The myth of Pasiphae is an ancient Greek myth related to Crete. According to Greek mythology, Pasiphae was the daughter of Helios and the nymph Perses, sister of Perseus, Aeetes, and Circe, and the wife of King Minos of Crete. She bore four sons and four daughters: Androgeus, Catreus, Glaucus, Deucalion, and Ariadne, Xenodice, Acalle, and Phaedra.

According to the mythology, when Minos asked Poseidon for a sign that he could become the ruler of all Crete, a beautiful bull emerged from the sea, and the king felt reluctant to sacrifice it. Instead, he sacrificed another in its place, incurring the wrath of Poseidon, who sought to punish Minos by causing his wife Pasiphae to fall in love with the bull. Pasiphae did fall in love with the bull and desired to ‘unite’ with it.

With the help of a wooden cow contraption crafted by Daedalus, Pasiphae united with the bull and gave birth to the Minotaur, a creature with a human body and a bull’s head. According to the myth (inspired by similar religious rituals), the Minotaur lived in a Labyrinth constructed by Daedalus on King Minos’s order, isolating the monster in the palace of Knossos’s underground, where it was fed with the blood of young victims.

The famous Athenian hero Theseus managed to fight and defeat the Minotaur, freeing Athens from the harsh tribute of blood paid to this supernatural monster. Pasiphae was also credited with ancient magical knowledge (similar to Circe and Medea), allowing her to kill any woman suspected of being Minos’s lover. She could transform them into snakes or anything else to render Minos sterile. Pasiphae was mainly worshipped in Crete and also in Laconia as a prophetess and oracle. In the Thalames of Messenia, according to Pausanias, there was a statue in her honor in a sanctuary adjacent to the Temple of the Sun.

The myth of Pasiphae is referenced in various ancient Greek works, including tragedies by Euripides and Virgil’s Georgics. The Minotaur and Pasiphae have become symbols of human weakness and its consequences.