Mafbaite. Lat. 12. 33. N. Ion. 123. 10. E, 
M I N 543 
MINO^T, a town of France, in the department of the 
Cote d’Or: eighteen miles fouth-eall of Chatillon fur Seine. 
MI'NOTAUR, a celebrated monfter, half a man and 
half a bull, was the fruit of Pafiphae’s amour with a 
bull. Minos II. refufed to facrifice a white bull to Nep 
tune, an animal which he had received from the god for 
that purpofe. This offended Neptune ; and he made Pafi¬ 
phae, the wife of Minos, enamoured of this fine bull, 
which had been refufed to his altars. Dsedalus profti- 
tuted his talents in being fubfervient to the queen’s un¬ 
natural defires ; and, by his means, Pafiphae’s horrible 
paffions were gratified, and the Minotaur came into the 
world. Minos confined in the labyrinth a monfter which 
convinced the world of his wife’s lafeivioufnefs and in¬ 
decency, and reflefiled difgrace upon his family. The 
Minotaur ufually devoured the chofen young men and 
maidens, which the tyranny of Minos yearly exadled front 
the Athenians. Thefeus delivered his country from this 
fhameful tribute, when it had fallen to his lot to be fa- 
crificed to the voracity of the Minotaur; and, by means 
of Ariadne, the king’s daughter, he deftroyed the monller, 
and made his efcape from the windings of the labyrinth. 
The fabulous tradition of the Minotaur, and of the in¬ 
famous commerce of Pafiphae with a bull, has been often 
explained. Some fuppofe that Pafiphae was enamoured 
of one of her hufband’s courtiers called Taurus, and that 
Daedalus favoured the paffions of the queen by fuffering 
his houfe to become the retreat of the two lovers. Pafi¬ 
phae, fome time after, brought twins into the world, one 
Of whom greatly refembled Minos, and the other Taurus. 
In the natural refemblance of their countenances with 
that of their fuppofed fathers originated their name, and 
confequently the fable of the Mino-taur. 
MINOV'ERY, f. A law term; an offence committed 
by hand in a foreft. 
MIN'RO W, a town of Hindooftan, in the Dooab: fifty 
miles weft of Pattiany. 
MINSANGA'GI, a river of Africa, which runs into 
the Indian Sea in lat. 13. 34. S. 
MINSFEL'DEN, or Munzfulden, a town of Ger¬ 
many, with a citadel: twenty-five miles eaft of Coblentz, 
and fifteen eaft-fouth-eaft of Montabaur. 
MINSK, a town of Ruffian Lithuania, and capital of 
a palatinate of the fame name, fituated on the Swiflocz c 
250 miles north-eaft of Warfaw, and 255 eaft-fouth-eaft 
of Konigfberg. Lat. 53. 43. N. Ion. 27. 40. E. 
MIN'STER,/ [min]fcejae, Sax.] A monaftery; an ec- 
clefiaftical fraternity; a cathedral church. The word is 
ftill retained at York and Lichfield: 
Seynt Albone 
Of that mynjlre leyde the firft Hone. 
Lydgate's Life of St. Alban . 
MIN'STER, a town of Lower Bavaria' 1 : feven miles 
north-eaft of Braunau, and eleven fouth of Vilzhofen. 
MIN'STER, a town of England, fituated on the north 
fide of the ifland of Shcppey ; fo called from an ancient 
abbey, founded by Sexburga, wife of Ercombert king of 
Kent, which was deftroyed by the Danes, and afterwards 
refounded, in 1130, by Corboil archbiftiop of Canterbury, 
for Benediftine nuns. It is four miles north-eaft of 
Queenborough. 
MIN'STER in THAN'ET, a town in Kent, fo named 
from an abbey firft founded in the feventh century, by 
Dompneva, niece of king Egbert. It was feveral times 
deftroyed by the Danes. In 1027, king Canute granted 
the church and lands to the Auguftine monks of Canter¬ 
bury. It is feven miles weft of Ramfgate. 
MIN'STER WORTH, a village in Gloucefterfhire, 
four miles from Gloucefter. A very large common lies 
on the fouth fide of it next the Severn : the turnpike-road 
from Gloucefter to Newnhard runs through it. 
MIN'STREL, J'. _ An ancient term for a mufician, one 
who played upon inftruments, or a finger.—Jefus came 
4 into 
