Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #2)

by Stephen Fry

The bull was, of course, a bull, and so had no sense of how to respond to a woman’s advances. In the froth and frenzy of her erotic passion, the lovestruck Pasiphae went to her friend, and perhaps ex-lover, Daedalus, and asked if he could help her have her way with the bull. Without so much as a second thought, Daedalus, excited perhaps by the intellectual challenge, set about manufacturing an artificial heifer. He made it from wood and brass, but he stretched a real cow’s hide over the frame. Pasiphae fitted herself inside, the correct part of her presented to the correct opening. The whole contraption was wheeled to the meadow where the bull was grazing. I know, my boy, it is gross, but I am telling you the story as the world knows it. Astonishingly, the depraved plan worked. Pasiphae screamed in a delirium of joy as the bull entered her. Never had she known such carnal ecstasy. Yes, laugh, mock, and snort with derision as much as you like, but this is what happened, Theseus.