“ | You credit Daedalus with all the maze's secrets? I breathed magical life into his Labyrinth. Daedalus was nothing compared to me - the immortal sorceress, daughter of Helios, sister of Circe! Now the Labyrinth will be my domain. | ” |
–Pasiphaë to Leo Valdez, in The House of Hades. |
Pasiphaë is an immortal sorceress and the mistress of magical herbal arts, daughter of the Titan Helios and the Oceanid Perse. She is the sister of Circe. Through Minos, she was the mother of Ariadne. Due to her husband's blasphemy, she was cursed by Poseidon to fall in love with his prize bull and give birth to the Minotaur.
History[]
Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes[]
Pasiphaë was given in marriage to King Minos of Crete. With Minos, she was the mother of Acacallis, Ariadne, Androgeus, Glaucus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Xenodice, and Catreus.
She was also the mother of the Minotaur, after a curse from Aphrodite, requested by Poseidon, caused her to experience lust for and mate with a white bull sent by the sea god, the love goddess only agreed because Pasiphaë was said to be as beautiful as her. She tried to stop herself, but nothing worked. In order to actually copulate with the bull, she had the Athenian artificer Daedalus construct a portable wooden cow with a cowhide covering, within which she was able to satisfy her strong desire.
Pasiphaë, like her niece Medea, was a mistress of magical herbal arts. The fidelity charm she placed upon Minos, who would ejaculate serpents and scorpions, killing any unlawful concubine; but Procris, with a protective herb, lay with Minos with impunity. In mainland Greece, Pasiphaë was worshiped as an oracular goddess at Thalamae, one of the original koine 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 the lunar goddess Selene.
The Spartan ephors would sleep at the shrine of Pasiphaë, seeking prophetic dreams to aid them in governance. 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.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians[]
The Lightning Thief[]
Pasiphaë never actually made an appearance, but shortly before Percy Jackson slew the Minotaur, Sally Jackson called the monster "Pasiphaë's son," rather than by its actual name. This was due to the fact that, in the world of gods and monsters, names have power.
The Heroes of Olympus[]
The House of Hades[]
Hazel Levesque was warned by Hecate that in the House of Hades, she would have to confront Pasiphaë at the Doors of Death. Due to this, Hazel began studying sorcery and how to manipulate the Mist to prepare for the battle. She is then first physically seen by Leo in a dream, promising that he will die fairly soon.
When the Seven arrived in Epirus, Hazel and Leo Valdez were trapped inside the cavern. They were confronted by Pasiphaë and her Gigante ally Clytius. Due to her past encounters with demigods, Pasiphaë now held a grudge against all half-bloods. She especially hates Leo, calling him a "tinkerer," like Daedalus. She was angry with the Olympians for punishing her for Minos's arrogance. She joined Gaea and the Gigantes to get her revenge against the gods and demigods. She mentioned she hated Hades, because he made Minos a judge of the dead.
Pasiphaë then noticed that Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase were on their way out of Tartarus, stating that their survival depended on Hazel and Leo, since Gaea only needed two sets of demigods to wake at the Feast of Spes on August 1.
Pasiphaë then reopened the Labyrinth to confuse them, stating that Daedalus's death after the Battle of the Labyrinth could not destroy the Labyrinth, as long as she, the immortal sorceress, lived. Hazel, having finally learned sorcery and how to manipulate the Mist, succeeded in making the maze lead her towards Pasiphaë. Hazel mocks her for always being defeated by demigods like Minos and Theseus. She is then dropped down a trapdoor, just seconds before Percy and Annabeth returned from Tartarus.
Later, during the ensuing battle, Clytius names Pasiphaë as a reason why Hazel could never count on the goddess Hecate.
The Blood of Olympus[]
After seeing the entrance to Asclepius' laboratory, Hazel comments that the pattern of concentric circles reminds her of Pasiphaë's pendant, the symbol of the Labyrinth.
Appearance[]
Pasiphaë was described to be a woman who was beautiful in a timeless, regal way, like a statue one might admire but never could love. She had eyes that sparkled with malice, and she wore an elegant sleeveless dress of woven gold, with her dark hair piled into a cone encircled with diamonds and emeralds. She also wore a pendant like a miniature maze around her neck, and the cord was set with rubies that were like crystallized blood drops. Pasiphaë's eyes were so full of hate, that it "made Hazel's skin tingle." The sorceress's power radiated from her "like heat from a furnace."
Personality[]
Pasiphaë hates all demigods for Minos not getting punished, but was instead rewarded, as well as the gods. She is also bitter and full of hatred after her son was born and locked away in the Labyrinth and Minos said she ruined his reputation. Her relationship with Ariadne is unknown but it is assumed she envies her daughter for becoming a goddess. She was said to have loved sorcery and potions and was even more grasping and arrogant than Minos.
Abilities[]
- Mystiokinesis: As an immortal sorceress, she is able to control and perform magic. Her power is so great that she radiates power like heat from a furnace. She breathed magical life into the Labyrinth. That being said she is a poor combatant, losing to an inexperienced Hazel in a magical bout.
- Mist Control: She is able to control and manipulate the Mist.
- She can create illusions.
- She can create false memories.
- She can make monsters invisible or have them be seen as something else.
- She can hide locations.
- She can summon Mistforms.
Trivia[]
- Both Pasiphaë and her husband Minos were a secondary antagonist in the penultimate books of the two series (The House of Hades and The Battle of the Labyrinth respectively). They were also defeated by a child of Hades (Hazel and Nico respectively).
- Pasiphaë's appearance makes it so that Frank Zhang is the only one of the Seven who has not confronted a sorceress (Percy and Annabeth confronted Circe in The Sea of Monsters and Jason, Piper, and Leo confronted Medea in The Lost Hero.)
- It is unknown what Pasiphaë's exact species is. Her father is a Titan (Helios), and her mother is a Goddess/Titaness, a daughter of a Titan, but it is not known whether or not Pasiphaë would also be considered a Titan. She also could be a Goddess if she was born after the Elder Olympians.
- She is the first member of her family ever mentioned in the saga by name (since Sally used her to refer to her son, the Minotaur).
- Both she and her sister Circe, share the same title: The Immortal Sorceress.
- Pasiphaë was mentioned to have once been a favorite of Hecate's.