Rod's function does not work (the thing produced is not even symmetrical).
Here is one that produces a correct approximation to an ellipse:
function pdf_ellipse ($pdfobj,$x,$y,$width,$height) {
// Function to draw an ellipse inscribed in a rectangle
// described by lower left (x,y) with width and height.
$fac = (4*sqrt(2)-4)/3;
$dx = $width*(1-$fac)/2;
$dy = $height*(1-$fac)/2;
pdf_moveto($pdfobj, $x,$y+$height/2);
pdf_curveto($pdfobj, $x,$y+$height-$dy, $x+$dx,$y+$height, $x+$width/2,$y+$height);
pdf_curveto($pdfobj, $x+$width-$dx,$y+$height, $x+$width,$y+$height-$dy, $x+$width,$y+$height/2);
pdf_curveto($pdfobj, $x+$width,$y+$dy, $x+$width-$dx,$y, $x+$width/2,$y);
pdf_curveto($pdfobj, $x+$dx,$y, $x,$y+$dy, $x,$y+$height/2);
}