For Pasiphaë the moon of Jupiter, see Pasiphaë (moon). Pasiphaë (pa-sif-a-ee, Greek Πασιφάη) is a moon of Jupiter. ...

In Greek mythology, Pasiphaë was the daughter of Helios and the sister of Circe. She was raised as a princess at Cholchis, and then given in marriage to King Minos of Crete. With Minos, she was the mother of Ariadne, Androgeus, Glaucus, Deucalion, Phaedra, and Catreus. She was also the mother of the Minotaur, after a curse from Poseidon caused her to mate with a white bull. Greek mythology comprises the collected legends of Greek gods and goddesses and ancient heroes and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... This article is about Greek mythology. ... This article is about the goddess. ... In Greek mythology, Minos was a semi-legendary king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. ... Crete, sometimes spelled Krete (Greek Κρήτη / Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. ... Ariadne (utterly pure, from a Cretan-Greek form for arihagne) was a fertility goddess of Crete. ... In Greek mythology, Androgeus was the father of Sthenelus and a son of Minos and Pasiphae. ... In Greek mythology, Glaucus (shiny or bright or bluish-green) referred to several different people. ... In Greek mythology, Deucalion, or Deukálion (new-wine sailor) was the son of Prometheus and Clymene or Celaeno. ... 174 Phaedra is an asteroid. ... In biology, Catreus is a genus of pheasants. ... In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a creature that was half man and half bull. ... This article is about the Greek god. ... A bull is a male of various animal species, including: cattle elephant whale In English, bull is usually spoken to refer specifically to male cattle, with terms such as bull elephant disambiguating the term for other species. ...

Pasiphaë was worshipped as an oracular goddess at Thalamae outside of Sparta. The geographer Pausanias describes the shrine as small, situated near a clear stream, and flanked by bronze statues of Helios and Pasiphaë. His account also equates Pasiphaë with Ino and Selene. Sparta (Grk. ... Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... 173 Ino is an asteroid. ... This page is on the Greek goddess. ...

Cicero writes in De Natura Deorum that the Spartan Ephors would sleep at the temple to receive prophetic dreams to aid them in governance. According to Plutarch, Spartan society twice underwent major upheavals sparked by ephors' dreams at the shrine during the Hellenistic era. In one case, an ephor dreamed that some of his colleagues' chairs were removed from the agora, and that a voice called out "this is better for Sparta"; inspired by this, King Cleomenes acted to consolidate royal power. Again during the reign of King Agis, several ephors brought the people into revolt with oracles from Pasiphaë's shrine promising remission of debts and redistribution of land. (See Plutarch, Lives of Agis and Cleomenes) Marcus Tullius Cicero (January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC) was an orator and statesman of Ancient Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin prose stylist. ... An ephor was an official of ancient Sparta. ... Mestrius Plutarch (c. ... For other uses, see Agora (disambiguation). ... There have been three kings of Sparta by the name Cleomenes Cleomenes I (c. ... Agis, the name of four kings of Sparta:-- Son of Eurysthenes, founder of the royal house of the Agiadae (Pausanias iii. ...

External links

• An exhaustive compilation of ancient references to Pasiphae (http://www.theoi.com/Ouranos/Pasiphae.html)