King Minos of Crete had promised Neptune (Poseidon), god of the sea, to
offer to him whatever animal should first come up out of the water, for
he declared he had no animal that was worthy for so high a sacrifice.
Therefore the god caused a very beautiful ox to rise out of the sea. But
the king was so taken with the noble appearance of the animal that he
secretly placed it among his own herds and offered another to Neptune.
Angered by this, the god had caused the animal to become mad, and it was
bringing great destruction to the island of Crete. To capture this
animal, master it, and bring it before Eurystheus, was the seventh labor
of Hercules.
When the hero came to Crete and with this intention stepped before
Minos, the king was not a little pleased over the prospect of ridding
the island of the bull, and he himself helped Hercules to capture the
raging animal. Hercules approached the dreadful monster without fear,
and so thoroughly did he master him that he rode home on the animal the
whole way to the sea.
With this work Eurystheus was pleased, and after he had regarded the
animal for a time with pleasure, set it free. No longer under Hercules'
management, the ox became wild again, wandered through all Laconia and
Arcadia, crossed over the isthmus to Marathon in Attica and devastated
the country there as formerly on the island of Crete. Later it was given
to the hero Theseus to become master over him.