![]() Pasiphaë's speech defending herself is preserved, an answer to Minos' accusations (not preserved) in which she excuses herself on account of acting under the constraint of divine power, and insists that the one to blame is actually Minos, who angered the sea-god. Sections include a chorus of priests presenting themselves and addressing Minos, someone (perhaps a wetnurse) informing Minos of the newborn infant's nature (informing Minos and the audience, among others, that Pasiphaë breastfeeds the Minotaur like an infant), and a dialogue between Pasiphaë and Minos where they argue over which between them is responsible. The myth of Pasiphaë's coupling with the bull and the subsequent birth of the Minotaur was the subject of Euripides's lost play the Cretans, of which few fragments survive. The child was named Asterius, after the previous king, but was commonly called the Minotaur ("the bull of Minos"). Pasiphaë fell pregnant and gave birth to a half-human half-bull creature that fed solely on human flesh. Pasiphaë climbed into the structure, allowing the bull to mate with her. Daedalus then created a hollow wooden cow covered with real cow-skin, so realistic that it fooled the Cretan Bull. Ultimately, Pasiphaë went to Daedalus and asked him to help her mate with the bull. As punishment, Poseidon cursed his wife Pasiphaë to experience lust for the white, splendid bull. One year, an extremely beautiful bull was born, Minos refused to sacrifice this bull, and sacrificed another, inferior bull instead. Minos was required to sacrifice "the fairest bull born in its herd" to Poseidon each year. Mythology Daedalus presents the artificial cow to Pasiphaë: Roman fresco in the House of the Vettii, Pompeii, 1st century CE. With Minos, she was the mother of Acacallis, Ariadne, Androgeus, Glaucus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Xenodice, and Catreus.Īfter having sex with the Cretan Bull, she gave birth to the "star-like" Asterion, who became known as the Minotaur. ![]() Pasiphaë was given in marriage to King Minos of Crete. Like her doublet Europa, the consort of Zeus, her origins were in the East, in her case at the earliest-known Kartvelian-speaking polity of Colchis ( Egrisi ( Georgian: ეგრისი, now in western Georgia ). In some accounts, Pasiphaë's mother was identified as the island-nymph Crete herself. She was thus the sister of Aeëtes, Circe and Perses of Colchis. Pasiphaë was the daughter of god of the Sun, Helios, and the Oceanid nymph Perse. She conceived the Minotaur after mating with the Cretan Bull while hidden within a hollow cow that the Athenian inventor Daedalus built for her, after Poseidon cursed her to fall in love with the bull, due to her husband, Minos, failing to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon as he had promised. The daughter of Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse, Pasiphaë is notable as the mother of the Minotaur. Pasipháē derived from πάσι (archaic dative plural) "for all" and φάος/φῶς phaos/phos "light") was a queen of Crete, and was often referred to as goddess of witchcraft and sorcery. In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Pasiphaë ( / p ə ˈ s ɪ f i iː/ Greek: Πασιφάη, translit.
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