Pasiphae in History and Mythology

Greek mythology has given us some of the most amazing and diverse individuals – benevolent deities who turn on mortals in a heartbeat, semi-divine heroes who conquer vast lands and creatures that are both fascinating and terrifying. One of these creatures was the Minotaur who was born to Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, king of Crete.

Like with many characters from Greek mythology, Pasiphae was the daughter of a god. Like that of her brother Aeetes and her sister Circe, she was the immortal offspring born from the sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perse. She was believed to have several children by Minos, including the princess Ariadne who helped Theseus escape the labyrinth which held the Minotaur.

Pasiphae is mostly famous for the conceiving of the Minotaur. In the beginning, Zeus swims to Crete with the Thracian princess Europa on his back and it is here that she gives birth to Minos and Rhadamanthus. Minos and his brother were brought up on the island by the king Asterion. Minos asks Poseidon, god of sea and earthquake, to signify his right to succeed Asterion. Poseidon sends, then, his bull from the sea but Minos enthroned fails to sacrifice that bull in thanks as he considered it too beautiful to kill. Poseidon maddens the bull and inflicts on Minos' wife Pasiphae a lust for it.

In order for Pasiphae to fulfil her lust for the bull, she instructed Daedalus, Minos' master-craftsman, to construct a wooden cow frame. Climbing inside, she was able to conceive the bull-headed child that was later placed in an underground labyrinth.

Another myth that concerns the immortal queen is her involvement in poisoning her husband. Minos had been unfaithful many times throughout his marriage to the anger of his wife, and in a rage, she cursed him. Minos ejaculates scorpions and snakes from his body that kills the women he makes love to. Procris, an Athenian princess, healed Minos with an herb given to her by Paisphae’s sister, Circe. She sleeps with him herself, bribing him with a javelin that never misses its mark and a hunting dog that never misses its prey.

Myths have different meanings for different people at different times in history. In this case, the myth of Pasiphae symbolizes abhorrent female eroticism in ancient Cretan society. By Pasiphae's passion, Minos is drawn into an atmosphere of corruption, thus of moral implications. Female lust - to Cretan imagination - was radiantly bestial, which resulted in Pasiphae giving birth to the Minotaur, leading to the shame of Crete and her downfall. Whatever the labyrinth comes to mean in myriad contexts (did it once represent the Cretan palace as it struck mainland Greek imaginations?), it is essentially a hiding place for the devouring monstrous expression of Minoan civilization and its passionate involvement with the bull.

Bibliography:

Padel, Ruth (1996) Labyrinth of Desire: Cretan Myth in Us, Arion, Trustees of Boston University.

Will, Frederic (1962) Notes from Crete, Arion, Trustees of Boston University.