In the beginning of Ariadne’s Crown, Ariadne walks through the market where some women are gossiping about her mom and the white bull. People have asked me what’s up with Pasiphae and the white bull. It’s one of those bizarre Greek myths that make you wonder where in the heck it came from. Here’s the story.
Pasiphae and the White Bull Myth
Before he became king of Crete, Minos needed to prove himself. He prayed to Poseidon for a “bull from the sea,” as a show of his strength and promised to sacrifice it. Poseidon obliged, and a glorious pure white bull came out of the sea.
Minos knew he was supposed to sacrifice it to Poseidon, but it was such a beautiful animal, and he was king now. So, he didn’t. Instead, he hid the white bull and sacrificed another one from his herd, pretending it was the white bull. It’s not a great idea to break a promise to a god. As you can imagine, Poseidon was not happy.
Angry Greek gods didn’t just smite you. They made you into a cautionary tale for the bards to sing about. Poseidon didn’t disappoint. First, he made the bull crazy and violent so nobody could capture or approach it. Here’s where it gets weird. He also made Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, fall in love with it. Not just in love, but obsessively in love.
Pasiphae is a force of nature in her own right. As the Daughter of Helios, the sun god, and rumored to be a powerful sorceress, Pasiphae could handle herself. But she wasn’t thinking straight and was crazy in love with this bull. She sought out Daedalus, the great inventor. He’s famous for making the wings that his son, Icarus, flew too close to the sun. But before that, he did some work for Pasiphae.
Daedalus crafted a wooden cow on wheels with an opening for Pasiphae to fit inside. It must have been one attractive wooden cow. When Pasiphae climbed inside and wheeled it into the field where the white bull was grazing, he was smitten. They um… shared a moment together and then yada, yada, yada, the Minotaur was born.
Angry (and probably horrified), Minos ordered Daedalus to build a labyrinth to both imprison the monster and hide his wife’s shame. He tossed people into it when he needed to make a point.
So, what happened to the white bull? It became famous as the Cretan bull, and people were always trying to make a name for themselves by killing it, but nobody could.
When Hercules came to Crete for his 7th labor, he wrestled with it and took the bull back to King Eurystheus. Then, it basically wandered around Greece terrorizing people until Theseus killed it. A while later, Theseus set his sights on the bull’s son, the Minotaur. And we all know what happened then…
No? check out my book, Ariadne’s Crown to see what happens Theseus comes to Crete.