Theseus and Antiope

Antiope was the name of a daughter of Ares, the god of war, and a queen of the Amazons. The Greek hero Theseus carried her off.

Though hundreds of cubits separated the two craft, Theseus still cast a nervous glance behind, recalling a time when death stared him in the face through the bull’s eyes. When the sails were fully furled, the rowing master stopped his cadence and sent the youths to their tasks on the ships. Theseus found himself looking down to a long, tan pair of legs that sent his heart racing. They belonged to Antiope.

~ Excerpt From Ariadne: A Tale of the Minotaur

 
Theseus and Antiope. The mithical hero is poised to deliver the final to the Amazon who has fallen on her shield. Metope of the treasury of the athenians in Delphi. Archaeological museum of Delphi.

Theseus and Antiope

Two figures stand on a ground-line of meander on the shoulder of this hydria. At left, a young Greek soldier advances to the right, his legs and head in profile, with his torso turned to present his back to the viewer. He wears a chitoniskos, chlamys, greaves and an Attic helmet, its cheek pieces raised to expose his face. His left arm, obscured by his body, holds a shield and two spears. He extends his right hand toward the Amazon before him, and their gazes meet. 

The Amazon attempts to flee from the soldier, her legs are in profile moving right, while her torso is depicted frontally and her head turns back to look at her pursuer. Like the soldier, she is clad in a chitoniskos, though hers has a loose kolpos in front, and she wears a short mantle, a disk earring, and a pointed cap, from which small curls emerge around the forehead. Her weaponry includes a bow in her left hand, and a sagaris, or small axe, ineffectually pointing downward, in her right hand. 

The scene might depict Theseus, the Athenian hero who fought the Amazon queen Antiope.

Antiope

An Amazon Queen. Theseus, in his expedition against the Amazons, fell in love with her and carried her off to Athens, where, in one story, she fought by his side against her sisters.

Theseus carrying off Antiope with Peirithoos. Detail from an Athenian red-figure clay vase, about 490 BC. Paris, Musée du Louvre G197. © Musée du Louvre, Paris Licence Plate 11 UK 1007 109

    When the crowd thinned, he approached Antiope from behind as she stood atop the deck splicing a rope like an expert dockhand. She was indeed a study in physical perfection, a figure and face that haunted his dreams. He began to reach behind and discretely slip a hand under her skirt to return the teasing familiarity, but she twirled around like a waterspout and before he could blink, there was a knife at his throat. She hissed, "Watch your hands, pretty boy. You have not earned the right to touch an Amazon in such a way."

     He stepped back, hands in the air, eyes wild and confused. "But…the way you touched me, and the way you smile at me…"

     She scowled. "Never forget, Theseus, that I am an Amazon first and foremost. I chose my own man for sport or marriage.” She winked. “When you are invited to enjoy the unequaled pleasures I can provide, you will know."
 

~ Excerpt From Ariadne: A Tale of the Minotaur 

THESEUS & THE MINOTAUR

     "In my mercy I have offered Theseus, the head tribute and son of Aegeus, the chance to revoke the treaty of Tribute now and forever." He looked at Theseus, who remained still, eyes unblinking. "He has only to enter the Labyrinth, kill that which dwells within and return alive. Many of you have named the creature the Minotaur, the Bull of Minos. So be it. If Theseus defeats the Minotaur, he and the others shall return to Athens free and the Tribute will be ended forever. If not it will continue in seven more years."  He stopped and let his gaze travel around, searching. "If any challenges this judgment, let him speak now."

~ Excerpt From Ariadne: A Tale of the Minotaur

circa. 500-450 b.c. British Museum,
London, United Kingdom

Theseus grasps the bull-headed Minotauros by the snout as he prepares to slit its throat with his sword. 

Theseus and Procrustes

In the Greek myth, Procrustes was a son of Poseidon with a stronghold on Mount Korydallos at Erineus, on the sacred way between Athens and Eleusis. 

There he had an iron bed, in which he invited every passer-by to spend the night, and where he set to work on them with his smith's hammer, to stretch them to fit. 

In later tellings, if the guest proved too tall, Procrustes would amputate the excess length; nobody ever fit the bed exactly, because secretly Procrustes had two beds.

Procrustes continued his reign of terror until he was captured by Theseus, travelling to Athens along the sacred way, who "fitted" Procrustes to his own bed:
 
    He killed Damastes, surnamed Procrustes, by compelling him to make his own body fit his bed, as he had been wont to do with those of strangers. And he did this in imitation of Heracles. For that hero punished those who offered him violence in the manner in which they had plotted to serve him.

 

Theseus fighting Prokrustes

Killing Procrustes was Theseus's last adventure on his journey from Troezen to Athens.

THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR

THE MINOTAUROS (or Minotaur) was a bull-headed monster born to Queen Pasiphae of Krete after she had coupled with a bull.

The creature resided in the twisting maze of the labyrinth, where he was offfered a regular sacrifice of youths and maids to satisfy his cannibalistic hunger. He was eventually destroyed by the hero Theseus.

The Minotauros' proper name Asterion, "the starry one," suggests he was associated with the constellation Tauros.

Museum Collection: Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

Theseus grasps the Minotauros by the head as he prepares to slay it with its sword. The bull-headed man is armed with a pair of rocks.

Adjacent images depict Heracles and the Nemean lion (see other image), and Theseus fighting Prokrustes.  Heracles  wrestles the Nemean lion, grasping it by the neck and strangling the beast.

Dionysos

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology.

Dionysos holding a fruiting grape vine in one hand and a wine jar in the other, stands beside his wife Ariadne (or a Mainas Nymphe) and three Satyroi, bearing wine-skin, lyre and fillets. (Musée du Louvre, Paris, France)

Dionysos stands beside his wife Ariadne who is holding two of their sons, probably Oinopion "Full of WIne" and Staphylos "Bunch of Grapes." They are attended by the god Hermes and a Satyros. Dionysos holds a drinking horn and a fruiting vine. The Satyros has a strand of ivy. (British Museum, London, UK)

Ariadne and Dionysus

ARIADNE was the immortal wife of the wine-god Dionysos

According to this tradition, Ariadne put an end to her own life in despair, or was saved by Dionysus, who in amazement at her beauty made her his wife, raised her among the immortals, and placed the crown which he gave her at his marriage with her, among the stars.
 

Dionysus & Ariadne, Athenian red-figure krater

C5th B.C., Archaeological Museum, Naples 

 Detail of Dionysos and Ariadne sitting on a vineyard hill, from a vase depicting the retinue of the god. ( Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA)

Happy New Year

Did you know the tradition of Father Time with his toga and scythe giving up his place to the Baby New Year is based on the story of Kronos and Zeus.

Rooted in the Titan War story Zeus cut up Kronos with his own scythe when he took over the throne of the heavens. From this we get the image of the old king (Kronos = Old Year) with his scythe getting displaced by the baby (Zeus = New Year Baby).

Cronus is often represented as an old man leaning on a scythe, with an hour-glass in his hand. The hour-glass symbolizes the fast-fleeting moments as they succeed each other unceasingly; the scythe is emblematical of time, which mows down all before it.

Cronus

KRONOS (or Cronus) was the Titan god of time and the ages, especially time where regarded as destructive and all-devouring. He ruled the cosmos during the so-called Golden Age, after castrating and deposing his father Ouranos (the Sky). In fear of a prophecy that he would be in turn be overthrown by his own son, Kronos swallowed each of his children as soon as they were born. Rhea managed to save the youngest, Zeus, by hiding him away on the island of Krete, and fed Kronos a stone wrapped in the swaddling clothes of an infant.

Photo: Cronus & Rhea, Athenian red-figure pelike
C5th B.C., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York