DOI chapter:
The mythology of Athenian local cults
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0139
OF ANCIENT ATHENS cxxvii
in fig. 25, the exterior designs of which have been previously
discussed, one would be tempted to think the vase-painter was
but vaguely informed as to its character. Here, however, in
the centre design, there is an unmistakable though very crude
attempt to signalise the labyrinth by a decorative pattern of
squares and lines ; the line pattern is just like the device which
on the coins of Crete is supposed to symbolise the labyrinth.
It seems to me just possible that some such device, misunder-
stood, gave rise to the whole story. It would not be a solitary
instance in which misunderstood mythogra/Iy gave rise to
elaborate mytho/qgy.
The centre of this British Museum cylix has another claim
to attention. Theseus is not actually fighting with the
Minotaur, he is dragging him out of his labyrinth. It is
worth noting that on the throne of Apollo at Amyclae,
Pausanias saw, and was surprised to see, a type that must
have been somewhat similar to this (iii. 18)—“The Minotaur
is represented by Bathycles (I do not know why) as being
bound and led alive by Theseus,” a deviation so marked
from the current combat type that even Pausanias noticed
it. If my supposition is correct, and the Minotaur myth,
with the other exploits of Theseus, was danced in a mimetic
representation, one can well conceive there might be two scenes
in so important an act—the actual combat, and the dragging
away of the monster.
It seems possible that the man-bull form of the Minotaur
may have been suggested by the necessities of a mimetic dance,
the part of Minotaur being taken by a man with a bull-head
mask. It should always be distinctly borne in mind that the
name “ Minotaur ” was never so rigidly compounded that its
elements were forgotten. If the form most in use is Minotaur
(Μινοταΰρο?), the other forms also occur, ταΰρο? and
ό του Μίνω ταύρος, also the simple form Ταύρο? (“the bull”).
On coins of Knosos the symbol is sometimes the labyrinth
pattern, which has a bull’s head in the centre; he may have
been simply a bull to whom human sacrifices were made.
Those who care for the rationalisation of the myth must read
Plutarch’s account, taken from Philochoros, and to his remarks
one may add what has been noted before (p. Ixxxiv.), that
in fig. 25, the exterior designs of which have been previously
discussed, one would be tempted to think the vase-painter was
but vaguely informed as to its character. Here, however, in
the centre design, there is an unmistakable though very crude
attempt to signalise the labyrinth by a decorative pattern of
squares and lines ; the line pattern is just like the device which
on the coins of Crete is supposed to symbolise the labyrinth.
It seems to me just possible that some such device, misunder-
stood, gave rise to the whole story. It would not be a solitary
instance in which misunderstood mythogra/Iy gave rise to
elaborate mytho/qgy.
The centre of this British Museum cylix has another claim
to attention. Theseus is not actually fighting with the
Minotaur, he is dragging him out of his labyrinth. It is
worth noting that on the throne of Apollo at Amyclae,
Pausanias saw, and was surprised to see, a type that must
have been somewhat similar to this (iii. 18)—“The Minotaur
is represented by Bathycles (I do not know why) as being
bound and led alive by Theseus,” a deviation so marked
from the current combat type that even Pausanias noticed
it. If my supposition is correct, and the Minotaur myth,
with the other exploits of Theseus, was danced in a mimetic
representation, one can well conceive there might be two scenes
in so important an act—the actual combat, and the dragging
away of the monster.
It seems possible that the man-bull form of the Minotaur
may have been suggested by the necessities of a mimetic dance,
the part of Minotaur being taken by a man with a bull-head
mask. It should always be distinctly borne in mind that the
name “ Minotaur ” was never so rigidly compounded that its
elements were forgotten. If the form most in use is Minotaur
(Μινοταΰρο?), the other forms also occur, ταΰρο? and
ό του Μίνω ταύρος, also the simple form Ταύρο? (“the bull”).
On coins of Knosos the symbol is sometimes the labyrinth
pattern, which has a bull’s head in the centre; he may have
been simply a bull to whom human sacrifices were made.
Those who care for the rationalisation of the myth must read
Plutarch’s account, taken from Philochoros, and to his remarks
one may add what has been noted before (p. Ixxxiv.), that