VENUS NEFANDA: DIDO AND PASIPHAE IN VERGIL'S AENEID

In Book 6 of the Aeneid the hero, before entering the Underworld!, undergoes several preliminary, more or less "initiatory" experiences. One of these is his examination of the scenes depicted on the doors of the temple of Apollo at Cumae (allegedly built by Daedalus: Aen. 6.18-19). On these doors Daedalus had depicted events from his own experiences on Crete, including (most importantly for this paper) the passion of Queen Pasiphae for the bull of Minos, the monstrous hybrid offspring of that union (the Minotaur), and the intricate Labyrinth (inextricabi/is error, 6.27) in which the Minotaur was kept hidden