Crete and its monsters, or the dangers of growing up Ch. 17, pp. 429-453 1. Europa (princess in Phoenicia) and Zeus (as Bull) pp.430-2 "Zeus ... put off his scepter and donning the mask of the bull calf, he joined the heifers... Agenor's daughter [Europa] entranced, cooed: 'What a loveable creature! He wouldn't even hurt a fly' ... soon the innocent princess, not knowing what lay in her future, dares climb up and sit on his shoulders ... The girl begins to worry, looks back at the shore she has left. Her right hand clutches a horn, the other clings to his back, while her thin and fluttering dress is blown by a gathering breeze." Ovid, Metamorphoses children: esp. Minos also, Zeus gives Europa for protection Talus, a giant bronze robot that runs around the island and throws boulders at any ship trying to land. 2. Minos king of Crete: Poseidon's Bull from the Sea pp.432-5 Minos’ broken promise: the sacrifice withheld king Minos + queen Pasiphae Pasiphae + Bull (Poseidon’s punishment) Daedalus (Athenian architect, inventor; exiled from Athens because he had killed nephew Perdix, or maybe Perdix turned into the partridge (Greek perdix)) (Had been jealous that Perdix invented the saw made out of a fishbone)
Daedalus builds the wooden cow "One moment she longs to become a Europa, another an Io; one of whom was a cow, the other seduced by a bull. Well the lord of the harem, deceived by a wooden plush-covered dummy, got Pasiphae pregnant. The child looked just like his dad."
Ovid, Art of Love (Ars Amatoria, book 1) offspring: Minotaur (Mino - taur = (Gk.) ‘bull of Minos’ Daedalus builds the Labyrinth to house the Minotaur
Theseus hero of Athens p.435-40 see also Ch.16, pp.412-4]
Death of Minos’ son Androgeus at Athens p.435 Killed by the wild Cretan Bull (Pasiphae’s) Same bull as in Heracles’ Labor #7; brought to Marathon by Heracles and later killed by
Theseus Minos sails to Athens for revenge. Near Athens, besieged Megara on the coast. The city could not fall while its ruler Nisus still had his special lock of hair. Scylla, daughter of Nisus, plots to cut the hair, if Minos will marry her. After she cuts the hair the city falls to Minos, Minos rejects Scylla and she turns into a bird, "the shearer".
Reparations:
7 Athenian boys + 7 Athenian girls sent to Minotaur Theseus, Prince of Athens, son of Aegeus, volunteers to go to the Minotaur Theseus + Ariadne: Hero and ‘helper-maiden’: pp.438-40 'clue' of thread (assist from Daedalus) Death of the Minotaur
"Led by the slender thread he had laid to guide his returning, to keep him from losing his way in the labyrinthine turnings, unharmed, the victor retraced his steps to safety and glory." (Catullus poem 64) Ariadne abandoned by Theseus on Naxos (rescued by Dionysus)
"She cannot believe what she sees, for only a moment ago she had shaken off treacherous slumber, to find herself wretched, abandoned, alone on a desolate shore."
Daedalus imprisoned with Icarus on Crete. Return of Theseus to Athens
Aegeus and the sails of Theseus's ship black sails: to be changed to white for success see pp.413-4
Flight of Daedalus and Icarus pp.440-4 read carefully and be able to recognize quotations from p. 443-4 Ovid's account of the flight of Icarus Minos' Death (last encounter with Daedalus, (thread, and and conch shell) pp.444-5 becomes judge in the Underworld p.432
(and p.304 in Death and Underworld chapter) Cretan Myth and Archaeology review pp. 6-7, Legend and the lost Cretan civilization of 2nd Millennium BCE
Rediscovery of ‘Minoan’ culture by Arthur Evans in 1899 p.448 Bull of Cretan fertility religion -> half-remembered in Bull myths pp.429- Multi- room Palaces > half-remembered in Labyrinth 430 Double ax (lost Cretan word: Labrys) > gives name to Labyrinth? p.449 hero tale // initiation into adulthood p. 452
Theseus myth rituals of initiation journey to far land (Crete) young man driven out of home town overcomes death and a monster undergoes mock/fake death has sexual experiences with a woman has some form of sexual experience
returns to society with privileges and role of an returns and attains kingship adult
There are some sample Crete exam questions in the sample questions for the previous lecture on Theseus.