1. Escaping the Labyrinth 2 Greek Mythology Fri 10-31-08

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Crete

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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 (?)

12. Knossos

15. “Snake goddess” of Knossos 1500 BC

16. Bronze labrys 2 nd millennium B.C.

17. Stone Rhyton (libation vessel) Knossos 1500 BC

18. Knossos : Bull leaping (1500 BC)

19. Bustling Port : Fresco, Thera

20. Knossos throne room

21. Minoan ladies

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

27. Theseus examining father’s sword (Greco- Roman gem)

28. 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

30. Sciron / Megara Marathon / Cretan Bull Eleusis / Cercyon

31. 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

32. 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

33. ????

34. Skiron

35. Cercyon / Bull

36. Sinis

38. Sow / Sinis

39. Sow of Commyon

40. Bull / Procrustes / Cercyon

41. Theseus & Procrustes

42. Procrustes

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

45. 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

46. Theseus, Aegeus, Medea

47. 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

48. 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

49. 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

50. 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

51. 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)

52. 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)

53. 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”

54. 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)

55. 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!)

56. 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

57. 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)

58. 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]

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

64. Theseus & Minotaur (~ 550 BC)

65. Theseus & Minotaur (~ 540 BC)

66. (6 th cent. BC)

67. Theseus & Minotaur (~ 510 BC)

68. Theseus & Minotaur (~ 500-450 BC)

69. Theseus & the Amazons

70. Theseus & Minotaur (Roman mosaic, 1 st cent. BC)

71. Theseus & Minotaur (Roman mosaic)

72. Labyrinth / Minotaur (Roman Mosaic, 4 th cent. AD Tunisia)

73. Roman villa mosaic (3 rd cent. AD)

74. Tunisia mosaic, closeup

75. Minotaur (Jan Parker, b. 1941)

76. Theseus dreams of the Minotaur (Picasso 1961)

77. Minotauromachia, Picasso 1935

78. Dionysos & Ariadne

79. Ariadne & Dionysos (Pompeii)

80. Dionysos & Ariadne (Pompeii)

81. Ariadne & Bacchus (cameo, early empire, Pompeii

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

85. Bacchus & Ariadne Titian 1522-3

86. Bacchus & Ariadne Nicolas Bertin 171-15

87. Ariadne Jean- Baptiste Greuze, late 18 th cent.

88. Northern Crown

89. Ariadne & Bacchus Aime Jules- Dalou (19 th cent.)

90. Ariadne on Naxos (Evelyn de Morgan, 1877)

91. Ariadne (J.W. Waterhouse, 1898)

92. Ariadne (Giorgio di Cirico, 1913)

93. Ariadne’s Dream (Andre Masson, 1938)

94. Ariadne & Dionysos (artist?)

95. Phaedra (Alexandre Canabel 1880)