‘When we are about to enter our labyrinth, or already lost within it, we require an Ariadnean thread to help guide us safely back out to the world’ Stephen A Diamond.
Ariadne
Ariadne was a bronze aged Cretan earth goddess associated with fertility and the harvest. Due to ancient agricultural cultures reliance upon these attributes, Ariadne would have been one of the most important deities of Minoan aged Crete. But wait? Wasn’t she the Cretan princess who assisted Theseus in his quest to kill the Minotaur? Yes, this Ariadne is one and the same. But before I dive in to the decline of Ariadne from goddess to love struck princess, the mythological symbolism of labyrinths, and finally the psychological significance of the story, I shall give you a much shortened, beers around the campfire style re-telling of Ariadne’s myth.
That Minotaur myth
It all started with Ariadne’s father - King Minos of Crete. Poseidon (God of the oceans and champion for women… yeah not so much) gave King Minos a bitchin white bull to sacrifice in Poseidon’s honour. Let’s call this bull Snowy. King Minos was so enamoured with Snowy he could not bring himself to kill it. No, he didn’t turn vegan, instead, he decided he’d play a little game of bovine switcheroo. However, Poseidon, who has been around a few years and seen some shit was like, ‘What is this nonsense! That is a brown cow!’ and did not fall for this trickery. The God of the Ocean then decided he would enact revenge upon Minos by cursing the King’s wife – Queen Pasiphae, in to falling in love with Snowy. Pasiphae then approaches the Minoan handyman/master builder Daedalus (the same bloke who made wings for his son Icarus) and requested a cow outfit be constructed so she may trick Snowy in to copulating with her. This is where Greek myth gets a little kinky and a lot disturbing, so I shall not write about 'that' moment. However, I will mention that the product of this union is the famous, almighty Minotaur. The Minotaur (Ariadne’s half-brother) becomes a super powerful man-cow with a taste for human flesh. It is at this point Pasiphae says ‘oh darn’ and enlists Daedalus to create a labyrinth to encage the monster.
Now it is time to side track and scoot forward a few years. King Minos’ son, Androgeus, gets himself killed while on a gap year in Athens. King Minos, now rather grumpy and leader of the most powerful civilization at the time, invades Athens and subsequently orders King Aegeus to send 7 male youths and 7 maidens every 7 or 9 years (depending on your sources) to Crete to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Skip on to the third round of tributaries and here enters Theseus – son of King Aegeus and kidnapper of women and girls. Seeing this as his shining moment of glory, Theseus offers himself as one of the tributaries and sets sail to Crete.
Fast-forward a boat ride to Crete, Theseus meets Princess Ariadne. Ariadne thinks Theseus is a bit of a hunky hunk and immediately falls in love with him. She decides she will help Theseus slay her half bro in return for a ride off the island. Ariadne gifts Theseus a sword to kill the Minotaur, and a ball of thread so that he may find his way back out of the labyrinth. Theseus goes on to have beef for dinner before departing Crete in a bit of a rush, princess in tow.
On the voyage back to Athens, Theseus’ ship docks on the island of Naxos. This is where shit goes sideways for Ariadne. Theseus decides that Ariadne’s sister Phaedra would make a more agreeable wife, so without counting heads upon departure, Theseus sets sail. Ariadne, who apparently was a heavy sleeper wakes to discover she has been abandoned. Ariadne is then found by Dionysus (the God of Tits and Wine), and becomes his wife. Scooting forward a few years, a few babies and a whole lot of parties later, Ariadne is petrified by Medusa’s severed head during a spat between her husband and that hero Perseus.
Ariadne – From Goddess to consort
Why was such a significant Cretan goddess reduced to a consort of an Athenian prince, then later the wife of a god? Even though the Greeks deified her as a fertility goddess after her death, her influence was still greatly reduced. The Theseus/Ariadne myth is a story of an Athenian prince slaying a Minoan bull (bulls were worshipped in Minoan Crete as the embodiment of the sun/moon or earth deity). Theseus slaying the Minotaur is likely symbolic of the Mycenean conquest of the Minoan civilization. As with most cultural takeovers, it is common for the victorious culture to absorb the religion of the conquered peoples, rewriting their deities to consorts in myth, or even demonizing them (think Celtic Cernunnos and the Christian Devil). By reducing Ariadne to a hero’s consort, the Myceneans have removed the influence of Ariadne without wiping her from history. In this analysis of the Ariadnean story I am specifically looking at the psychological significance of the Mycenean version of the myth. I have added this paragraph because Ariadne is so much more than this myth, and in her own right she should be known as the earth fertility goddess she was.
Now you have the myth and a touch of history on the Minoan goddess Ariadne, let’s enter the labyrinth.
Labyrinths – from the entrance to the underworld, to the journey of self-actualization.
Labyrinths have been used in many different cultures across different time periods independent of each other. From Russia to Italy, Egypt to Ireland, the labyrinth has been used both as a symbol of the journey from the land of the living to the land of afterlife, and as a symbol of the exploration of the mind. The bull and the labyrinth associated with Minoan Crete and the Ariadnean myth, may actually be a result of a cultural influence from Egypt due to Crete’s location in the bronze age trade routes. In ancient Egypt, the bull Apis was worshipped as the embodiment of Osiris - The god of the Underworld. In the Egyptian Book and the Dead, the labyrinth leads one towards an enlightened state. In relation to this, I will be interpreting the labyrinth as the mind for which exploring is a journey to the self. Now it’s time get all Carl Jungian on you.
‘The labyrinth can be traversed only by those who are ready for a special initiation in to the mysterious world of the collective unconscious’ (Carl Jung, Man and his Symbols, 1964). Exploring your labyrinth, those pathways of growth, experiences, memories, eventually leads to the centre chamber – the ego, the self. For Carl Jung (along with many ancient cultures), journeying through the labyrinth was a means to self-actualization. However, one needs to be able to safely come out, especially when dealing with trauma, and thus we need an Ariadnean Thread. Without this thread, or if one loses contact, they risk getting lost within their labyrinth and as psychologist Stephen A. Diamond explains, akin to the Athenian tributaries ‘they may either succumb to the murderous Minotaur or wander endlessly and so hopelessly lost within the labyrinth that they may take their own life (Why the Myths Still Matter, Psychology Today, Nov 2009). In my five years of exploring my labyrinth, I have managed to lose touch of my thread, but I’ve been able to find it again. My thread is constructed of strings intertwined made up of my dog, carving, and C.B.T techniques, finally anchored to my therapist. I have been at risk of completely losing the thread, lost in the memories within my labyrinth. But my therapist was there at the other end to guide me safely back out, to the present, so that I may later re-enter and explore once again. With each journey my labyrinth becomes a little more familiar, less scary. With the comfort of new found familiarity, whilst holding my thread, each trip I may proceed a little further during our explorations.
Ariadne’s myth – play by play
By reading in to Ariadne’s myth, we can see it is filled with metaphors and symbolism which are as relevant today as they were 3000 years ago. Here are just a few;
· Ariadne’s mother births a monster and cages it within the labyrinth for which her daughter is responsible – legacy burden.
· Ariadne seeks another to enter her labyrinth and slay her monster, she is then left abandoned by this person – the abandonment and/or loneliness one may experience when expecting another to be responsible for their mental health.
· Ariadne now abandoned literally marries the God of Wine – could a coping mechanism such as drinking be made any clearer.
· Ariadne then goes on to become a victim of a war fought by the God of wine and as a result, petrified to death – she became lost within her own labyrinth.
What if?
What may have happened if Ariadne used this thread and explored the labyrinth herself? If she found her way to the centre chamber and came face to face with her Minotaur. Would she really have to slay the monster? If the labyrinth is a journey to the true self, wouldn’t this monster be part of her, born from her experiences. One cannot slay a part of themselves. Why would we want to? Jung himself said ‘whatever you resists persists’. Wouldn’t it be better to try and understand this monster? Listen to it. Give it compassion. Then maybe she might realise that her Minotaur was never a monster after all.
Thank you for reading 😊
References and inspirations:
1. Carl Jung, Man and his Symbols, 1964, republished by Bantum Dell 1999.
2. Stephen A Diamond ‘Why the Myths Still Matter’, Psychology Today, Nov 2009
3. The Odyssey book II.321 Homer, Penguin Classics 2003
4. Theogony line 954 Hesiod, Stanley Lombardo translation Hacket Publishing 1993
5. Metamorphoses Ovid, book 8 Penguin Classics 2002
6. Ariadne: A novel by Jennifer Saint Flatiron Books 2021
7. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton 1942 Republished by Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers 2017.
8. Pandora’s Jar by Natalie Haynes Published by Picador 2020
9. Liv Albert, Let’s talk about Myths Baby podcast
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