Pasiphae, early kretan moon-goddess

Pasiphae was an immortal daughter of the sun-god Helios. Like her siblings, Aeetes and Kirke (Circe), she was a skilled practitioner of witchcraft (pharmakeia).
Pasiphae married King Minos of Krete (Crete) and bore him a number of sons and daughters. As punishment for some offence against the gods--committed either by herself or her husband--she was cursed with lust for the king's finest bull. The queen enlisted the help of the artisan Daidalos (Daedalus) who built her an animate, wooden cow wrapped in bovine-skin. Hidden inside the contraption she coupled with the bull and conceived a hybrid child--the bull-headed Minotauros (Minotaur).
Pasiphae was an early Kretan moon-goddess similar to the classical Selene. Both her taurine lover and her Minotaur son--who was also named Asterios (Starry One)--were associated with the constellation Taurus.