The curse of Pasiphae

Like his philandering father Zeus, king of the gods, Minos repeatedly cheated on his wife. According to Greek scholar and historian Apollodorus (fl. 140 BCE), Pasiphae was furious with Minos for his affairs, and she showed herself

See also: Ariadne: Daedalus: Minos: Theseus.

Much more adept than Zeus’s wife, Hera, at punishing both her husband and his mistresses. She shrewdly resorted to her powers of sorcery and put a curse on Minos so that whenever he had sex with another woman, he ejaculated scorpions and snakes. This put a damper on his sexual escapades, for all his lovers perished.

However, in spite of his affliction, Minos was able to have an affair with Procris, who sought refuge on Crete after her husband, Cephalus, had discovered her infidelity with a man named Pteleon. According to Apollodorus, Minos wanted to make Procris his mistress, but she declined because she perceived that he had been enchanted. Once Procris found out about Minos’s sexual

Left: This bust is an anonymous sculptor’s impression of the Minotaur. In Greek mythology this fearsome monster has a human body and a bull’s head and tail.

Problems, however, she gave him a healing potion that enabled her to sleep with him without coming to any harm. In the racier account by Greek mythographer Antoninus Liberalis (second century CE), Procris made a condom of sorts out of a goat bladder. Minos would have sex and ejaculate the dangerous creatures into the condom.

In gratitude, Minos awarded Procris with a javelin that never missed its target and his hound Laelaps, who always caught whatever it chased. Procris then returned home, where she was reunited with her husband. The pair went hunting—making use of the gifts acquired from Minos— only for Procris to die when Cephalus threw the infallible javelin at her by mistake.

Pasiphae’s curse, meanwhile, had ultimately backfired, since it was overcome by the very thing she had meant to deny her husband—another adulterous affair.