Pasiphae

, a daughter of the Sun and of Perseis, who married Minos king of Crete. She disgraced herself by her unnatural pa ion for a bull, which, according to some authors, she was enabled to gratify by means of the artist Dædal us. This celebrated bull had been given to Minos by Neptune, to be offered on his altars, but as the monarch refused to sacrifice the animal on account of his beauty, the god revenged his disobedience by inspiring Pasiphæ with an unnatural love for it. This fabulous tradition, which is universally believed by the poets, who observe that the Minotaur was the fruit of this infamous commerce, is refuted by some writers, who suppose that the infidelity of Pasiphæ to her husband was betrayed in her affection for an officer called Taurus; and that Dædal us, by permitting his house to be the asylum of the two lovers, was looked upon as acce ary to the gratification of Pasiphæ’s lust. From this amour with Taurus, as it is further remarked, the queen became mother of twins, and the name of Minotaur us arises from the resemblance of the children to the husband and the lover of Pasiphæ. Minos had four sons by Pasiphæ, Castreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, and Androgeus, and three daughters, Hecate, Ariadne, and Phædra. See: Minotaur us . Plato , Minos .— Plutarch , These us .— A poll on i us , bk. 2 , ch. 1 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 24 .— Hyginus , fable 40.— Diodorus , bk. 4 .— Ovid , Heroides , poem 4, lis. 57 & 165.