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 27001500s 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 labrys
2nd
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
(GrecoRoman gem)
Theseus’ Labors
• On the way to Athens Theseus happens into six
“labor”-like adventures in which he defeats nogoods (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
Marathon /
Cretan Bull
Sciron /
Megara
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 dimwitted)
• 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
Titian
1522-3
Bacchus &
Ariadne
Nicolas Bertin
171-15
Ariadne
JeanBaptiste
Greuze,
late 18th
cent.
Northern Crown
Ariadne &
Bacchus
Aime JulesDalou
(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)