Pasiphae
Legacy Name: Pasiphae

It has been said that an ounce of luck is better fortune than a pound of gold, but they mean good luck when they say that. When you have a pound of ill luck and a few ounces of gold...well...you end up with the likes of me. My name is Pasiphae, and it was my ill luck to be a pawn, subject to the gods' caprice.

When I was young, my father Helios gave me in marriage to Minos. My husband ruled over Crete and honored the gods as he ought, until.... There was a bull. No, let me begin again. There was strife. My husband ruled over Crete, but the crown was contested by his brothers. Minos prayed to Poseidon for a sign, some surety of his right to reign, and Poseidon caused a white bull to emerge from the sea on the shores of Crete. It was to be sacrificed, but it was so lovely; there was grace in every limb, and its coat was so white it seemed to shine from within. My husband was proud, and he took the bull and kept it.

It is not for men to trifle with the gods. Angry at Minos' disobedience, Poseidon cursed me, though it did not feel like a curse until much later. Sometimes still....

I fell in love with the bull. I fed it. I petted it. I lusted after it. When I could stand it no longer, I spoke to Daedalus, who built this contraption. Cursed by a god, I betrayed my husband to lie with a bull...and I gloried in it.

In time, its seed took root and grew within me. Uncertain--it might have been my husband's child!--I did nothing to rid myself of the thing. Cursed, I saw what it was when my child was born and still I held it to my breast and nursed the mewling abomination. I named him Asterion for both my husband's stepfather and for all the stars in the heavens that could not outshine the white bull that had fathered it.

You know the rest, I think. My poor Asterion was called a monster, and Minos conspired with Daedalus to lock him away. For the rest of my natural life, I tried every key I could find in the labyrinth doors, trying to make my way to the center, trying to find my child.... And I wander the labyrinth still, ironically granted longevity inside this steamwork cow my son's gaoler built for me.

Please, leave me now; I see another door I must try....