Pasifae

If you the a walk along the beach in Vilanova one of the things you won't be able to miss is the statue on the sea's edge of a bull.

The Bull is actually called Pasifae and is is made of three tons of copper. The statue is set facing the shores of the Mediterranean sea. In Pasifae the town is said to recognise the union of all the people and civilizations around the Mediterranean.

The Legend of pasifae/pasiphae is of Greek Mythology.

The legend says that Pasiphae, a beautiful princess from Colchis, daughter of Helios, God of the Sun and of Perseus, was offered to Minos, son of Zeus God of the Heavens and Earth, and Europe.

When the king of Crete died, Minos was proclaimed king and to justify that the gods had preferred him, he asked Poseidon the God of the Sea to grant him a wish as proof of his blessing.

Minos asked Poseidon to send him a bull to be sacrificed in his name. Poseidon agreed and from the waters of the Mediterranean a magnificent white bull emerged of such extraordinary bravery and beauty that astonished the young king.

The king, on seeing the spectacular Bull changed his mind and decided not to sacrifice it, going back on his promise to Poseidon. Poseidon found out and became furious. As punishment Poseidon decided to bewitch Minos's wife Pasiphae and make her fall madly and passionately in love with the white bull.

Pasiphae, to satisfy this unnatural desire, called on Daedalus one of the most renowned sculptors and artisans of the age to make her a life size wooden cow, hollowed out inside and covered with animal skin. She ordered Daedalus once finished to set it down in the middle of the meadow so that the great white bull could see it. She hid inside the cow and waited.

The bull on seeing this beautiful young cow was overcome with desire and rushed over to consume his passion. From this unnatural union a beast the Minotaur was born.

This realisation in Vng is the work of Oscar Estruga, a Vilanovin artist, and is approximately three tonnes of copper, and was originally conceived in 1989 and was finally installed on the beach in 1993. It has several interpretations but ones is that it looks out to sea uniting the peoples of the Mediterranean.