Escaping the Labyrinth 2

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Escaping the Labyrinth 2

• Greek Mythology
• Fri 10-31-08

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Labyrinth / Minotaur
Mycenaean tablet from Pylos / Minotaur, John
Fred Watts 1885
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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

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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
  Cretes Mt. Ida

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Crete
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Crete
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Crete
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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

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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

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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.

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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 (?)

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Knossos
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Knossos
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Snake goddess of Knossos 1500 BC
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Bronze labrys2nd millennium B.C.
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Stone Rhyton (libation vessel) Knossos 1500 BC
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Knossos Bull leaping (1500 BC)
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Bustling Port Fresco, Thera
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Knossos throne room
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Minoan ladies
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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

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Aigeus

• The oracle had said
• Dont 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 its blatant sexual meaning)
• Got Aigeus drunk and put him to bed with his
  daughter Aithra

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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

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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

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Theseus examining fathers sword (Greco-Roman gem)
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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

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Marathon / Cretan Bull
Eleusis / Cercyon
Sciron / Megara
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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

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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

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????
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Skiron
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Cercyon / Bull
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Sinis
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Sinis
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Sow / Sinis
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Sow of Commyon
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Bull / Procrustes / Cercyon
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Theseus Procrustes
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Procrustes
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Theseus Bull of Marathon (Jan van Loo, 1732)
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Theseus reaches Athens

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

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Theseus, Aegeus, Medea
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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

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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

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Theseus Minotaur

• Aegeus accepts Theseus as his son and heir
• Theseus learns of the recent war with Minoson
  account of the death of Androgeosand 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

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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

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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 wasnt a good wife)

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

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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

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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)

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Theseus afterwards

• He had a son Hippolytus with Antiope
• He was staunchly celibatedevoted to Artemis
• Amazons attacked Athens during this war Antiope
  was killed
• Theseus then married Phaedra, other daughter of
  Minos (and Ariadnes sister!)

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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

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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)

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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

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Labyrinth, Roman mosaic (3rd cent. AD, Salzburg)
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Theseus Minotaur ( 550 BC)
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Theseus Minotaur ( 540 BC)
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(6th cent. BC)
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Theseus Minotaur ( 510 BC)
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Theseus Minotaur ( 500-450 BC)
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Theseus the Amazons
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Theseus Minotaur (Roman mosaic, 1st cent. BC)
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Theseus Minotaur (Roman mosaic)
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Labyrinth / Minotaur (Roman Mosaic, 4th cent. AD
Tunisia)
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Roman villa mosaic (3rd cent. AD)
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Tunisia mosaic, closeup
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Minotaur (Jan Parker, b. 1941)
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Theseus dreams of the Minotaur (Picasso 1961)
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Minotauromachia, Picasso 1935
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Dionysos Ariadne
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Ariadne Dionysos (Pompeii)
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Dionysos Ariadne (Pompeii)
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Ariadne Bacchus (cameo, early empire, Pompeii
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Dionysos Ariadne (Annibale Carracci, 16th
cent. Palazzo Farnese, Rome)
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Bacchus AriadneTitian1522-3
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Bacchus AriadneNicolas Bertin171-15
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Ariadne Jean-Baptiste Greuze, late 18th cent.
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Northern Crown
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Ariadne BacchusAime Jules-Dalou (19th cent.)
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Ariadne on Naxos (Evelyn de Morgan, 1877)
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Ariadne (J.W. Waterhouse, 1898)
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Ariadne (Giorgio di Cirico, 1913)
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Ariadnes Dream (Andre Masson, 1938)
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Ariadne Dionysos (artist?)
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Phaedra (Alexandre Canabel 1880)