ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Description: In Greek myth King of Crete and later judge of the Underworld; in the Inferno Minos is judge of the damned, a monstrous demon who wraps his long tail around each sinner a number of times equal to the circle of Hell in which the sinner will be flung.

Detailed explanation-2: -After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Hades together with Aeacus and Rhadamanthus. Rhadamanthus judged the souls of Asians, Aeacus judged Europeans, and Minos had the deciding vote.

Detailed explanation-3: -Upon learning their sins, Minos indicates to them their destination in hell by wrapping his serpent tail around his body as many times as the appropriate circle. A famous representation of Minos that manages to convey the horror of Dante’s description is that of Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel.

Detailed explanation-4: -In Athenian drama and legend Minos became the tyrannical exactor of the tribute of children to feed the Minotaur. Having pursued Daedalus to Sicily, Minos was killed by the daughters of King Cocalus, who poured boiling water over him as he was taking a bath. After his death he became a judge in Hades.

Detailed explanation-5: -Minos tells Dante to beware of where he goes and to whom he turns. Minos cautions Dante against entering, but Virgil silences him, first by asking him why he too questions Dante (as Charon did), and then by telling him, in the same words he used to tell Charon, that it was willed, and what is willed must occur.