in fabulous history, daughter of the Sun by Perseis, 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 means of the artist Daedalus. This celebrated bull had been given to Minos by Neptune, to be offered on his altar. 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, who observe, that the minotaur was the fruit of this infamous commerce, is refuted 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 Daedalus, by permitting his house to be the asylum of the two lovers, was looked upon as accessory to the gratification of Pasiphae's lust. From this amour with Taurus, as it is farther remarked, the queen became mother of twins; and the name of Minotaurus arises from the resemblance of the children to the husband and the lover of Pasiphae. Minos had four sons by Pasiphae, Castreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, and Androgenes; and three daughters, Hecate, Ariadne, and Pleiada.