PASIPHAE, in fabulous history, a daughter of the Sun by Perseus, and who married Minos, king of Crete. She disgraced herself by an unnatural passion for a bull, which we are told she was enabled to gratify by a contrivance of the artist Dædalus. 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 Pasiphae with an unnatural love for him. This fable, which is universally believed by the poets, is discarded by some writers, who suppose that the infidelity of Pasiphae to her husband was betrayed in her affection for an officer of the name of Taurus, and that Dædalus, by permitting his house to be the place of assignation between the two lovers, was looked upon as accessory to the gratification of Pasiphae's passion. From this amour with Taurus, as is farther remarked, the queen became mother of twins; and the name of Minotaurus arose from the resemblance of the children to the husband and the lover of Pasiphae. Minos had by Pasiphae four sons, Castreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, and Androgeus; and three daughters, Hecate, Ariadne, and Phœdra.