The story of Pasiphae, from Greek mythology, is a story which is often quickly passed over in polite society. It is though also a story that is integral in understanding the lives of many other famous individuals within Greek mythology. Many people are of course unaware who Pasiphae was, because of the lack of emphasis put upon her tale, but she was perhaps best known as the mother of the Minotaur.

Pasiphae was an immortal, being the daughter of Helios, the Greek sun god, and the Oceanid, Perse. Pasiphae was born with her own special gift, and like her sister, Circe, had witchcraft powers. Despite these powers though, it was only upon her marriage to Minos, the King of Crete that she came to prominence in the stories of Ancient Greece. This marriage produced a number of offspring, Ariadne, future wife of Dionysus; Glauco, the boy inside the honey cask; Adrogeus, the son who caused the Atehnian tribute; Catreus, the son who died a the hands of his own sons; and Phaedra, future wife of Theseus.

Pasiphae’s husband though had wronged the gods, and in particular Poseidon. To ascend to the thrown he had prayed to the god who had sent the sign of a snow-white Cretan Bull to show that Minos was the chosen one. Minos though did not sacrifice the bull as was required, and instead substituted an inferior animal in its place. Poseidon of course noticed this deception and came up with a plan to make Minos suffer.

Poseidon’s revenge came about by transposing the love that Minos had for the Cretan Bull, onto Pasiphae, a love that was physical in nature. The will of Poseidon meant that Pasiphae was forced to give into her unnatural desires, and to make this happen, Pasiphae brought in the expertise of Daedalus, the legendary inventor. Daedalus invented a mechanical hollow wooden cow, which when wrapped in the skin of a cow was indistinguishable from the real thing. Pasiphae entered into the hollow space, and the wooden cow was left in the field where the Cretan Bull was grazing. The Cretan Bull copulated with the fake cow, and thus copulated with Pasiphae. Pasiphae became pregnant by the Cretan Bull, and gave birth to another son for Minos, this one was called Asterion, or Minotauros as he was also known. Asterion though was not an ordinary human boy, and was born with the body of a male, but the head and tail of a bull.

This is where the knowledge of Pasiphae ends for most people familiar with Greek mythology but there is more to the story of the immortal. King Minos was far from being faithful to his wife, and his indiscretions became known to Pasiphae. Pasiphae made use of her witchcraft skills to place Minos under a spell, a spell which ensured that when Minos ejaculated poisonous creatures were brought forth. These creatures would kill of the kings lovers, apart from the immortal Pasiphae. It was a spell that was only broken when Prokris, a young Athenian girl, produced a remedy to counteract the spell.

Pasiphae as previously mentioned is not a name well known with readers of Greek mythology, primarily because her story is not one that people are easily comfortable in reading. Most readers are willing to just know that the Minotaur was born of Pasiphae without knowing the details.