The Flickr Minotaur Image Generatr

The launch of the Minotaur 1 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility was photographed from Lancaster, PA on November 19, 2013. I used a Canon T2i and a Canon 50 mm f/1.4 lens at f/5.6. I should have used a wider lens; I didn't realize the launch would take up 1/4 of the sky from 154 miles away! I should have paid closer attention in trigonometry!

Four 20 second exposures were stacked using StarStaX of the LADEE launch on September 9, 2013. The photographs were taken in Fenwick Island, DE about 50 miles north of the launch site.

Published in National Geographic Daily News - September 9, 2013 -- "Stunning Photos of NASA's Nighttime Moon Launch" news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/pictures/130909-... ( news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/pictures/130909-... )

I was fortunate to be vacationing with my family in Fenwick Island, DE when I learned of the upcoming launch of the LADEE spacecraft on a Minotaur 5 rocket. The launch was from the NASA Wallops Island Flight Center about 50-60 miles south of my location. I was amazed by how bright and vividly the launch illuminated the southwestern sky at my viewing point. I expected the rocket to appear like a satellite; I was completely floored to see how bright and dramatic the launch was from 50 miles away!

I was fortunate to be vacationing with my family in Fenwick Island, DE when I learned of the upcoming launch of the LADEE spacecraft on a Minotaur 5 rocket. The launch was from the NASA Wallops Island Flight Center about 50-60 miles south of my location. I was amazed by how bright and vividly the launch illuminated the southwestern sky at my viewing point. I expected the rocket to appear like a satellite; I was completely floored to see how bright and dramatic the launch was from 50 miles away!

In the center, Theseus drags the Minotaur from the labyrinth. In the surround, Theseus fights the Krommyonian Sow, Kerkyon, Prokrustes, Skiron, the Bull of Marathon and Sinis. These labours are repeated on the exterior of the cup.

Red-figured cup (kylix) made in Athens around 440-430 BCE
Said to be from Vulci

Thought to be by the Kodros Painter, named after a cup by him in Bologna that shows Kodros, a legendary king of Athens. He worked around 440-430 BCE and specialized in painting cups with often complex scenes of Athenian myth and legend.
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More detailed description from the BM:

Within a circle of pattern consisting of sets of three maeanders separated by chequer squares, Theseus slaying the Minotaur. Theseus, with drawn sword in right, moves to left, looking back, and dragging with his left hand the Minotaur by the left horn out of a building. The Minotaur has apparently fallen forward, dying: only his head, right arm, and body to waist are visible, the rest being concealed behind the building: the surface of his bull's head and human body are covered with brown strokes, indicating hair. The building is represented by a Doric fluted column with entablature and triglyphs, forming a porch to the main building, which is itself represented by a broad vertical stripe of pattern, consisting of alternate labyrinth (?) patterns and chequer squares; this is partly cut off by the border of the design. In this, as in all the other scenes, Theseus is beardless and wears a fillet and a sword-belt with scabbard.

Round the central design is a frieze composed of a series of groups representing six more of the Labours of Theseus in the following order, starting from the left handle and proceeding from left to right: (i) The sow of Crommyon springs upward to right against Theseus, who advances with sword drawn back and left hand raised and wrapped in a mantle as a shield. Beside the sow, in the background, an old woman stands, bending forward, with both arms outstretched towards Theseus, the left resting on a long staff with forefinger extended; she has a long chiton and a mass of white hair; her face is wrinkled, and the flesh of her arms covered with strokes, indicating hair. She is probably Crommyon, the personification or wood-nymph (see Loeschcke, loc. cit.) of the locality, (ii) Kerkyon: Theseus (on left) has gripped with his right the left arm and with his left the right side of his opponent, and, drawing the other's body towards him, throws Kerkyon backwards across his thighs: the left arm of Kerkyon hangs uselessly behind the back of Theseus, and with his right he vainly tries to loosen Theseus' grasp of his side. He has a short beard and hair and a fillet, and is bald over the forehead. Beside this group, a club hanging up and a spear or staff resting on end obliquely against the background. (iii) Procrustes has fallen backwards to left on his bed, supporting himself with his right hand, and, with left hand and foot feebly raised, tries to ward off the blow which Theseus, swinging over his back the double axe (pelekys), is dealing him. Procrustes has rough shaggy hair and beard: the bed is marked off into lengths by curved strokes of brown, (iv) Skiron: Theseus on left in three-quarter back view, swings over his head the foot-pan (podanipter) to strike down Skiron, who has fallen backwards to right on the hill in an attitude balancing that of Procrustes in iii: he is bald over the forehead, and has shaggy hair and beard; on the summit of the hill, beside Skiron, is a willow (?) tree; at the foot is the tortoise, half seen, as though climbing up out of water, (v) The Marathonian bull, charging violently to right, is checked by Theseus, who, with right leg supported against a rock and left knee pressed against the bull's shoulder, throws his weight back on a cord in his left which is fastened to the animal's horns, and throws it back on its haunches; in his right he holds a club, (vi) Sinis Pityocamptes, seated on a hill-top beside a tall pine-tree, is dragged to left by Theseus, who has seized him by the right arm in one hand and with the other draws down the top of the pine-tree. Sinis has thrown one arm around the pine and presses his right foot against the rock in scene v: with his left foot drawn up he struggles to rise: his body and this leg are towards the spectator. At the foot of the hill the outline of a tortoise has been drawn in error and left unfinished; the hill conceals the hind legs of the sow in i.

British Museum (1850,0302.3, Vase E84)

This scene of Greek mythology shows Ariadne waking on the shore of Naxos, reclining on a mattress with a red cushion. She points at her lover Theseus who is sailing away, abandoning her on the island. Ariadne had helped him to get out of the Labyrinth after he killed the half-man, half-bull Minotaur, her brother.

Little does she realize that Dionysus would soon discover her and make her his bride (and give her immortality).

Roman
ca. 50-79 CE (or 1st c. BCE - 79 CE)
From Herculaneum

British Museum (1867.0508.1358)

The Minotaur is portrayed as it succumbs to the attack by Theseus (an adjacent statue in the museum). This monstrous beast with a human body and a bull's head was neutralized by a maneuver which forced it to its knees, held from behind by the horns or arm, as indicated by the inclined head and the suggestion of raised arms accompanying the torsion of the head and chest towards the enemy.

It's been suggested that this sculpture group formed part of the decorations of the Stadium of Domitian (modern Piazza Navona), near where it was found.

Roman copy of a Greek original of around the mid-5th century BCE, hypothetically attributed to the sculptor Myron.

Roman
ca. 1st century CE
Found in Rome, via San Tommaso in Parlone (around 1895)

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome (inv. 124665)

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.

A series of AI-generated pictures of a Minotaur monument.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.