Historiae Romanorum

Pasiphae

The daughter of Helios and Perse, and the wife of Minos, king of Crete.

In order to punish her husband Minos, Poseidon caused Pasiphae to fall in love with the bull he had earlier sent to Minos.  She desperately wanted to mate with the bull, but this could not be achieved in her present form.  In order to facilitate a union, Pasiphae asked Daedalus, the famed architect, for help.  He constructed for her the body of a cow, into which Pasiphae could climb.  In this way, she was able to have intercourse with the bull, and become pregnant by it.  Pasiphae named her child Asterius, but he would forever be known as the Minotaur (the bull of Minos).  This is because he had the body of a man, but the head of the bull.

Source(s):

1. Apollodorus.  Bibliotece.

This page was last updated on July 21, 2004.