Paseas, a tyrant in Sicyon in Peloponnesus, father to Abantidas, &c. Plutarch, Aratus.
Pasicles, a grammarian, &c.
Pasicrătes, a king of part of the island of Cyprus. Plutarch.
Pasiphae, a daughter of the Sun and of Perseis, who married Minos king of Crete. She disgraced herself by her unnatural passion for a bull, which, according to some authors, she was enabled to gratify by means of the artist Dædalus. This celebrated bull had been given to Minos by Neptune, to be offered on his altars, but as the monarch refused to sacrifice the animal on account of his beauty, the god revenged his disobedience by inspiring Pasiphæ with an unnatural love for it. This fabulous tradition, which is universally believed by the poets, who observe that the Minotaur was the fruit of this infamous commerce, is refuted by some writers, who suppose that the infidelity of Pasiphæ to her husband was betrayed in her affection for an officer called Taurus; and that Dædalus, by permitting his house to be the asylum of the two lovers, was looked upon as accessary to the gratification of Pasiphæ’s lust. From this amour with Taurus, as it is further remarked, the queen became mother of twins, and the name of Minotaurus arises from the resemblance of the children to the husband and the lover of Pasiphæ. Minos had four sons by Pasiphæ, Castreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, and Androgeus, and three daughters, Hecate, Ariadne, and Phædra. See: [Minotaurus]. Plato, Minos.—Plutarch, Theseus.—Apollonius, bk. 2, ch. 1.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 24.—Hyginus, fable 40.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Ovid, Heroides, poem 4, lis. 57 & 165.
Pasithea, one of the Graces, also called Aglaia. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 35.——One of the Nereides. Hesiod.——A daughter of Atlas.
Pasitĭgris, a name given to the river Tigris. Strabo, bk. 15.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 20.
Passaron, a town of Epirus, where, after sacrificing to Jupiter, the kings swore to govern according to law, and the people to obey and to defend the country. Plutarch, Pyrrhus.—Livy, bk. 45, chs. 26 & 33.
Passiēnus, a Roman who reduced Numidia, &c. Tacitus, Annals.——Paulus, a Roman knight, nephew to the poet Propertius, whose elegiac compositions he imitated. He likewise attempted lyric poetry, and with success, and chose for his model the writings of Horace. Pliny, ltrs. 6 & 9.——Crispus, a man distinguished as an orator, but more as the husband of Domitia, and afterwards of Agrippina, Nero’s mother, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 20.
Pasus, a Thessalian in Alexander’s army, &c.
Patala, a harbour at the mouth of the Indus, in an island called Patale. The river here begins to form a Delta like the Nile. Pliny places this island within the torrid zone. Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 73.—Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 15.—Arrian, bk. 6, ch. 17.