In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Pasiphaë was a queen of Crete, and was often referred to as goddess of witchcraft and sorcery. The daughter of Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse, Pasiphaë is notable as the mother of the Minotaur. She conceived the Minotaur after mating with the Cretan Bull while hidden within a hollow cow that the Athenian inventor Daedalus built for her, after Poseidon cursed her to fall in love with the bull, due to her husband, Minos, failing to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon as he had promised.
Pasiphaë sits on a throne, a Roman mosaic from Zeugma Mosaic Museum
Daedalus presents the artificial cow to Pasiphaë: Roman fresco in the House of the Vettii, Pompeii, 1st century CE.
Pasiphaë nursing the infant Minotaur, red-figure kylix found at Etruscan Vulci, 4th century BC.
Pasiphae entering the hollow cow by Giulio Romano (15th century)
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "part man and part bull".
He dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction
designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus, upon command of King Minos of Crete. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus.
Minotaur bust (National Archaeological Museum of Athens)
Ionian Perfume Jar in the shape of a minotaur
Roman copy of a statue of the Minotaur's torso
Rhyton in the shape of a bull's head, Heraklion Archaeological Museum
