Olympus Read online

  Theseus is a founding hero who overpowers forces of previous religions, embodiments of chaos, to establish the Olympian order.

  Theseus’s Six Labours make him a forerunner of Heracles who was asked to perform twelve labours.

  The killing of thieves and establishing order in Athens led to Theseus being identified with establishing democracy in Athens.

  Ariadne

  Upon his arrival in Crete, as luck would have it, Ariadne, the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, fell in love with Theseus. Determined to save him, the princess went to Daedalus and asked his advice. Daedalus said, ‘Theseus may be strong enough to kill the Minotaur, but no man is skilled enough to find his way out of my labyrinth. Tell him to take a ball of thread and tie one end around his waist and let the ball of thread unravel behind him, marking the path he takes into the maze. After killing the monster, he can trace back his path out of the labyrinth by simply following the thread.’

  Theseus did as advised and traced his path into the labyrinth with the ball of thread. The way was littered with bones, remains of Athenian boys and girls who had been sent as tributes over the years. After a long-winding journey through dark, smelly, cavernous corridors, Theseus finally came face-to-face with the dreaded monster. The two wrestled for a long time. Finally, Theseus exhausted and overpowered the Minotaur. Finding his way out was easy, thanks to Ariadne’s thread. When Theseus emerged from the labyrinth triumphant with the head of the Minotaur in his hand, Minos had no choice but to let him go.

  As a peace offering, Minos gave his daughter Phaedra as wife to Theseus, much to the irritation of Ariadne, who also insisted on travelling to Athens with the man she loved.

  Theseus, however, abandoned Ariadne on the island of Nixos, and proceeded home with only Phaedra by his side. Why did he do that? Perhaps because he did not really love Ariadne. Or perhaps because she had already been promised to Dionysus, and Theseus of Athens had no intention of angering the god of wine and madness.

  Giddy with victory and love, Theseus forgot to replace the black sails of his ship with white ones. An anxious Aegeus assumed his son had been killed by the Minotaur and, grief-stricken, jumped from the cliffs into the sea.

  The prophecy of Aegeus being killed by his own son was thus fulfilled. From that day, the sea near Athens came to be known as the Aegean Sea, after Aegeus.

  In traditional Hindu lore, a hero’s success depends on three factors: shakti (strength), yukti (strategy) and bhakti (devotion). Theseus succeeds not only because he is strong but because, thanks to Ariadne, he has strategy, and thanks to his parentage, which includes an Olympian, Poseidon, he has the support of celestial forces.

  Theseus’s journey from Crete to Athens is the journey from Dionysus to Apollo, from intuition to rationality, from fluidity to structure.

  The clash of Minos and Theseus is also the clash between a son of Zeus and a son of Poseidon. But Zeus cannot help Minos for he broke his word, a grave crime in the eyes of the Olympians.

  Theseus abandons Ariadne on learning that she is dedicated to Dionysus. In popular lore, on Athena’s advice, he leaves her while she is sleeping.

  In Etruscan art, Dionysus is often depicted with his consort, Ariadne, who bears him children who embody grapes and wine.

  Ariadne was probably an ancient mother goddess whose cult was first linked to the hero Theseus, and later with the god Dionysus.

  Theseus, a son of Poseidon, kills the Minotaur, the offspring of the bull sent to Crete by Poseidon.

  The ship of Theseus was kept in Athens for centuries. Over time, each rotting piece of the ship was replaced by a fresh one. Eventually, every inch of the ship came to be made of materials that were not part of the original. Was this ship then truly the ship of Theseus? This was the famous paradoxical question raised by Greek philosophers.

  Perdix

  After Theseus’s departure from Crete, Minos learned about the ball of thread he had used to get out of the labyrinth. The idea could not have been Ariadne’s; she was not that smart. The idea had to be that of Daedalus, who had built the labyrinth. Since the inventor was originally from Athens it was quite possible he wanted to help the handsome Athenian prince.

  Daedalus had to leave Athens after he committed a terrible crime. He was upset when he discovered that his young nephew, Perdix, was a better inventor than his own son, Icarus. In fact, people said that the nephew had the potential to outshine even his talented uncle. In a fit of jealousy, Daedalus pushed Perdix to his death from the roof of his house. He then fled with Icarus and sought refuge in Crete.

  Jealousy is a common theme in Hindu mythology too. Ravana is jealous of his brother, Kubera, who builds the golden city of Lanka. Duryodhana is jealous of his cousins, the Pandavas, who build the city of Indraprastha.

  Daedalus is the archetypal skilled craftsman who is said to have invented carpentry.

  Athena saved Perdix and turned him into a bird, a partridge that avoids building nests in high places.

  A crater on the far side of the moon is named Daedalus.

  The journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences is called Daedalus.

  Icarus

  Minos, angry with Daedalus’s treachery, had him imprisoned in a tower. To escape, Daedalus designed wings for himself and his son, Icarus, using bird feathers and beeswax. Father and son strapped on the wings, jumped out of the tower and began flapping until they were able to glide on the wind like birds. They made it out of the city, out of the island and over the sea.

  But then Icarus grew too confident and felt the urge to fly towards the sun. As he flew higher, the beeswax in the artificial wings began to melt. The feathers came undone and he fell into the sea and drowned. Daedalus could do nothing to save his son and so flew alone to faraway Sicily.

  In the Ramayana, we hear the tale of the vulture brothers Jatayu and Sampati, who challenge each other to fly higher. Sampati spreads his wings to stop Jatayu from flying too close to the sun and burns his own wings in the process. The now-flightless Sampati stands on the ocean shore and is able to see Lanka with his keen eyesight.

  Daedalus embodies maturity in an artist while Icarus embodies impetuousness.

  The story of men riding high only to be struck down is an oft-repeated motif in Greek mythology: Icarus falls when he flies too high, Phaeton is struck by a thunderbolt when he tries to fly his father’s sun-chariot, and Bellerophon is struck down when he tries to fly towards Olympus on his flying horse. These were seen as acts of hubris, excessive pride that makes people forget their place in the cosmos, thus causing chaos.

  In Sumerian mythology, Etana is the equivalent of Icarus. He rode towards heaven on the back of an eagle, seeking a magical herb, but then looked down and lost his balance.

  People who are dangerously over-ambitious are said to suffer from an Icarus complex.

  Perdix, whom Daedalus envies, is turned into a bird by the gods, while Icarus, whom Daedalus loves, cannot fly with his man-made wings. Perdix flies up and survives, while Icarus tumbles down and dies.

  Daedalus

  Minos was determined to find Daedalus. So he sent his spies to kings around the Mediterranean Sea with a puzzle: How did one thread a spiral shell? It was a problem that Minos knew no one other than Daedalus could solve.

  Sometime later, news came that the king of Sicily had succeeded. Someone in his court had told the king to tie a thread to an ant, make it enter one end of the shell and lure it out the other end with a drop of honey. Minos was pleased, for only Daedalus could have thought of that.

  He demanded that the king of Sicily hand over the inventor. The king agreed and invited Minos to a banquet where Daedalus would be presented to him. Before the banquet he asked his beautiful daughters to give Minos a bath. As soon as Minos got into the tub, the king’s daughters, guided by Daedalus, poured boiling water on Minos and scalded him to death.

  Just as Minos uses a puzzle to draw out Daedalus from his hiding place, in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Damayanti gets spie