24 pages • 48 minutes read
AnonymousTheseus
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | BCEA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural Context: Greek Mythology
Broadly, Greek mythology is the collection of stories that make up ancient Greek culture. Its subjects range from the creation of the universe to the individual lives of citizens. Many of these stories are told across the history of ancient Greece. They not only give insight into the religious beliefs of the time but also provide insight into the cultural, societal, and political norms that governed a person’s daily life.
Myths are united in being stories about deities and people who are larger than life. Greek myths contain a pantheon of gods whom the citizens trusted to keep them safe, to give them bountiful harvests, and to side with them in conflicts. When the tributes are in the Labyrinth, Theseus provides comfort to his companions by saying, “Stay close by me […] and with the help of Athena who dwells in her temple home in our own fair city, I will save you” (204). This is not merely a reassurance. Theseus believes that Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, stands with him in the coming battle against the Minotaur. He believes that his cause is just and that the gods will see him safely through.
Myths are also used to explain the origins of natural phenomena in the world, such as the naming of significant places. For example, this myth tells how the Aegean Sea got its name. When Theseus sails home from Crete, he is supposed to raise a white sail to indicate that he is alive; he does not do this. Aegeus sees only the black sail on the ship returning from Crete; in his grief, he “fainted and fell forward into the sea and was drowned” (208). According to the myth, the Aegean Sea took its name from the death of this former king of Athens who died in its waves.
Literary Context: The Oral Tradition
The stories of Greek mythology were not originally written down in ancient Greece. Instead, they were told orally at parties and competitions by bards who learned them from other bards and then memorized the story. Each time the story was retold, the bard telling it would add some flourishes to engage and interest the audience. This means that there are many different versions of each myth, even after the stories were recorded on papyrus and, later, on paper. This also means that the authorship of each story did not matter, because each bard told it differently. Even the same bard would tell the same story differently to different audiences, depending on the context.
For the category of stories that falls under “Theseus and the Minotaur,” this means that each version will contain certain details, while other details are left out. One example of this in “The Cruel Tribute” is the fate of Ariadne. No detail is given regarding the time Theseus, Ariadne, and the Athenians spent on the island of Naxos. In other versions of this story, Theseus and his crew stop on Naxos, where Theseus leaves Ariadne behind, either because of his own cruelty or because the god Dionysus makes him. The omission of this part of the story affects the characterization of Theseus; it paints him in a more positive light, as he does not abandon Ariadne and break his promise to marry her when they return to Athens.
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