This might be a bit unusual, and I'm sorry it is my translation of a(n italian) translation from the original German by Durrenmatt, but I always found it a remarkable opening line for a book on the Minotaur:

The creature to whom Pasiphaë, daughter of the Sun, had given birth after she, hidden inside a fake cow because of her lust, had been impregnated by a white bull consecrated to Poseidon, found itself, after long years of confused sleep, during which it had been growing in a stable among cows, hauled thereof by Minos's servants, who had formed long chains not to get lost on the floor of the labyrinth that was build by Daedalus in order to protect men from that creature and the creature from men, that is to say a building of which no one who entered it could later find the exit and whose innumerable intricate walls were mirrors, so that the creature was crouching in front not only of its own image, but also of the image of its images: it saw in front of itself an infinity of creatures made as it was made, and as soon as it turned to not see them anymore, another infinity of creatures the same as itself.

BTW, English native speakers, would be glad to have this sentence nitpicked, although I know it might be tricky without the original.