Escaping the Labyrinth 2

Greek Mythology

Fri 10-31-08

Labyrinth / Minotaur

Mycenaean tablet from Pylos /

Minotaur, John Fred Watts 1885

Crete and the bull

• The insistent bull motif in Cretan myths reflects the ancient importance of bulls in Cretan religion

• The sacred / religious importance of bulls on Crete goes back to Bronze Age civilization (“Minoan”) 2700-1500 BC

• The preeminence and power of Crete in Greek myth also no doubt reflects the early power and importance of Minoan Crete

Minos’ Crete

• Early Greeks called Crete “hundred-citied” (hekatompolis)

• Believed Minos to be early king, lawgiver, with great naval power

• Baby Zeus was hidden and nursed in a cave on Crete’s Mt. Ida

Crete

Crete

Crete

Minoan Crete• Bronze Age civilization flourished 2700-

1500s B.C.• Sir Arthur Evans purchased land and

began excavations of palace at Knossos in 1900

• Palace seemed maze-like, so he named culture after Minos

• Found written tablets : Linear A and B– Linear B is early form of Greek– Linear A is still undeciphered

Minoan Crete

• Sea-faring mercantile culture – trade networks with Greece, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Spain

• Minoan culture unique but influenced by Egypt and other civilizations to east

• Trivia: saffron crocus appears to come from Crete, cultivated and harvested for trade by Minoans

Minoan Crete

• Minoans were not Greek

• Spoke and wrote a different, unknown language (we call it Minoan or Eteocretan)

• Cretan palaces were sacked and destroyed by Mycenaeans from Greece in 1500s B.C.

• Mycenaean culture dominated thereafter until its rapid decline in 1200s B.C.

Minoan Crete religion

• Mountains and caves were divine cult sites

• No temples

• Nearly all figurines are feminine

• Sacred symbols : double-headed axe (labrys), bulls, pillars, serpents, sun-disk, trees

• Bull-jumping for sport / religious ritual (?)

Knossos

Knossos

“Snake goddess” of Knossos 1500 BC

Bronze labrys2nd

millennium B.C.

Stone Rhyton (libation vessel) Knossos 1500

BC

Knossos : Bull leaping (1500 BC)

Bustling Port : Fresco, Thera

Knossos throne room

Minoan ladies

Scene Change : Athens• Medea fled Corinth to Athens, married

King Aigeus, father of Theseus• Aigeus was son of Pandion II (an early

king of Athens)– Erichthonius – Pandion – Erechtheus –

Cecrops – Pandion - Aigeus– [Pandion II had warred with Labdacus of

Thebes]

• Long before, he had gone to Delphi to find out how he could have children

Aigeus

• The oracle had said:– “Don’t untie the mouth of the wineskin

until you reach Athens’ peaks again”

• Baffled by this oracle, Aigeus traveled• Reaching Troizen he stayed with Pittheus, son

of Pelops• Pittheus, a wise man, figured out the oracle (with

it’s blatant sexual meaning) • Got Aigeus drunk and put him to bed with his

daughter Aithra

Aigeus

• When he left Troizen, he placed his sandals and a sword under a stone, with instructions to send him their son when he could remove the stone and retrieve them

• Aithra has a son, Theseus

• A variant provides Theseus with divine paternity:

• Aigeus was too drunk to perform, but that same night Poseidon slept with Aithra

Theseus

• Theseus is the hero of Attica and Athens, just as Jason is hero of Iolcos, and Heracles of Tiryns and Thebes

• When he is old enough his mother shows him the rock and tells him to lift it up

• Under it he finds the sword and sandals of Aigeus

• Then he sets out for Athens on foot

Theseus examining

father’s sword (Greco-

Roman gem)

Theseus’ Labors• On the way to Athens Theseus happens into six

“labor”-like adventures in which he defeats no-goods (then at some point a seventh)

• He “clears the roads, which had been beset by evildoers” (Apollodorus ACM p. 55)

• 1) Periphetes in Epidaurus• 2) Sinis at the Corinthian Isthmus• 3) Crommyon the man-eating sow• 4) Sciron in Megara• 5) Cercyon in Eleusis• 6) Procrustes (or Damastes) • 7) The Bull of Marathon

Sciron / Megara

Marathon / Cretan Bull

Eleusis / Cercyon

Theseus’ Labors

• Periphetes used a club to kill travelers with; Theseus killed him and took the club

• Sinis was the “Pine-bender” : he made passers-by bend trees down, then they would rebound and kill them; Theseus killed him the same way

• Then there was a sow (that was nasty in one way or another) and Theseus killed it

Theseus’ Labors

• Sciron would compel travelers to wash his feet then throw them over the cliff to feed a giant turtle; Theseus threw him over the cliff

• Cercyon of Eleusis would compel people to wrestle and kill them; Theseus body-slammed him

• Procrustes (or Damastes) would hammer and saw his guests to fit in beds that were too small or big for them; Theseus gave him the same treatment

• Later he also dispatched the annoying Marathonian (formerly Cretan) Bull

????

Skiron

Cercyon / Bull

Sinis

Sinis

Sow / Sinis

Sow of Commyon

Bull / Procrustes / Cercyon

Theseus & Procrustes

Procrustes

Theseus & Bull of Marathon (Jan van Loo, 1732)

Theseus reaches Athens

• Finally Theseus reaches Athens, where his father Aegeus is married to Medea

• Aegeus doesn’t know him (but knows his reputation from his recent exploits) but Medea does know who he is

• She convinces Aegeus that he is a threat and that he should poison his guest

• In the nick of time Aegeus recognizes his sword in Theseus’ possession

• Medea flees with her son Medon to the east

Theseus, Aegeus, Medea

Aigeus & war with Minos

• From Troizen Aigeus had returned to Athens, and held Panathenaic Games

• Minos’ son Androgeos was the hero of the games, beating everyone

• Aigeus sent him against the Marathonian Bull and it defeated him

• Formerly the Cretan Bull, but it wandered to Marathon and ravaged the countryside after Heracles had brought it from Crete

Aigeus & war with Minos

• Minos waged war on Athens, and a plague broke out

• Beleaguered by war and plague the Athenians settle

• Minos imposes a tribute on them: send seven young men and seven young women every year to feed to the Minotaur in the labyrinth

Theseus & Minotaur

• Aegeus accepts Theseus as his son and heir

• Theseus learns of the recent war with Minos—on account of the death of Androgeos—and about the 7 boy / 7 girl tribute to feed the Minotaur

• Theseus agrees to go as one of the offered children, with the plan of defeating the Minotaur

Theseus / Ariadne / Minotaur

• They arrange a sign : if he defeats the Minotaur the ship will fly white sails as it returns; if Theseus dies, black sails

• When he gets to Crete, Ariadne daughter of Minos falls in love with Theseus

• She decides to help him defeat the Minotaur in the labyrinth

• She gives him a thread by which to find his way out

Theseus / Minotaur / Ariadne

• He kills Minotaur, escapes the labyrinth thanks to the thread, and leaves taking Ariadne with him

• Then, landing at the island Naxos, Theseus abandons Ariadne on the shore

• Why!? (Who knows: either he “forgot” her; or he thought she wasn’t a “good” wife)

Ariadne & Dionysos

• She is distraught and distressed, but Dionysos sees her, falls in love, and carries her off into the heavens to be his wife

• She shines as constellation Corona Borealis

• Ovid’s Heroides 10 : Ariadne writes complaint to Theseus when abandoned on Naxos (ACM p. 318-22)

Theseus afterwards

• Theseus returns to Athens, but forgets to change the sails to white (he is a bit dim-witted)

• Aigeus despairs and kills himself before the ship comes in

• He throws himself off a cliff into the sea: thus the sea is named “Aegean”

Theseus afterwards

• Theseus continues to make bad choices in love

• He abducts and marries Antiope the Amazonian princess (or Hippolyta, accounts vary)

• (Accounts also vary about his encounter with the Amazons; some say he went with Heracles; others say on a different independent campaign)

Theseus afterwards

• He had a son Hippolytus with Antiope

• He was staunchly celibate—devoted to Artemis

• Amazons attacked Athens; during this war Antiope was killed

• Theseus then married Phaedra, other daughter of Minos (and Ariadne’s sister!)

Theseus, Hippolytus, Phaedra

• His strict devotion to Artemis and neglect of Aphrodite roused the love-goddess’ anger

• She decided to punish Hippolytus by making Phaedra fall in love with him

• [Euripides’ Hippolytus] Phaedra eventually reveals her love to Hippolytus, and when he violently rejects her, she kills herself, but leaves a letter saying that he had tried to rape her

Theseus, Hippolytus, Phaedra

• Theseus reads the letter and prays to Poseidon to curse his son

• Driving his chariot along the road, Poseidon caused his horses to bolt, chariot overturns and he dies

• (Italian continuation of the story: Artemis takes him away, Asclepius heals him and transforms him into the god Virbius: Ovid Met. Book 15)

Theseus odds and ends

• Theseus & Pirithous abduct Helen

• Theseus & Pirithous go to underworld to abduct Persephone, get trapped there

• Heracles saves Theseus from underworld (when he goes there for Cerberos) [Heracles was his cousin]

Labyrinth, Roman mosaic (3rd cent. AD, Salzburg)

Theseus & Minotaur (~ 550 BC)

Theseus & Minotaur (~

540 BC)

(6th cent. BC)

Theseus & Minotaur (~ 510 BC)

Theseus & Minotaur

(~ 500-450 BC)

Theseus & the Amazons

Theseus &

Minotaur (Roman mosaic, 1st cent.

BC)

Theseus & Minotaur (Roman mosaic)

Labyrinth / Minotaur (Roman

Mosaic, 4th cent. AD Tunisia)

Roman villa mosaic (3rd cent. AD)

Tunisia mosaic, closeup

Minotaur (Jan Parker, b. 1941)

Theseus dreams of the Minotaur

(Picasso 1961)

Minotauromachia, Picasso 1935

Dionysos & Ariadne

Ariadne & Dionysos (Pompeii)

Dionysos & Ariadne (Pompeii)

Ariadne & Bacchus (cameo, early empire, Pompeii

Dionysos & Ariadne (Annibale Carracci, 16th cent. Palazzo Farnese, Rome)

Bacchus & Ariadne

Titian1522-3

Bacchus & Ariadne

Nicolas Bertin171-15

Ariadne

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, late 18th

cent.

Northern Crown

Ariadne & Bacchus

Aime Jules-Dalou

(19th cent.)

Ariadne on Naxos (Evelyn de Morgan, 1877)

Ariadne (J.W. Waterhouse, 1898)

Ariadne (Giorgio di Cirico, 1913)

Ariadne’s Dream (Andre Masson, 1938)

Ariadne & Dionysos (artist?)

Phaedra (Alexandre Canabel 1880)