The Cretan Bull (seventh feat)

To complete the seventh task Eurystheia, Hercules had to leave Greece and go to the island of Crete. Eurystheus instructed him to bring a Cretan bull to Mycenae. This bull was sent to the king of Crete Minos, the son of Europe, by the earth shaker Poseidon; Minos had to sacrifice a bull to Poseidon. But Minos is sorry to sacrifice such a beautiful bull - he left it in his herd, and sacrificed one of his bulls to Poseidon. Poseidon was angry with Minos and sent a bull out of the sea with rage. A bull was running all over the island and destroying everything in its path. The great hero Hercules caught the bull and tamed it. He sat on the broad back of a bull and swam it across the sea from Crete to the Peloponnese. Hercules brought the bull to Mycenae, but Eurystheus was afraid to leave Poseidon's bull in his herd and set him free. Sensing freedom again, the mad bull rushed across the Peloponnese to the north and finally ran to Attica on the Marathon field. There he was killed by the great Athenian hero Theseus.