Mythology: “Pasiphae, Mother of the Minotaur”.-

►Mythology: “Pasiphae, Mother of the Minotaur”: 

“The Greek Myth and A Brief Story by Rubén García”:

“Pasiphae and the Bull” by Gustave Moreau (1880).-

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►“Pasiphae, Mother of the Minotaur”: “The Greek Myth”: 

“Pasiphae took pleasure in becoming an adulteress with a bull”. (Ovid’s “Ars Amatoria”).-

Minos was one of the three sons from the union of Europa and Zeus; when Zeus was in the form of a bull.

Europa’s husband was the King of Crete, Asterion, who looked over the boys as if his own.

When Asterion died, it was unclear which of the three sons should ascend to power.

The three sons were Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus; these three men who after they died were made judges in the Underworld. It was their task to judge the dead in order to assign where their placement was in the Underworld based upon the merits of their life. But it was Minos, whose name in Cretan actually means king, who was fated to be king of Crete. But, Minos’ ascension to power was a difficult journey; he competed for the kingship of Crete with his brothers.

Minos, however, had one advantage that his brothers did not. He claimed that he had the support and authority from the gods to rule.

Thus, one day while sacrificing to Poseidon, he prayed that a bull would appear from the depths of the sea. Minos vowed to heaven that he would sacrifice the bull to Poseidon once it appeared.

Poseidon, then, produced a magnificent bull from the sea and gave it to Minos with the expectation that Minos would sacrifice it to him. This bull indeed certified that Minos was the rightful king of Crete. Rather than sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, Minos kept it for himself. Angered with Minos, Poseidon plotted to punish him for his arrogance. So, he made Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, fall madly in love with the bull. 

Pasiphae was the daughter of Helios, the Sun, by the eldest of the Oceanids Perse. 

Pasiphae had married Minos, the King of Crete. She bore several children to the king, including Androgeos, Ariadne, Deucalion, and Phaedra.  

As she fell in love with the white bull, the Queen conscripted the great artisan Daedalus to assist her in the endeavour, and he built for her a hollow wooden cow, wrapped in a bovine skin and endowed with mechanical life.  

Hiding herself inside this contraption, the Queen of Crete satisfied her lust for bull. She become impregnated by the bull and she then conceived and bore a hybrid child, the bull-headed Minotaur. 

Pasiphae was proud of her relation to bulls, but the mainland Greeks told the story to shame her. She did not blame her husband because she saw the incident as part of a divine plan. The story about Dedalus making a wooden cow is a bit of a puzzle because as a goddess she could become a cow by shifting her shape.

The story of Pasiphae is totally outrageous. The initial part of the story is identical to the story of Europa and can be illustrated by Pasiphae riding a bull, purhaps naked. This could symbolize the conquest of a raging nature (the bull) by love and is a common enough theme.

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►“Pasiphae, The Mother”: “Brief Story Written by Rubén García”:

The Minotaur, in Greek Mythology, a monster with the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull.-

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It has been three days since I gave birth to the Minotaur and I’m confused. The swollen body and stabbed matrix shrinks as if were aborting. I hear the cry of my baby when feeding time approaches.

The room is sober: a small window, a table where I have water and some fresh fruit which Daedalus sends me from the Royal Palace. I decided,  as Queen that I am, that I would breast-feed the child. 

Undoubtedly, everyone sees him as a monster, but no matter what, he is my son. 

Before his birth, Minos came to my room to reproach me the outrage.

- Do you enjoy being pregnant pregnancy ?- he said ironically while crossing his arms .

- We women enjoy all pregnancies, even when they entrain pain; women are life-giving mother and that fact bring us closer to the Gods.

- Do I have to assume that you feel satisfied?- He say as he was staring at me.

- Of course I do, – I answered, facing him 

 -How can you say that if everybody is talking about you, asking for you to be imprisoned for life ? – He raised his voice, without caring about the servants

 - You don´t need to shout for me to understand you. They are against me because they don´t know that you have disboyed Poseidon, changing the white, snowy bull for a another one that you had in your fields…

-That was something you and the sheperd only knew…

-How naive you are!. Did you think that Poseidon would not notice it ?…  That you would be able to hide that from Helios´eyes ? 

You were the object of revenge. I was just a mean for them to punish your arrogance . Because of the  deceit and shame suffered by the god Poseidon.

Do you believe that Poseidon, who gave you Minos´ kingdom, would n´t do anything?… Or is it so hard for you to accept that Aphrodite bewitched me by making me feel an unstoppable passion for the bull, as she followed Poseidon´s recommendations ?. 

You may think that the reasons of my  pain will be related with the minotaur birth, that is already growing up inside me and that is despised by everyone.

No, my immense pain comes form a different sky. My belly has a destiny of blood and horror that I am not able to change. And that hurts me more than the death of someone I love deeply.

It hurts so bad because I am tied to a future that awaits me and I can´t  do anything about it, but implore the gods to take pity on him.

The bodily aftermaths will be amended by my sister Circe, who may use a potion for this purpose…

But, as to my soul, there would be no God enough capable to comfort it in its sorrows and misfortunes…

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►Story written by Rubén García (My Translation) . You can read this story in spanish here: “Pasífae, la madre”. 

►About Rubén García: He was born in Veracruz, Mexico. He studied at the UNAM Colllege and works in the  Faculty of Medicine, in Veracruz.

He is a blogger and writer. He has published several articles in Books and magazines online. You can check them here.

You can also meet him on his great blog “El Blog de Sendero”

I am grateful to Rubén for his collaboration with “La Audacia de Aquiles” and I really hope that you enjoy his story as much as I did. Aquileana :D 

●▬▬▬▬▬▬๑۩۩๑▬▬▬▬▬▬●

Click on the image to know more about Ruben García. Hacer click en la imagen arriba para saber más de Rubén García.-

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“The Passions of Pasiphae, wife of King Minos of Crete, from the Story of Theseus” by Master of the Campana Cassoni (1510).-

“Pasiphae enters in Daedalus ´wooden cow”, by Giulio Romano (1530).-

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►Links Post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasiphaë

 http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Pasiphae.html

 http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/pasiphae.html

http://www.mythography.com/myth/welcome-to-mythography/greek-legends/legends-2/pasiphae/.

http://classicsnewsneedsandnow.blogspot.com.ar/2013/08/minotaur.html

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►Last but not Least: Awards: Team Member Readership Award:

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My dear blogger Friend Delvina Lavoie, from Dalavoie.net, has nominated me for the Team Member Readership Award. Click here to check out the nomination 

►Here are the Award Rules:

1) The nominee shall display the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award logo on her/his blog.

2) The nominee shall nominate “at least” sixteen (16)  bloggers she/he admires,  by linking to their blogs and informing them about it.

►And here are my twenty-five (25) nominees:

 1. Tropical Flowering Garden 2. Aisha´s Oasis 3. Rotze Mardini 4. Blog de Sendero 5. Family Answers Fast 6. JeriWB Author and Editor 7. My Space in the Inmense Universe 8.  Leonard Durso 9. Poetic Parfait 10. Kev´s Blog  11. Maverick Mist 12. Words in The Light 13. Apollo´s Raven 14. Eternal Atlantis 15. Poems And Poèmes  16. Dilipnaidu´s Blog 17. En Humor Arte 18. The Muscleheaded Blog 19. Artist Poet Within Blog 20. Shaking the Three 21.Al. Hy, la Messagère du Spléen 22. Word Musing 23. Kone, Krusos, Kronos 24. AngelineM´s Blog 25. Gabriel and Co.

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Best Wishes and Good Luck to everyone,  Aquileana :D

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