{"id":2562,"date":"2024-05-01T11:12:44","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T16:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/?p=2562"},"modified":"2024-05-01T11:12:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T16:12:44","slug":"the-hero-the-princess-and-the-god-of-ecstasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/2024\/05\/01\/the-hero-the-princess-and-the-god-of-ecstasy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hero, The Princess, and the God of Ecstasy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWhat marvel that the horns of a monster were betrayed by his sister, when the twisted path was revealed by the gathering of her thread.\u201d <\/em>Propertius, Elegies<\/em> 4.4 (trans. Goold)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The earliest literary records of the hero Theseus come from Homer\u2019s Iliad <\/em>and Odyssey<\/em>, composed around the 8th century BCE. The legendary founder and king of Athens was, as might be expected, incredibly popular in literature and visual art throughout antiquity. Theseus is born with both divine and royal lineage, granted to him when his mother, Aithra, has intercourse with both the mortal King Aegethus and the god Poseidon on the night of his conception. Like many heroes, he is raised unaware of both his divine and royal lineage, which will only be revealed once he is old enough to return to Attica and claim his status as king. The first of the young hero’s adventures takes place on this homecoming journey, as he must complete six tasks (or labors) before he can safely reach his father\u2019s palace.1<\/a><\/sup> The Six Labors of Theseus, though reminiscent of the trials undertaken by heroes such as Herakles or Jason, read more like an ancient hit-list than a test of mettle or wit. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Theseus is often depicted slaying the Minotaur with the club pilfered from Periphetes, as in this 1826 statue by \u00c9tienne-Jules Ramey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

He travels the coast, enacting vigilante justice upon a series of ancient serial-killers. First he encounters Periphetes, the Club-Bearer; Theseus bashes the man\u2019s head with his own club, before taking it as his new signature weapon. Then Sinis, the Pine-Bender, who kills his victims by tying their limbs to bent trees, which would tear them asunder when released, and gets the same treatment from Theseus. The Crommyonian Sow is next, either a literal wild hog or a crude reference to a female bandit. Either way, she is easily dispatched with a spear. Fourth is Skiron, who kicks travelers over a cliff when they stop to wash his feet; he doesn\u2019t even get the chance to ask Theseus to bend over before he is thrown from the rocks by the hero. Then he comes upon the wrestler Kerkyon, who is no match for the strength of a demigod. Finally, there is Procrustes, the Stretcher. I\u2019m sure you can assume what he did to hapless passers-by. Theseus ends his labors by cutting off his head and feet.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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Theseus capturing the Marathonian bull, c. 440-430 BCE, attributed to the Athenian painter Polygnotos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Blood soaked, he returns home to claim his rightful place as King, but is thwarted by his evil stepmother (in some versions, this is Medea, who has fled after the incident<\/em> with Jason).3<\/a><\/sup> She sets forth even more trials, and his adventures continue. Theseus hunts down and captures the Marathonian bull, the Minotaur\u2019s father, which has escaped captivity to roam wild. He drags the creature back to Athens and finally sacrifices it, as Minos had been unwilling to.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, he sets his sights on the Minotaur. He travels to Crete disguised as one of the sacrificial youths. When he arrives at the island, Minos\u2019 daughter Ariadne is instantly infatuated with the strapping young hero. As the Roman poet Catullus writes: \u201cNo sooner did she lower him from her incandescent eyes \/ than she conceived through her body a flame, \/ and totally, to the center of her bones, she burned.\u201d5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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Ariadne<\/em> by Asher Brown Durand, c. 1831<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Ariadne betrays her family to aid the hero, providing him with a spool of thread to mark his path through the labyrinth. Not only is this recognized as a betrayal of her father, by siding with the enemy, but also of her brother, in aiding in his killing. Once again, the women of Knossos are led astray by uncontrollable lust. Although, in her defense, it seems few of the Cretan royals are able to resist Theseus\u2019 charms. In some sources, even King Minos himself engages in a sexual relationship with the Athenian hero. The 2nd century CE Greek writer Athenaeus goes as far as to say that: \u201cMinos abandoned his enmity to the Athenians, although it had originated out of the death of his son, out of his love for Theseus.\u201d 6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Ariadne aids Theseus in slaying the Minotaur, most sources agree that he takes her with him when he leaves Crete, sometimes by force, and the two stop off on the island of Naxos. This is where the sources begin to differ more dramatically on the course of events, though the outcome remains the same. In one of the earliest versions of the story from Hesiod\u2019s Theogony<\/em>, composed around the 8th century BCE, we\u2019re told that: \u201cGolden-haired Dionysus made blonde-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his wife: and the son of Cronus made her deathless and unaging for him.\u201d7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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The Wedding Feast of Bacchus and Ariadne<\/em> by Guy Louis Vernansel the Elder, c. 1709<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Ariadne and Dionysus gaze fondly at each other on this 4th c. BCE Theban krater<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While early versions are vague on the details of how exactly Ariadne becomes the bride of Dionysus, later authors expanded the proto-Cinderella story. In some sources, Dionysus is so enthralled by Ariadne\u2019s beauty that he kidnaps her from Theseus, or even forces him to leave her behind.8<\/a><\/sup> In others, such as the one relayed in Apollonius\u2019 3rd century BCE Argonautica, <\/em>Theseus abandons Ariadne on the island while she sleeps.9<\/a><\/sup> Dionysus then comes to her rescue, sweeping her off her feet and offering her a far grander life than any mortal husband might have. In Ovid\u2019s Heroides<\/em>, a collection of fictional letters from mythical women to the men who wronged or betrayed them written around 25 B.C., he imagines Ariadne\u2019s response to Theseus\u2019 abandonment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Giovanni Battista Tiepolo depicts Ariadne lounging with her husband, c. 18th century <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Ovid\u2019s Ariadne swings between sorrow, regret, and rage. \u201cGentler than you have I found every race of wild beasts,\u201d she opens her address. She weeps at the thought of dying alone, and laments that Theseus did not also kill her \u201cwith the same bludgeon that slew [her] brother.\u201d She even wishes that she had never helped Theseus kill Asterion, as she no longer has any brothers to come to her rescue.10<\/a><\/sup> Perhaps Asterion could have been a hero himself\u2014saving his sister as Castor and Pollux will save a young Helen when Theseus later kidnaps her\u2014if he had lived to have a chance.11<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The level of agency Ariadne has in this divine marriage is, unsurprisingly, not something that ancient authors dwelt on. The stories that featured the couple\u2019s married life, however, all seem to imagine their relationship as a perfect match; built upon true mutual affection. In poet and author Ruth Padel\u2019s article \u201cLabyrinth of Desire: Cretan Myth and Us,\u201d she writes that \u201cPasipha\u00eb\u2019s daughter belongs with this drunk-mad-animal anarchy.\u201d12<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it is unsurprising that the daughter of the witch-queen, famous for her love of music and dancing, would feel at home in a bacchanal.  In one of Ovid\u2019s later works, the Fast\u012b<\/em>, she appears far from the weeping, betrayed maiden of the Heroides<\/em>; now joking about Theseus\u2019 abandonment, she wonders: \u201cWhy did I sob like a country girl? His lies were my gain.\u201d13<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Greene, Andrew. 2009. \u201cTheseus, Hero of Athens.\u201d In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History<\/em>. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/toah\/hd\/thes\/hd_thes.htm\u00a0 \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. Morris H. Lary, “Theseus: A Legendary Greek Hero”, History Cooperative<\/em>, June 30, 2022, https:\/\/historycooperative.org\/theseus\/<\/a>.\u00a0 \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  3. \u201cTheseus and His Parents and Stepmother,\u201d Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies<\/em>, Volume 26, January 1979, Pages 18\u201328, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/j.2041-5370.1979.tb01043.x<\/a>
    \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  4. Morris, 2022 \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  5. \u00a0Catullus 64, 91-93 \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  6. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae<\/em> (trans. Gulick). 3rd century CE. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  7. Hesiod, Theogony<\/em>, 947 (trans. Evelyn-White). 8th century BCE. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  8. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 61. 5 (trans. Oldfather). 1st c BCE. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  9. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 997 ff (trans. Rieu). 3rd c BCE. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  10. \u00a0Ovid, Heroides<\/em>, Epistle 10 (trans. Showerman). 1st c BCE. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  11. Cartwright, Mark. “Helen of Troy<\/a>.” World History Encyclopedia<\/em>. January 27, 2021. https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/Helen_of_Troy\/. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  12. \u00a0Padel, Ruth. \u201cLabyrinth of Desire: Cretan Myth in Us.\u201d Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics<\/em> 4, no. 2 (1996): 76\u201387. http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/20163616. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  13. Ovid, Fasti 3. 459 (trans.Boyle). 1st century CE. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n

    Featured Image: Theseus and Minotaur kylix courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This work is in the public domain.
    Images:
    Theseus and Marathonian Bull krater photograph courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This work is in the public domain.
    Theseus and the Minotaur carving at the Archaeological Museum of Delphi, photograph by Zde and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
    Ariadne<\/em> by Asher Brown Durand, c. 1831 courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This work is in the public domain.
    The Wedding Feast of Bacchus and Ariadne<\/em> by Guy Louis Vernansel the Elder, c. 1709 courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This work is in the public domain.
    Bacchus and Ariadne<\/em> by Giovanni Bastista Tiepolo, c. 1696-1770, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This work is in the public domain. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cWhat marvel that the horns of a monster were betrayed by his sister, when the twisted path was revealed by the gathering of her thread.\u201d Propertius, Elegies 4.4 (trans. Goold) The earliest literary records of the hero Theseus come from Homer\u2019s Iliad and Odyssey, composed around the 8th century BCE. The legendary founder and king… <\/p>\n

    Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2214,"featured_media":2567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"[{\"id\":\"ca42eb88-452f-46de-85e4-76d329334edf\",\"content\":\"Greene, Andrew. 2009. \\u201cTheseus, Hero of Athens.\\u201d In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History<\\\/em>. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http:\\\/\\\/www.metmuseum.org\\\/toah\\\/hd\\\/thes\\\/hd_thes.htm\\u00a0\"},{\"id\":\"a33fa08c-54a0-4c97-8b88-25eb0bb7470e\",\"content\":\"Morris H. Lary, \\\"Theseus: A Legendary Greek Hero\\\", History Cooperative<\\\/em>, June 30, 2022, https:\\\/\\\/historycooperative.org\\\/theseus\\\/<\\\/a>.\\u00a0\"},{\"id\":\"7d92d244-541b-46ef-9784-a477ab078dd2\",\"content\":\"\\u201cTheseus and His Parents and Stepmother,\\u201d Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies<\\\/em>, Volume 26, January 1979, Pages 18\\u201328, https:\\\/\\\/doi.org\\\/10.1111\\\/j.2041-5370.1979.tb01043.x<\\\/a>
    \"},{\"id\":\"e6af1b39-dec8-4432-b578-2c6fb7a4f14a\",\"content\":\"Morris, 2022\"},{\"id\":\"01210a7c-3975-4f0a-875b-b0139d81c6c6\",\"content\":\"\\u00a0Catullus 64, 91-93\"},{\"id\":\"1650b778-c7fe-40dd-bb57-7261dadc1ba2\",\"content\":\"Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae<\\\/em> (trans. Gulick). 3rd century CE.\"},{\"id\":\"d5c7e27d-7a6e-404b-8cc6-2dc04ea6e8f5\",\"content\":\"Hesiod, Theogony<\\\/em>, 947 (trans. Evelyn-White). 8th century BCE.\"},{\"id\":\"803b3ab2-6db5-46d0-b11c-27807e063ced\",\"content\":\"Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 61. 5 (trans. Oldfather). 1st c BCE.\"},{\"id\":\"01f91498-4981-4bb7-b377-ce5df96e5341\",\"content\":\"Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 997 ff (trans. Rieu). 3rd c BCE.\"},{\"id\":\"f1b50809-5f7d-4ee7-a2f5-14e8fb03f886\",\"content\":\"\\u00a0Ovid, Heroides<\\\/em>, Epistle 10 (trans. Showerman). 1st c BCE.\"},{\"id\":\"c52cc2bd-4df3-40cd-95b8-07bac3b864bd\",\"content\":\"Cartwright, Mark. \\\"    Helen of Troy<\\\/a>.\\\" World History Encyclopedia<\\\/em>. January 27, 2021. https:\\\/\\\/www.worldhistory.org\\\/Helen_of_Troy\\\/.\"},{\"id\":\"1caf915c-3526-4799-b9df-f6ada2fe7651\",\"content\":\"\\u00a0Padel, Ruth. \\u201cLabyrinth of Desire: Cretan Myth in Us.\\u201d Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics<\\\/em> 4, no. 2 (1996): 76\\u201387. http:\\\/\\\/www.jstor.org\\\/stable\\\/20163616.\"},{\"id\":\"bc415746-131a-42cf-be54-440709cdfb8d\",\"content\":\"Ovid, Fasti 3. 459 (trans.Boyle). 1st century CE.\"}]"},"categories":[16,3,8],"tags":[22,19,23],"class_list":["post-2562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ancient","category-features","category-hi-res","tag-ancient","tag-features","tag-hi-res"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2562"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2610,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2562\/revisions\/2610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/trident\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}