Download ROSOW MINOTAUR ESSAY - The WNBA Edition The Minotaur

ROSOW MINOTAUR ESSAY - The WNBA Edition
The Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, Theseus––Who Was There
When?
Having viewed the Jim Henson myth of Daedalus and Icarus and
then having read an old children's book accounting of their
story with my grandchildren, I was stricken by a conflict in
the sequencing of events in “The Labyrinth of Crete,” and set
about to simply untangle the last days of the Minotaur. Such a
tangle was in that web that I have been struggling with little
traps of detail ever since. Here is a bit of the story of men
and gods that may well have had its seeds in truth and
certainly gives credence to the notion that humankind has
evolved little since those ancient times. It also gives one
pause at the value of the divine right of kings.
A precautionary word. The men and women, gods and goddesses of
these times were no less lusty or predictable than those who
walk the earth today. They were given to revenge in the most
powerful of ways and had at their disposal the advantages of
extreme imaginations not known on earth since the advent of
television. So, to the faint of heart, I say, take pause. This
is no children's story.
Please allow an explanation about names. They are spelled any
number of ways in quite reputable places. Furthermore, they
get changed from time to time.
And a thought on the state of things that are and are to
come: What is here, whether real or myth, is subject to change
as more information is found. There are archeologists digging
up new evidence and geologists analyzing the existing facts
and giving us improved editions. So, even the known history is
a fluid thing.
Let me begin with the setting, The Labyrinth of Crete, in
which the Minotaur was housed. It is easy to start there,
because there really is such a place, a place where one might
walk and lose one's way, never to escape. At least there was
such a place until as recently at WWII, when bombs were
dropped on it, obliterating its entrance and forever weakening
its infrastructure (Paragamian, et al). This much is true.
According to the myth, King Minos, protector of the Minotaur,
had commissioned the maze to be built by the most revered
architect and builder of clever things, Daedalus, whom he had
taken in as a refugee.
(Daedalus had been banished from Athens for murdering his
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apprentice, his sister's son, Perdix. Though brilliant, the
craftsman was less than honorable and was inclined to just do
whatever worked for him in the moment, as you will see.)
The maze was to keep the unruly bull-son from harm's way,
while preventing him from causing harm at random to others.
About 4,000 years ago, King Minos was king of Knossos. The
ruins of his palace still exist. But understand, the palace
was more than a house for a king. (It had spaces for cooking,
craftspeople, and others, a sort of one-stop shopping mall, I
would guess.)
Minos was cruel and arrogant. But, after all, he was the son,
that is one of the sons, of Zeus the king of the gods, and
Europa, after whom a continent is named.
Europa had been seduced (or abducted as some tell it) by the
god Zeus while he was transformed into the form of bull. Now,
keep in mind this bull image. It continues to play out in this
story and to this day accounts for the bull worship that is
still known in Crete (and possibly America). Together, Zeus
and Europa had three sons, one of whom was Minos.
To make all family honorable, Europa eventually married the
King of Crete, Asterionas, who adopted the boys. And that is
how little Minos got to be King Minos. With his ascension to
the throne, Minos sent his brothers swimming. That is what
one does in an empire of islands.
There is general agreement that King Minos and his wife
Pasiphae had, among others, two dazzlingly beautiful
daughters, Phaidra and Aridane. There are stars still shining
that bear their names. There were also sons.
One of the sons of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae was the
athletically inclined Androgeos, who went from Crete to Athens
and took all the honors at some games one day. Filled with
rage and jealousy, the local boys ambushed and killed
Androgeos. Not very creative for the times, I know, but they
were just juveniles.
Unwilling to let bygones be bygones, King Minos established a
revenge program that would bring into play many of the details
that get tangled up as the stories are told and told again.
Suffice it for now to know that King Minos took as payment for
his son's murder, the lives of seven young men and seven young
women from the Athenian population each year (or every nine
years, depending on the storyteller) for several rounds. They
were delivered to Minos in Crete, where they were tossed into
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The Labyrinth and eaten by the Minotaur, who had a powerful
craving for humankind.
Tracking just who this beastly son was is more problematic
than noting the offspring of Zeus, but once again, the
architect Daedalus enters the picture and so does a bull. As
may be expected, there is a bit of sequencing that varies from
one source to another.
It may have been before they were kings of any kind, or it may
have been after Minos of Knossos and his brother Sarpidon of
Gortys were both kings already, but there is agreement that
Minos asked the Greek sea god Poseidon for help in proving
that he, Minos, and not his brother should be king of Crete.
That is to say, Minos wanted to prove that the gods had chosen
him to rule. This is the divine right of kings, archaically
speaking.
Though often moody and given to throwing storm parties for
hapless sailors, Poseidon agreed to help his little nephew
Minos out.
Out of the sea rose Tvaros, the most beautiful white bull the
world had ever seen. The deal was that Minos was then to
sacrifice it back to Poseidon. Minos was nobody's fool. To
him it made no sense at all to kill off a perfectly good
animal just to satisfy the ego of a god. It made even less
sense, given that the god had been the giver. Furthermore, on
inspecting the animal, Minos decided that this particular bull
would contribute greatly to his stock. Truer words were never
spoken.
Minos kept the sacrificial bull, substituting another, ever so
slightly less awesome animal, for the sacrifice to
Poseidon. Well, you can believe that substitution did not sit
well with the God of the Sea.
For revenge, Poseidon chose not to sweep up Crete with a tidal
wave (that came later). Instead, he struck closer to
home. Some sources say that, at the time, Minos and Pasiphae
were unable to go through with conjugal activities because
Minos was having a bout of venereal disease. Or perhaps she
was annoyed at his never-ending, unfaithful inclinations that
her magical powers could not contain, though she had caused
him to ejaculate serpents and scorpions, thereby killing off
some of her competition. Or maybe she just did not care for
his morning breath.
Whatever the cause, it was during this time of no contact
between king and queen that Poseidon cast a spell on Queen
Pasiphae, making her fall into a passion over that magnificent
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bull.
Was it really a bull? It has been suggested that Tavros was a
general of Minos, who was also the winner of the first games
held as tribute to the slain Prince Androgeos. Still,
according to some sources, he was really Tavros, a
spectacularly fine specimen of a man who was conveniently part
of the king's entourage. If you go for either of these
interpretations, you will want to know that the name Minotaur
could be a combination of the two paternal claimants' names––
Mino and Tavros.
However, Minotaur is Greek for “Bull of Minos.” So, for now,
the bull is just a magnificent bull. That keeps the
unscrupulous genius Daedalus employed.
And you must be told that that bull was not interested in a
human mate. So it was that Queen Pasiphae convinced clever
Daedalus to create an evocative wooden cow covered with a
supple cowhide into which Pasiphae climbed.
Visualize this: rom within that form, she seduced the
magnificent white bull of Poseidon and conceived the
Menotaur. Yep.
Minos was non-plussed.
When the little monster was born, however, he could not
exactly kill it. Shown in some pictures with a man's head and
bull's body, it is more often the reverse. Either way, it was
inclined to be a shocker to the royal household. (It is most
often seen without benefit of any clothing on scraps of old
pottery, broken, we may surmise, by early-on censors, who then
most likely blamed it on earthquakes or the will of the gods.)
Some say that Minos had little Minotaur sent off to be raised
among the shepherds. In that environment, the kingly, godly,
bull-like cast-off grew resentful and unruly. Chances are you
would, too. Others say that it was thirsty for human blood
from the start and had to be contained in order to protect the
people of Crete.
Though Daedalus was disappreciated by the king for his role in
helping the queen pull off her dastardly deceit, Minos had
need of a playpen that would prevent the royal offspring from
killing callers to the palace, a palace that has proven so
vast some believe it is the actual labyrinth maze.
Meanwhile, remember that little incident with Minos and the
Athenians? Well, when the time came for another round of
youths and maidens to go off to the Labyrinth, Theseus, the
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Duke of Athens and a son of Aethra and either Aegeus or
Poseidon, volunteers to be among the condemned.
He promises Aegeus that if he successfully overcomes the
Minotaur, he will return under a white flag. It is a long time
before he returns and he forgets to put up the white flag, but
that is another story, and it only works if you say Aegeus is
his dear old dad, not a parentage all agree upon. There is
also a branch of the story claiming that Theseus heads out
alone to settle this score, but if you believe that, we cannot
continue the thread we are following here.
But, here is a bit of local news we can report. In this
current batch of Athenian maidens is one who catches the eye
of that lecherous King Minos. When he moves in on her,
Theseus steps in to challenge him.
Prove you are divine, says Minos, throwing a ring into the
sea.
Here you are, says the son of the sea god Posiedon, handily
retrieving the object.
Ah, one-upsmanship! These little side shows speckle the story
of the Minotaur and I cannot help retelling them sometimes.
Now, the daughter of king Minos, Adriandne, was as royally
impressed by these goings on as you are, and it doesn't hurt
that Theseus is quite handsome. Though, by some accounts,
Adriandne was already betrothed to the god Dionysus, she opts
to get her hooks into the Duke of Athens. Who do you think she
turns to for help? Yes, it is Daedalus again.
Daedalus gives her a very special ball of twine which she
supplies to Theseus. The string is to mark his path back out
of the maze. She also gives him a sword, magical by some
accounts. He does battle with the Minotaur and secures at
least part of a horn. He may not, at that time, have been
sure he had killed the beast, but the coast is clear for
escape.
Theseus corrals his Athenian youths and maidens onto a ship
and heads out of port, taking the princess Adriandne along for
the ride. On the Island of Naxos there was a celebration with
dancing. Was it a wedding? We can't be sure. Might have just
been one of those hedonistic, pagan flings involving white
dresses, togas and bare feet.
What we do know is that (after a couple of years and a couple
of kids) Theseus sneaks off in the middle of the night without
her.
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Perhaps it was because he had a dream in which the god
Dionysus claimed to be her rightful betrothed-which she knew
all along. Or it might have been because the wise half-sister
of Theseus, Athena (who was the favorite child of Zeus),
suggested it. Still others observe that he was now in love
with Egli. But, this goes way beyond the current story.
Back at The Labyrinth, there is one mad King Minos. He is mad
that Theseus has gotten out of the maze. He is mad that his
daughter has sprung free. And there is nobody to vent on but
Daedalus, the designer of the Labyrinth and the one who
provided the twine to help with the escape plan.
Or is he really mad at Daedalus about the escape of
Theseus? Perhaps he is mad about the incident with the wooden
cow. Conversely, some claim that Minos and Theseus
joined ranks to kill the Minotaur.
Now, let us revisit the conflict that started it all. The
question is SEQUENCING. Simply put, in the Henson movie,
Daedalus and Icarus were cast into the maze and narrowly
escaped with their lives as the Menotaur grasped at their toga
tails. In the children's book, by the time father and son
found themselves in the Labyrinth, the smell of rotting
carcass of the Minotaur had permeated the entire Maze.
Was the Minotaur dead when Daedalus and his son Icarus went
into the maze? Or did it linger, way past mealtime, succumbing
to a slow, arduous death? So far, my friends,I cannot say.
What we do know is that somehow Daedalus and Icarus escape the
Labyrinth. Once out, however, they cannot just swim into the
sunset. Minos controls the waterways all around Crete. There
is nothing to do but rise above his problems, so, using candle
wax and old bird feathers, the master craftsman builds two
pairs of wings, one for himself and the other for his son.
And with those wings, they quite literally fly from the
island.
That's it for now…
NOTE OF INTEREST - INFORMANTS - The ancient retellers of
history and myths include Apollodorus, Diodorus, Ovid,
Virgil, and Pausanias. They do not agree on: details, names,
spellings, or outcomes. But, we do what we can with what we
got.
NOTE OF INTEREST - THE KNOSSOS PALACE - The palace of King
Minos was not built in a day. Clinging majestically to a
steep grade, the five-acre establishment evolved over hundreds
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of years, with levels and extensions being added generation
after generation. Eventually, it was four stories high and had
1,500 rooms. Add to that the fact that parts were demolished
by earthquakes--common to the region--and then re-established
in new forms and you have a most irregular architectural plan.
The palace itself is suggested as the possible Labyrinth,
because there is no way a person without extreme familiarity
could get from here to there. On the other hand, it is
possible that the Daedalus Labyrinth of Crete design was
inspired by the palace at Knossos or simply plagiarized it.
NOTE OF INTEREST - CRETE PLUMBING and the MINOTAUR'S HOWL The multi-storied palace of Knossos bears much evidence of a
highly progressive society. Among things, the labyrinth of
rooms and halls had a highly sophisticated plumbing system for
sewage and drainage. It employed cisterns that captured
rainwater that was flushed downhill by gravity. So, milady
could bathe at will in her terracotta tub with its bas-relief
patterns of reeds. That tub would then be drained by hand into
a conveniently located pipe system that carried all things
unseemly out to the River Kairatos. (Don't drink downstream
of the palace Knossos.)
Now, those pipes were not under the main living quarters.
They were under the halls and passageways that, in this
author's opinion, may have served as echo chambers. Within the
bowls of the building, great roarings would occasionally cut
loose. Might have come from little earthquakes, might have
been the plumbing. But real they were and these sounds, no
doubt, helped further the reputation of the Minotaur.
NOTE OF INTEREST - DAEDALUS - A member of the royal Athenian
line and taught by the goddess Athena, Daedalus may well have
been a renaissance man of his time. And an extraordinary
number of inventions are attributed to him now:
--folding chair in the temple of Athena Polias in Athens.
--sails for ships (that become an alternate idea to the
feathered wing theory)
--statuary with features such as open eyes and separated legs
--axe, awls and bevel (ideas stolen from his nephew?)
--wooden image of Hercales in the sanctuary of Athena in
Corinth
--a swimming bath at Holumberthra in Megaris in Sicily
--golden ram on Mount Eryx for Aphrodite
He took as an apprentice his nephew, called Talos in some
stories, Calos in some, and Perdix in still others. (The
Talos/Calos item may have been the result of an ancient stylus
error.) The lad was so talented, having been inspired by a
snake's jaw to invent a saw, that a great jealousy grew in his
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uncle's heart. Therefore, Daedalus pushed the boy from the
top of the Acropolis. To this point everybody agrees. BUT one
source says Daedalus ran away from the scene; one says he was
caught, tried and exiled; another that he was condemned to
death, but fled.
Okay. You have the short story. I have more notes I am
willing to share on request. If you know more about all this,
please let me know.
La Vergne Rosow ; www.lavergnerosow.org