Pasiphae
- daughter of Helios, sister of Circe, wife of Minos, and mother of Androgeus, Phaedra, and Ariadne, and also of the Minotaur by a beautiful bull, which Venus, out of hatred, had inspired her with a passion for, Ov. A. A. 1, 295; Cic. N. D. 3, 19, 48; id. Div. 1, 43, 96; Serv. Verg. A. 6, 14; Hyg. Fab. 40: Pasiphaen nivei solatur amore juvenci, Verg. E. 6, 46: Pasiphaae fano, Cic. Div. l. l.: Pasiphaes gener, i.e. Theseus, Ov. Ib. 90.— Hence,
- II Pāsĭphăēïus, a, um, adj., Pasiphaean.—In the fem. subst.: Pāsĭ-phaēïa, Phaedra, Ov. M. 15, 500.
(Πασιφάη). A daughter of Helios (the Sun) and Perseïs, and a sister of Circé and Aeëtes. She was the wife of Minos, by whom she became the mother of Androgeos, Catreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, Acallé, Xenodicé, Ariadné, and Phaedra. Hence Phaedra is called Pasipheïa (Ovid, Met. xv. 500). As a punishment for Minos who had failed to carry out a vow that he had made, Pasiphaë was inspired by Poseidon with a violent passion for a bull. By a device of the artisan Daedalus, who enclosed her in a wooden cow, Pasiphaë was enabled to gratify her desires, and became by the bull the mother of the monster Minotaurus, a creature half man and half bull. (See Minos; Theseus.) There is a poem De Pasiphaë of twenty-two lines in the Latin Anthology, ascribed to Rufinus Antiochensis (Bährens, Poet. Lat. Min. v. 108).
- wife of Minos: Apollod. 1.9.1
- daughter of the Sun: Paus. 5.25.9
- daughter of the Sun, married by Minos: Apollod. 3.1.2
- bewitches Minos: Apollod. 3.15.1
- loves the bull, with the complicity of Daedalus: Apollod. 3.15.8
- image of: Paus. 3.26.1
- Pasiphae a surname of the moon: Paus. 3.26.1