Hebrews adopted the Syriac Civilization
Aryold J. Toynbee wrote: {p. 423} The Hebrews (including the Moabites) adopted not only the Canaanite language but also the Phoenician alphabet for writing it. ... The discovery of the Ugarit texts shows that the Biblical Psalms, whatever their date, are indebted to a Phoenician hymnology that had a long tradition behind it. The Phoenicians also seem likely to have been the intermediaries through whom some of the Egyptian proverbs of Amenemope found their way into the Biblical Book of Proverbs almost verbatim. And the Canaanite origin of chapters viii-ix of the Book of Proverbs, on the theme of Wisdom, is attested by echoes here of themes in the Phoenician literature disinterred at Ugarit. The Sumero-Akkadian story of the creation of the World must have found its way to Palestine long before the Israelites' advent there, and must have been learnt by them from the Canaanites on whom they imposed themselves. Canaanite elements have not been detected in the eighth-century B.C. prophetic literature of Israel and Judah. But they reappear thereafter. 'There is a veritable flood of allusions to Canaanite (Phoenician) literature in Hebrew works composed between the seventh and the third century B.C.: e.g. in Job, Deutero-Isaiah, Proverbs, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Jubilees, and part of Daniel.
Source: A Study of History Volume XII Reconsiderations, Oxford University Press, London 1961.
Ugaritic Torah -- Old Testament
Introduction
The ancient Phoenician city-state of Ugarit is of utmost importance for those who study the Old Testament. The literature of the city and the theology contained therein go a very long way in helping to understand the meaning of various Biblical passages as well as aiding in deciphering difficult Hebrew words. Ugarit was at its political, religious and economic height around the 12th century BC and thus its period of greatness corresponds with the entry of Israel into Canaan.
Why should people interested in the Old Testament want to know about this city and its inhabitants? Simply because when we listen to their voices we hear echoes of the Old Testament itself. Several of the Psalms were simply adapted from Ugaritic sources; the story of the flood has a near mirror image in Ugaritic literature; and the language of the Bible is greatly illuminated by the language of Ugarit.
Note: It must be noted that in the technical sense the Torah represents the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch); however, the Torah came to be considered the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in its entirety which included oral and written tradition or revelation of God.
The Discovery of Ugarit and the Ugaritic Texts
In 1928 a group of French archaeologists journeyed with 7 camels, one donkey, and some burden bearers towards the tel known as Ras Shamra. After a week at the site they discovered a cemetery 150 meters from the Mediterranean Sea. In the graves they discovered Egyptian and Phoenician artwork and alabaster. They also found some Mycenean and Cypriot materials.
After the discovery of the cemetery they found a city and a royal palace about 1000 meters from the sea on a tel 18 meters high. The tel was called by the locals Ras Shamra which means "fennel hill". There also Egyptian artifacts were discovered and dated to the 2nd millennium BC.
The greatest discovery made at the site was a collection of tablets carved with (a then) unknown cuneiform script. In 1932 the identification of the site was made when some of the tablets were deciphered; the city was the ancient and famous site of Ugarit.
Ugarit experienced a very long history. A city was built on the site in the Neolithic period around 6000 BC. The oldest written evidence of the city is found in some texts from the nearby city of Ebla written around 1800 BC. At that time both Ebla and Ugarit were under Egyptian hegemony, which shows that the long arm of Egypt extended all along the west coast of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The population of Ugarit at that time was roughly 7635 people. The city of Ugarit continued to be dominated by the Egyptians through 1400 BC.
All of the tablets found at Ugarit were written in the last period of its life (around 1300- 1200 BC). The kings of this last and greatest period were:
1349 `Ammittamru I
1325 Niqmaddu II
1315 Arhalba
1291 Niqmepa 2
1236 `Ammitt 1193- Niqmaddu III
1185 `Ammurapi
In the period 1200 - 1180 the city steeply declined and then mysteriously came to an end.
The texts which were discovered at Ugarit aroused interest because of their international flavor. That is, the texts were written in one of four languages; Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurritic and Ugaritic. The tablets were found in the royal palace, the house of the High Priest, and some private houses of evidently leading citizens.
Ugaritic literature provides an open window on the culture and religion of Israel in its earliest period.
From the Literature of Ugarit to the Literature of the Bible
The style of writing discovered at Ugarit is known as alphabetic cuneiform. This is a unique blending of an alphabetic script and cuneiform; thus it is a unique blending of two styles of writing. Most likely it came into being as cuneiform was passing from the scene and alphabetic scripts were making their rise. Ugaritic is thus a bridge from one to the other.
One example of this is found in Proverbs 26:23. In the Hebrew text Mygys Psk is divided just as it is here. This has caused commentators quite a bit of confusion over the centuries, for what does "silver lips" mean? The discovery of the Ugaritic texts has helped us to understand that the word was divided incorrectly by the Hebrew scribe (who was as unfamiliar as we are with what the words were supposed to mean). Instead of the two words above, the Ugaritic texts lead us to divide the two words as Mygysps k which means "like silver". This makes eminently more sense in context than the word mistakenly divided by the Hebrew scribe who was unfamiliar with the second word; so he divided into two words which he did know even though it made no sense.
Another example occurs in Ps 89:20. Here the word rz is usually translated "help" but the Ugaritic word "gzr" means "young man" and if Psalm 89:20 is translated this way it is clearly more meaningful.
Besides single words being illuminated by the Ugaritic texts, entire ideas or complexes of ideas have parallels in the literature. For example, in Proverbs 9:1-18 wisdom and folly are personified as women. This means that when the Hebrew wisdom teacher instructed his students on these matters, he was drawing on material that was commonly known in the Phoenician environment (for Ugarit was Canaanite/Phoenician). In point of fact, KTU 1,7 VI 2-45 is nearly identical to Proverbs 9:1ff. (The abbreviation KTU stands for "Keilalphabetische Texte aus Ugarit", the standard collection of this material. The numbers are what we might call the chapter and verse). KTU 1.114:2-4 says-
hklh. sh. lqs. ilm. tlhmnilm
w tstn. tstnyn `d sbí
trt. `d. skr. yí.db .yrh
"Eat, o Gods, and drink,
drink wine till you are sated,
Which is very similar to Proverbs 9:5;
"Come, eat of my food and drink wine that I have mixed".
Ugaritic poetry is very similar to Biblical poetry and is therefore very useful in interpreting difficult poetic texts. In fact, Ugaritic literature (besides lists and the like) is composed completely in poetic metre. Biblical poetry follows Ugaritc poetry in form and function. There is parallelism, qinah metre, bi and tri colas, and all of the poetic tools found in the Bible are found at Ugarit. In short the Ugaritic materials have a great deal to contribute to our understanding of the Biblical materials; especially since they predate any of the Biblical texts.
The Ugaritic Pantheon
The prophets of the Old Testament rail against Baal, Asherah and various other gods on nearly every page. The reason for this is simple to understand; the people of Israel worshipped these gods along with, and sometimes instead of, Yahweh, the God of Israel. This Biblical denunciation of these Phoenician gods received a fresh face when the Ugaritic texts were discovered, for at Ugarit these were the very gods that were worshipped.
El was the chief god at Ugarit. Yet El is also the name of God used in many of the Psalms for Yahweh. Yet when one reads these Psalms and the Ugaritic texts one sees that the very attributes for which Yahweh is acclaimed are the same for which El is acclaimed. In fact, these Psalms were most likely originally Ugaritic or Phoenician hymns to El which were simply adopted by Israel, much like the American National Anthem was set to a beer hall tune by Francis Scott Key. El is called the "father of men", "creator", and "creator of the creation". These attributes are also granted Yahweh by the Old Testament.
In 2 Kings 22:19-22 we read of Yahweh meeting with his heavenly council. This is the very description of heaven which one finds in the Ugaritic texts. For in those texts the "sons of god" are the sons of El.
Other deities worshipped at Ugarit were El Shaddai, El Elyon, and El Berith. All of these names are applied to Yahweh by the writers of the Old Testament. What this means is that the Hebrew theologians adopted the titles of the Phoenician gods and attributed them to Yahweh in an effort to eliminate them. If Yahweh is all of these there is no need for the Phoenician gods to exist! This process is known as assimilation.
Besides the chief god at Ugarit there were also lesser gods, demons, and goddesses. The most important of these lesser gods were Baal (familiar to all readers of the Bible), Asherah (also familiar to readers of the Bible), Yam (the god of the sea) and Mot (the god of death). What is of great interest here is that Yam is the Hebrew word for sea and Mot is the Hebrew word for death! This is most likely so because the Hebrews also adopted these Phoenician ideas as well.
One of the most interesting of these lesser deities, Asherah, plays a very important role in the Old Testament. There she is called the wife of Baal; but she is also known as the consort of Yahweh! That is, among some Yahwists, Ahserah is Yahweh's female counterpart! Inscriptions found at Kuntillet `Ajrud (dated between 850 and 750 BC) say:
I bless you through Yahweh of Samaria,
and through his Asherah!
And at `El Qom (from the same period) this inscription:
Uriyahu, the king, has written this.
Blessed be Uriyahu through Yahweh,
and his enemies have been conquered
through Yahweh's Asherah.
That Yahwists worshipped Asherah until the 3rd century before Christ is well known from the Elephantine Papyri. Thus, for many in ancient Israel, Yahweh, like Baal, had a consort. Although condemned by the prophets, this aspect of the popular religion of Israel was difficult to overcome and indeed among many was never overcome.
As had already been mentioned, one of the more important lesser deities at Ugarit was Baal. Baal is described as the "rider on the clouds" in KTU 1.3 II 40. Interestingly enough, this description is also used of Yahweh in Psalm 68:5.
In the Old Testament Baal is named 58 times in the singular and 18 times in the plural. The prophets protested constantly against the love affair the Israelites had with Baal (cf. Hosea 2:19, for example). The reason Israel was so attracted to Baal was that, first of all, some Israelites viewed Yahweh as a God of the desert and so when they arrived in Phoenicia they thought it only proper to adopt Baal, the god of fertility. As the old saying goes, "whose land, his god". For these Israelites Yahweh was useful in the desert but not much help in the land.
There is one Ugaritic text which seems to indicate that among the inhabitants of Ugarit, Yahweh was viewed as another son of El. KTU 1.1 IV 14 says:
sm . bny . yw . ilt
"The name of the son of god, Yahweh."
This text seems to show that Yahweh was known at Ugarit, though not as the Lord but as one of the many sons of El.
Among the other gods worshipped at Ugarit there are Dagon, Tirosch, Horon, Nahar, Resheph, Kotar Hosis, Shachar (who is the equivalent of Satan), and Shalem. The folks at Ugarit were also plagued by a host of demons and lesser gods. The people at Ugarit saw the desert as the place which was most inhabited by demons (and they were like the Israelites in this belief). KTU 1.102:15-28 is a list of these demons.
One of the most famous of the lesser deities at Ugarit was a chap named Dan'il. There is little doubt that this figure corresponds to the Biblical Daniel; while predating him by several centuries. This has led many Old Testament scholars to suppose that the Canonical prophet was modeled on him. His story is found in KTU 1.17 - 1.19.
Another creature which has ties to the Old Testament is Leviathan. Isaiah 27:1 and KTU 1.5 I 1-2 describe this beast. Also see Ps 74:13-14 and 104:26.
Worship at Ugarit and in Ancient Israel
In Ugarit, as in Israel, the cult played a central role in the lives of the people. One of the central Ugaritic myths was the story of Baal's enthronement as king. In the story, Baal is killed by Mot (in the Fall of the year) and he remains dead until the Spring of the year. His victory over death was celebrated as his enthronement over the other gods (cf. KTU 1.2 IV 10)
The Old Testament also celebrates the enthronement of Yahweh (cf. Ps 47:9, 93:1, 96:10, 97:1 and 99:1). As in the Ugaritic myth, the purpose of Yahweh's enthronement is to re-enact creation. That is, Yahweh overcomes death by his recurring creative acts.
The major difference between the Ugaritic myth and the Biblical hymns is that Yahweh's kingship is eternal and uninterrupted while Baal's is interrupted every year by his death (in the Fall). Since Baal is the god of fertility the meaning of this myth is quite easy to understand. As he dies, so the vegetation dies; and when he is reborn so is the world. Not so with Yahweh; for since he is always alive he is always powerful (Cf. Ps 29:10).
Another of the more interesting aspects of Ugaritic religion which has a parallel in Hebrew religion was the practice of "weeping for the dead". KTU 1.116 I 2-5, and KTU 1.5 VI 11-22 describe the worshippers weeping over the departed in the hopes that their grief will move the gods to send them back and that they will therefore live again. The Israelites also participated in this activity; though the prophets condemned them for doing so (cf. Is 22:12, Eze 7:16, Mi 1:16, Jer 16:6, and Jer 41:5). Of particular interest in this connection is what Joel 1:8-13 has to say:
Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord. The fields are devastated, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails. Be dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vine dressers, over the wheat and the barley; for the crops of the field are ruined. The vine withers, the fig tree droops. Pomegranate, palm, and apple tree -- all the trees of the field are dried up; surely, joy withers away among the people.
Yet another interesting parallel between Israel and Ugarit is the yearly ritual known as the sending out of the "scapegoats"; one for god and one for a demon. The Biblical text which relates this procedure is Leviticus 16:1-34. In this text a goat is sent into the wilderness for Azazel (a demon) and one is sent into the wilderness for Yahweh. This rite is known as a "eliminatory" rite; that is, a contagion (in this case communal sin) is placed on the head of the goat and it is sent away. In this way it was believed that (magically) the sinful material was removed from the community.
KTU 1.127 relates the same procedure at Ugarit; with one notable difference -- at Ugarit a woman priest was involved in the rite as well.
The rituals performed in Ugaritic worship involved a great deal of alcohol and sexual promiscuity. Worship at Ugarit was essentially a drunken orgy in which priests and worshippers indulged in excessive drinking and excessive sexuality. This because the worshippers were attempting to convince Baal to send rain on their crops. Since rain and semen were seen in the ancient world as the same thing (as both produced fruit), it simply makes sense that participants in fertility religion behaved this way. Perhaps this is why in Hebrew religion the priests were forbidden to partake of wine while performing any rituals and also why females were barred from the precincts!! (cf. Hos 4:11-14, Is 28:7-8, and Lev 10:8-11).
The Cult of the Dead at Ugarit
In Ugarit two stela (stone monuments) have been discovered which demonstrate that the people there worshipped their dead ancestors. (Cf. KTU 6.13 and 6.14). The Prophets of the Old Testament likewise protested against this behavior when it occurred among the Israelites. Ezekiel denounces such behavior as godless and pagan (in 43:7-9).
Yet the Israelites sometimes participated in these pagan practices, as 1 Sam 28:1-25 clearly shows.
These dead ancestors were known among both the Phoenicians and Israelites as "Rephaim". As Isaiah notes, (14:9ff),
Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the Rephaim to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.
All of them will speak and say to you:
"You too have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!
"Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
and the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you,
and worms are your covering.
KTU 1.161 likewise describes the Rephaim as the dead. When one goes to the grave of an ancestor, one prays to them; feeds them; and brings them an offering (like flowers); all in hopes of securing the prayers of the dead.
The prophets despised this behavior; they saw it as a lack of trust in Yahweh, who is God of the living and not god of the dead. So, instead of honoring dead ancestors, Israel honored their live ancestors (as we clearly see in Ex 20:12, Deut 5:16, and Lev 19:3).
One of the more interesting aspects of this ancestor worship at Ugarit was the "festive meal" that the worshipper shared with the departed, called the "marzeach" (cf. Jer 16:5// with KTU 1.17 I 26-28 and KTU 1.20-22). This was, to the dwellers of Ugarit, what the Passover was to Israel and the Lord's Supper to the Church.
International Relations and Seamanship in Ugarit
International diplomacy certainly was a central activity among the inhabitants of Ugarit; for they were a sea-going people. Akkadian was the language used in international diplomacy at that time and there are a number of documents from Ugarit in this language.
The King was the chief diplomat and he was completely in charge of international relationships (cf KTU 3.2:1-18, KTU 1.6 II 9-11). Compare this with Israel (at I Sam 15:27) and you will see that they were very similar in this respect. But, it must be said, the Israelites were not interested in the Sea and were not boat builders or sailors in any sense of the word.
The Ugaritic god of the sea, Baal Zaphon, was the patron of sailors. Before a journey Ugaritic sailors made offerings and prayed to Baal Zaphon in hopes of a safe and profitable journey (cf. KTU 2.38, and KTU 2.40). Psalm 107 was borrowed from Northern Canaan and reflects this attitude towards sailing and trade. When Solomon needed sailors and ships he turned to his northern neighbors for them. Cf. I Kings 9:26-28 and 10:22.
Art in Phoenicia and Israel
In many of the Ugaritic texts El was described as a bull, as well as a human form.
The Israelites borrowed art, architecture, and music from their Phoenician neighbors. But they refused to extend their art to images of Yahweh (cf. Ex 20:4-5). God commanded the people to make no image of himself; and did not forbid every kind of artistic expression. In fact, when Solomon constructed the temple he had it engraved with a great number of artistic forms. That there was a bronze serpent in the temple as well is well known.
The Israelites did not leave as many artistic pieces behind as did their Phoenician neighbors. And what they did leave behind show traces of being heavily influenced by these Phoenicians.
Conclusion
Since the discovery of the Ugaritic texts, study of the Old Testament has never been the same. We now have a much clearer picture of Phoenician religion than we ever had before. We also understand the Biblical literature itself much better as we are now able to clarify difficult words due to their Ugaritic cognates.
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Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
A list of my favorite Earth-based Jewish books by Aron (agamman)
A list of my favorite Earth-based Jewish books by Aron (agamman)
This is a list of the best books that have aided and continue to aid me in my earth-based Jewish practice that
1. Cooper, David A., God is a Verb - A wealth of Jewish storytelling, general concepts and meditations. I have found this to be one of the best-written practical introductions on Jewish Kabballah. It does lack historical information about Kabbalah.
2. Frankiel, Tamar and Greenfeld, Judy, Minding the Temple of the Soul – This is an excellent book for those like me who never really got into prayer because it was so focused on the words. This covers words and body momement a well as visualization that balances the more cerebral focus (at least to me) of traditional prayer.
3. Frankiel, Tamar, Gift of Kabbalah – A very good introduction to Kabbalah. This focuses more on the practical aspects of the sephirot and focuses more on the psychological aspects of Kabbalah and how to use them. It’s a good contrast to David Cooper’s book.
4. Hunter, Jennifer, Magical Judaism - The first book actually on the topic of Jewitchery. Does very well in showing the diversity of people who might fit into our "tradition" unlike many introductions to this or that that I've seen out there.
5. Patai, Raphael, Hebrew Goddess – As the title suggests, he covers most the aspects of the divine feminine in the history of Judaism, but there’s also a lot of wealth here for exploring that within your own experiences.
6. Shapiro, Rami. M, Minyan – Although this isn’t exactly Jewish Pagan, this book presented me with the first options of ways of looking at Judaism in my own ways instead of having to do it the way “normal” Jews do. The chapter on the 10 Commandments (Or the Ten Utterances as he calls them) was integral in my own interpretations of them in terms of my own philosophy.
7. Silberman, Neil Asher, Heavenly Powers: Unraveling the Secret History of Kabballah - Although there’s a somewhat sociopolitical bent to this book, it works as a historical introduction to how Kabbalah developed. This is the only book I know of that covers the history in a complete way. Most books only do a scetchy overview.
8. Winkler, Gershon, Magic of the Ordinary – This in the introduction to Jewish Shamanism, we’re been waiting for. Clear, concise explanation of an earth-honoring vision of Judaism as well as Kabbalah. Highly recommended
9. Jewish Book of Days by Jill Hammer - Rabbi Jill's one of my current most influential thinkers / writers on my own path. I think it's important to include because it comes from someone who self-describes themselves as an earth-Based Jew. A day by day look at the Hebrew calendar.
10. God in the Body by Jay Michaelson - I think the body is very important topic and one often ignored in modern Judaism if not in Ancient Israel or Ancient Judaism. Contributer to Zeek, a great magazine for Jews of an "alternative" mindset.
11. Seasons of our Joy by Arthur Wascow - Although Rabbi Wascow's more Jewish renewal than I, it's one of the few guides of the Hebrew Calender and its holidays that takes agriculture cycles and the earth in his analysis.
12. Memoirs of God by Mark S. Smith - The topic of this book is the discussion of the phenomena he describes as Israel intention forgetting its polytheistic past in the process gives a good short history of the Jews including a great conversation about the parallels between the Ugarit pantheon to the Hebrew understanding of the divine as well as the changes that went on. It helped a lot in me understanding my own "pantheon" which I make no attempt to be ancient.
from
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jewitchery
posted by
agamman
This is a list of the best books that have aided and continue to aid me in my earth-based Jewish practice that
1. Cooper, David A., God is a Verb - A wealth of Jewish storytelling, general concepts and meditations. I have found this to be one of the best-written practical introductions on Jewish Kabballah. It does lack historical information about Kabbalah.
2. Frankiel, Tamar and Greenfeld, Judy, Minding the Temple of the Soul – This is an excellent book for those like me who never really got into prayer because it was so focused on the words. This covers words and body momement a well as visualization that balances the more cerebral focus (at least to me) of traditional prayer.
3. Frankiel, Tamar, Gift of Kabbalah – A very good introduction to Kabbalah. This focuses more on the practical aspects of the sephirot and focuses more on the psychological aspects of Kabbalah and how to use them. It’s a good contrast to David Cooper’s book.
4. Hunter, Jennifer, Magical Judaism - The first book actually on the topic of Jewitchery. Does very well in showing the diversity of people who might fit into our "tradition" unlike many introductions to this or that that I've seen out there.
5. Patai, Raphael, Hebrew Goddess – As the title suggests, he covers most the aspects of the divine feminine in the history of Judaism, but there’s also a lot of wealth here for exploring that within your own experiences.
6. Shapiro, Rami. M, Minyan – Although this isn’t exactly Jewish Pagan, this book presented me with the first options of ways of looking at Judaism in my own ways instead of having to do it the way “normal” Jews do. The chapter on the 10 Commandments (Or the Ten Utterances as he calls them) was integral in my own interpretations of them in terms of my own philosophy.
7. Silberman, Neil Asher, Heavenly Powers: Unraveling the Secret History of Kabballah - Although there’s a somewhat sociopolitical bent to this book, it works as a historical introduction to how Kabbalah developed. This is the only book I know of that covers the history in a complete way. Most books only do a scetchy overview.
8. Winkler, Gershon, Magic of the Ordinary – This in the introduction to Jewish Shamanism, we’re been waiting for. Clear, concise explanation of an earth-honoring vision of Judaism as well as Kabbalah. Highly recommended
9. Jewish Book of Days by Jill Hammer - Rabbi Jill's one of my current most influential thinkers / writers on my own path. I think it's important to include because it comes from someone who self-describes themselves as an earth-Based Jew. A day by day look at the Hebrew calendar.
10. God in the Body by Jay Michaelson - I think the body is very important topic and one often ignored in modern Judaism if not in Ancient Israel or Ancient Judaism. Contributer to Zeek, a great magazine for Jews of an "alternative" mindset.
11. Seasons of our Joy by Arthur Wascow - Although Rabbi Wascow's more Jewish renewal than I, it's one of the few guides of the Hebrew Calender and its holidays that takes agriculture cycles and the earth in his analysis.
12. Memoirs of God by Mark S. Smith - The topic of this book is the discussion of the phenomena he describes as Israel intention forgetting its polytheistic past in the process gives a good short history of the Jews including a great conversation about the parallels between the Ugarit pantheon to the Hebrew understanding of the divine as well as the changes that went on. It helped a lot in me understanding my own "pantheon" which I make no attempt to be ancient.
from
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jewitchery
posted by
agamman
Pagans find a sometimes uneasy home among Quakers
Pagans find a sometimes uneasy home among Quakers
By Matthew Streib
Kevin-Douglas Olive is a Quaker who has incorporated
elements of Paganism into his faith. Pagans are a
small but growing segment of Quakerism who say
the two traditions are completely compatible.
Religion News Service photo by Matthew Streib.
BALTIMORE -- When his partner died in 2004, Kevin-Douglas Olive reached a crossroads in his faith. Even though he had been a Quaker for almost two decades and put his trust in Jesus, he began to explore other ways of tapping into the divine.
"I had this experience of (my partner) after death, and he spoke to me and woke me up out of my sleep," Olive says. "It freaked me out, because I really didn't believe in that stuff; ... my faith in God had disappeared when my partner died."
He started to explore Wicca, a nature-based pagan religion, surrounding himself with pentacles, candles and incense. But that didn't stick. "It seemed like more make-believe on top of the Christian make-believe," he says. "I was rejecting one; I didn't want to bring in another."
Even after Olive found his way back to Jesus, he retained some elements of paganism. While he upholds the standard traditions of his local Quaker meeting hall, he privately incorporates pagan ritual into his prayer.
He's part of a small but growing movement of Quakers who also identify as pagan -- a trend that may or may not exist in other Christian traditions, but certainly not in such an organized, public fashion.
Across the board, the number of Quakers is dwindling, to roughly 100,000 in the U.S. But if Quakerism continues to catch on among the estimated half million pagans in the U.S., those who embrace both traditions predict that could reverse the Quakers' downward trend. Still, some Quakers worry about losing their own traditions through the process of accepting new ones.
In the last decade, this dual faith has sprung up around the country, including Quaker-pagan gatherings, seminars, an extensive presence on the Internet, and even explicitly Quaker-pagan congregations. There may be only several hundred Quaker pagans, but among American Quakers, their presence can be distinctly felt.
"It seems that now, in most liberal meetings at least, you can always find a few members that identify as pagan," says Stasa Morgan-Appel of Ann Arbor, Mich., who has facilitated a Quaker pagan interest group since 2002.
Quakers -- officially the Religious Society of Friends -- are divided into four main branches, three of which are explicitly Christian. Pagans have been generally joining the liberal fourth branch, the Friends General Conference, which counts 30,000 members in North America, including Morgan-Appel.
Liberal Quakers are less tied to the Christianity and instead hold established Quaker practices, such as unprogrammed pastor-less meetings, as the basis of their faith. Because of that flexibility, many liberal Quakers no longer see Jesus as divine, and some don't believe in God at all.
Paganism generally refers to nature-based religions that pre-date both Christianity and Judaism. Think witches, druids, pentacles, Wicca -- but not Satanism. Carl McColman, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Paganism," defined it this way: People Adoring Goddess And Nature.
It may seem strange that pagans would join the Quakers, which began in the 1600s with strong anti-pagan sentiment. Founder George Fox even altered the days of the week because of their pagan roots. To this day, Quakers refer to Sunday as First Day, Monday as Second Day and so on. On the other hand, the two traditions share many similarities. Both are non-hierarchical and place a strong emphasis on internal divinity. In fact, as modern paganism rose in popularity in the 1970s, many pagan groups looked to Quakers as a model of survival without a nucleus of control.
Morgan-Appel says many pagans openly embrace Quakerism, but Quakers who espouse pagan beliefs have long operated under the radar. That may be changing, however.
"People are really having the courage to be honest and truthful about the reality of their spiritual lives," she said. "If I'm standing out there at gathering, saying, `Hi, here we are, come be yourself with us,' that provides a safe space and a lot of momentum."
But it also carries a price. Due to the accommodation of non-Christian beliefs in many meetings, many Quakers report that Christian Friends feel slighted.
Witnessing about Jesus in Olive's meeting has become infrequent. "People here come from so many different places, spiritually," he says. "Meetings can be very quiet, as many people are afraid to voice views that others might not hold to be true. We talk about God, but we don't really put a name to him or her."
In an effort to reinforce his connection to Jesus, Olive holds a monthly Christian prayer group at his house after his Quaker meeting. Morgan-Appel says that such fears are common. She has seen tensions flare between the two groups, from pagan-influenced Quaker weddings to unfair fees charged to use meeting halls for Quaker-pagan gatherings.
"I think there's a myth that it's only Christians who feel like it makes people uncomfortable when they talk about Jesus," she said. "There are definitely times when I see that there are still knee-jerk reactions from people within the Society of Friends who don't know what paganism is."
Marshall Massey, a conservative Quaker in Omaha, Neb., and co-founder of Quaker Earthcare Witness, says removing Christianity undermines the stability of the Quaker faith.
"We are an easily acculturated movement," he says, explaining that Quakers' egalitarian, non-creedal tradition makes it very susceptible to outside influences. "But Quakerism has become, on the liberal end, an indefinable refuge for people who regard themselves as mystics or experientially religious and have problems with sources of authority."
Massey said losing Quakerism's Christian heritage cuts away at its unifying belief system and makes it prone to dissolution. Nevertheless, it would be un-Quakerly to try to halt the process.
"Christ is not the sort of person who would drive people away -- I don't know that it's our job to stop it," he said. "Our job is to seek to know the will of the living Christ and to obey it the best we can. When we humans try to fix one another, we just make things much, much worse."
Surprisingly, Cat Chapin-Bishop, author of the blog "Quaker Pagan Reflections," a bastion of Quaker-pagan thought, agrees with Massey on many counts.
She says many pagans find Quakerism attractive because it allows them to appear more mainstream. Still, she worries that if their commitment doesn't deepen, that could weaken Quaker beliefs.
"I see the pagan world waking up and saying, `Wow, there's Quakers, and maybe we could be Quakers and pagans -- cool!'" she said. "If it stays on that superficial level, that's not good news, and threatens Quakerism with real dilution. But if there are some leadings and people ... take in the wisdom that people have to teach us, then it's a wonderful thing for both pagans and the Society of Friends."
http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnstext/pagans_find_a_sometimes_uneasy_home_among_quakers/
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The groups threatening to split the Church
The groups threatening to split the Church Lead
I first noticed this story while waiting for my pizza at Papa John's. I missed the majority of it then, but ran across this in the BBC News Magazine feed I just put on my blog. What I saw on CNN at the pizza joint remarked more on how the Vatican bemoan's (poor them) the fact that if they allow women to be bishops, the there will continue to be a rift between Rome and the Anglican church. While I am not surprised, it really is pathetic that in 2008 this is still an issue. Ah well, I'm not surprised with the current pope in office. While I did NOT agree with everything John Paul II stood for, I definitely had more respect and admiration for that man than this Benedict. But, as has held true with so many other aspects of "modern" society, we seem to be regressing and oppressive lately. I just hope that soon the pendulum will start to swing in the other direction again.
The groups threatening to split the Church
The debate about whether to allow women bishops in the Church of England has exposed fault lines of feeling within the denomination. But who are the different factions? It's been portrayed as a fight between traditionalists and modernisers, but the question of whether the Anglican church should appoint women bishops or not is more complex - with several groups fighting for their own interests.
The boundaries of distinction between them are often blurred, but who are the broad groups and what do they stand for?
TRADITIONALISTS
Traditionalists object to female bishops on historical and theological grounds.
They claim the Bible teaches that the leaders of the Church must be men, citing Jesus and his 12 apostles. By that logic, they say priests - who represent Christ - must be male. And they point out that an unbroken chain of male priests and bishops has led the Church since Christ.
Traditionalists, who are mostly conservative Anglo-Catholics - the Church of England is part of the Anglican Communion - insist that they cannot stay in the Church of England unless their ministry is separate from women bishops.
Traditionalists see a code as slippery, and open to change in interpretation
Paul Handley Church Times
They say some 1,300 serving and retired clergy could desert the Church if women bishops were introduced without any concessions for them. They want clergy and parishioners who do not want to be led by a female bishop to have access to a male alternative - in the form of "super bishops" that would work alongside the Archbishops of York and Canterbury.
But on Monday evening the General Synod voted to consecrate women as bishops - without providing these safeguards. However the Synod did approve a code of practice which was aimed at meeting some of the opponents' reservations.
But before the vote traditionalists said they would not be happy with a non-binding code.
"Traditionalists see a code as slippery, and open to change in interpretation," says Paul Handley of the Church Times. "They want a statutory solution which will protect them forever."
Many Anglo-Catholics insist the Church of England must be seen in a wider context - as only part of a worldwide Church which includes Rome and the Orthodox - and which therefore cannot take this decision on its own.
They say it might complicate Anglican relations with the Roman Catholic Church, which does not ordain women, and end any future union.
CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICALS
Ever since women were first ordained as priests in 1994, traditionalists have found allies among conservative evangelicals.
I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor
Timothy 1: 11-14
Although both believe that the Bible contains the core of all Christian faith and thought, traditionalists tend to talk about the tradition of the Church of England, tracing its routes back to the early church, while evangelicals support their view with specific passages from the Bible.
Some evangelicals believe that the Bible teaches a divine order of men and women known as "male headship" - which goes right back to Creation.
For this reason, they think women should not be in a position of leadership over men in the Church.
They use letters, widely believed to be authored by St Paul, to support this:
In 1 Timothy 11-14, Paul is quoted as saying: "I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor."
But on the other side of the argument, the Bible has statements of egalitarian principle.
In Galatians 3: 28, Paul is quoted as saying: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."
"This conflict is essentially one of authority," says Stephen Tomkins, of Ship of Fools, an online Christian magazine. "Whether authority is derived from tradition or the Bible, [either] is open to interpretation."
The majority of evangelicals support women's ministry. But conservatives were likely to back opt-outs, partly to establish a precedent for them to escape a liberal bishop in the future, says Robert Pigott, the BBC's religious affairs correspondent.
THE ACTIVISTS
Traditionalists and evangelicals claim that their issue with women bishops is not one of equality or gender - even if they do support different roles for different sexes. But female priests have formed a powerful alliance with the middle ground, arguing there is no reason to exclude women bishops, especially now that women have been accepted as priests.
They said any concessions would create a secondary class of women bishops.
And before the vote they said they would rather wait longer for women bishops than have a two-tier system.
THE UNITERS
Many evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics are just concerned that the Church of England stays intact.
They favour women's ministry, but have strong connections with the conservative strains of their different traditions. For this reason, they have supported plans to keep those opposed to women bishops within the Church of England, but in separate dioceses or provinces, in the belief that the matter will resolve itself over time.
"These are people who might be in favour of women bishops, but they don't want the Church to break up," says Mr Handley.
LIBERALS
Many liberals believe the Church needs to react to its given cultural setting - and take into account the changing modes and structures of society.
For them, it is important to put faith principles in a modern context. That means pushing for female bishops with no concessions.
They, too, refer back to the Bible, citing Jesus's inclusion of women like Mary and Martha among his followers, and arguing that it was only cultural reasons at the time that prevented women having a more prominent role.
For liberals, the issue of women's ordination is a matter of justice.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7494938.stm
Published: 2008/07/08 14:19:12 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
I first noticed this story while waiting for my pizza at Papa John's. I missed the majority of it then, but ran across this in the BBC News Magazine feed I just put on my blog. What I saw on CNN at the pizza joint remarked more on how the Vatican bemoan's (poor them) the fact that if they allow women to be bishops, the there will continue to be a rift between Rome and the Anglican church. While I am not surprised, it really is pathetic that in 2008 this is still an issue. Ah well, I'm not surprised with the current pope in office. While I did NOT agree with everything John Paul II stood for, I definitely had more respect and admiration for that man than this Benedict. But, as has held true with so many other aspects of "modern" society, we seem to be regressing and oppressive lately. I just hope that soon the pendulum will start to swing in the other direction again.
The groups threatening to split the Church
The debate about whether to allow women bishops in the Church of England has exposed fault lines of feeling within the denomination. But who are the different factions? It's been portrayed as a fight between traditionalists and modernisers, but the question of whether the Anglican church should appoint women bishops or not is more complex - with several groups fighting for their own interests.
The boundaries of distinction between them are often blurred, but who are the broad groups and what do they stand for?
TRADITIONALISTS
Traditionalists object to female bishops on historical and theological grounds.
They claim the Bible teaches that the leaders of the Church must be men, citing Jesus and his 12 apostles. By that logic, they say priests - who represent Christ - must be male. And they point out that an unbroken chain of male priests and bishops has led the Church since Christ.
Traditionalists, who are mostly conservative Anglo-Catholics - the Church of England is part of the Anglican Communion - insist that they cannot stay in the Church of England unless their ministry is separate from women bishops.
Traditionalists see a code as slippery, and open to change in interpretation
Paul Handley Church Times
They say some 1,300 serving and retired clergy could desert the Church if women bishops were introduced without any concessions for them. They want clergy and parishioners who do not want to be led by a female bishop to have access to a male alternative - in the form of "super bishops" that would work alongside the Archbishops of York and Canterbury.
But on Monday evening the General Synod voted to consecrate women as bishops - without providing these safeguards. However the Synod did approve a code of practice which was aimed at meeting some of the opponents' reservations.
But before the vote traditionalists said they would not be happy with a non-binding code.
"Traditionalists see a code as slippery, and open to change in interpretation," says Paul Handley of the Church Times. "They want a statutory solution which will protect them forever."
Many Anglo-Catholics insist the Church of England must be seen in a wider context - as only part of a worldwide Church which includes Rome and the Orthodox - and which therefore cannot take this decision on its own.
They say it might complicate Anglican relations with the Roman Catholic Church, which does not ordain women, and end any future union.
CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICALS
Ever since women were first ordained as priests in 1994, traditionalists have found allies among conservative evangelicals.
I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor
Timothy 1: 11-14
Although both believe that the Bible contains the core of all Christian faith and thought, traditionalists tend to talk about the tradition of the Church of England, tracing its routes back to the early church, while evangelicals support their view with specific passages from the Bible.
Some evangelicals believe that the Bible teaches a divine order of men and women known as "male headship" - which goes right back to Creation.
For this reason, they think women should not be in a position of leadership over men in the Church.
They use letters, widely believed to be authored by St Paul, to support this:
In 1 Timothy 11-14, Paul is quoted as saying: "I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor."
But on the other side of the argument, the Bible has statements of egalitarian principle.
In Galatians 3: 28, Paul is quoted as saying: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."
"This conflict is essentially one of authority," says Stephen Tomkins, of Ship of Fools, an online Christian magazine. "Whether authority is derived from tradition or the Bible, [either] is open to interpretation."
The majority of evangelicals support women's ministry. But conservatives were likely to back opt-outs, partly to establish a precedent for them to escape a liberal bishop in the future, says Robert Pigott, the BBC's religious affairs correspondent.
THE ACTIVISTS
Traditionalists and evangelicals claim that their issue with women bishops is not one of equality or gender - even if they do support different roles for different sexes. But female priests have formed a powerful alliance with the middle ground, arguing there is no reason to exclude women bishops, especially now that women have been accepted as priests.
They said any concessions would create a secondary class of women bishops.
And before the vote they said they would rather wait longer for women bishops than have a two-tier system.
THE UNITERS
Many evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics are just concerned that the Church of England stays intact.
They favour women's ministry, but have strong connections with the conservative strains of their different traditions. For this reason, they have supported plans to keep those opposed to women bishops within the Church of England, but in separate dioceses or provinces, in the belief that the matter will resolve itself over time.
"These are people who might be in favour of women bishops, but they don't want the Church to break up," says Mr Handley.
LIBERALS
Many liberals believe the Church needs to react to its given cultural setting - and take into account the changing modes and structures of society.
For them, it is important to put faith principles in a modern context. That means pushing for female bishops with no concessions.
They, too, refer back to the Bible, citing Jesus's inclusion of women like Mary and Martha among his followers, and arguing that it was only cultural reasons at the time that prevented women having a more prominent role.
For liberals, the issue of women's ordination is a matter of justice.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7494938.stm
Published: 2008/07/08 14:19:12 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Monday, June 30, 2008
ARIADNE
ARIADNE
Greek Name Ariadnh
Transliteration Ariadnê
Latin Spelling Ariadne
Translation Most Holy (ari adnos)
Dionysus & Ariadne, Athenian red-figure kraterC5th B.C., Archaeological Museum, Naples
ARIADNE was the immortal wife of the wine-god Dionysos. There were several versions of her story. In one, Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Krete, assisted Theseus in his quest to slay the Minotaur, and then fled with him aboard his ship. However, when they landed on the island of Naxos, Theseus abandoned her as she was sleeping. It was here that the god Dionysos discovered her and made her his wife. Some say that she was later slain by Artemis, or else granted immortality. In another account, Ariadne's bridal with Dionysos occurred several generations before, when the god was still wandering the earth introducing his cult. But when he rode into battle against the Argives with his band of sea women, she was slain or turned to stone by King Perseus. The god then descended to the underworld through Lerna to bring her back, before ascending to Olympos.
Ariadne was often depicted alongside Dionysos in Greek vase painting: either amongst the gods of Olympos, or in Bacchic scenes surrounded by dancing Satyrs and Maenads. The discovery of the sleeping Ariadne on Naxos was also a popular scene in both vase painting and mosaic.
PARENTS
[1.1] MINOS (Homer Odysseu 11.320, Hesiod Theogony 947, Plutarch Theseus 20.1, Diodorus Siculus 4.61.5, Ovid Metamorphoses 8.175, and others)[1.2] MINOS & PASIPHAE (Apollonius Rhodius 3.997, Hyginus Fabulae 224. Ovid Heroides 4.59)
OFFSPRING
[1.1] THOAS (by Dionysos) (Quintus Smyrnaeus 4.385, Apollonius Rhodius 4.425, Ovid Heroides 6.114)[1.2] THOAS, STAPHYLOS, OINOPION, PEPARETHOS(by Dionysos) (Apollodorus E1.9)[1.3] OINOPION (by Dionysos) (Anacreon Frag 505e, Diodorus Siculus 5.79.1)[1.4] OINOPION, STAPHYLOS (by Dionysos or Theseus) (Plutarch Theseus 20.1)[2.1] PHLIASOS, EURYMEDON (by Dionysos) (Hyginus Fabulae 14)
ENCYCLOPEDIA
ARIADNE (Ariadnê), a daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë or Creta. (Apollod. iii. 1. § 2.) When Theseus was sent by his father to convey the tribute of the Athenians to Minotaurus, Ariadne fell in love with him, and gave him the string by means of which he found his way out of the Labyrinth, and which she herself had received from Hephaestus. Theseus in return promised to marry her (Plut. Thes. 19; Hygin. Fab. 42 ; Didym. ad Odyss. xi. 320), and she accordingly left Crete with him; but when they arrived in the island of Dia (Naxos), she was killed there by Artemis. (Hom. Od. xi. 324.) The words added in the Odyssey, Dionusou marturiêisin, are difficult to understand, unless we interpret them with Pherecydes by "on the denunciation of Dionysus," because he was indignant at the profanation of his grotto by the love of Theseus and Ariadne. In this case Ariadne was probably killed by Artemis at the moment she gave birth to her twin children, for she is said to have had two sons by Theseus, Oenopion and Staphylus. The more common tradition, however, was, that Theseus left Ariadne in Naxos alive; but here the statements again differ, for some relate that he was forced by Dionysus to leave her (Diod. iv. 61, v. 51; Paus. i. 20. § 2, ix. 40. § 2, x. 29. § 2), and that in his grief he forgot to take down the black sail, which occasioned the death of his father. According to others, Theseus faithlessly forsook her in the island, and different motives are given for this act of faithlessness. (Plut. Thes. 20; Ov. Met. viii. 175, Heroid. 10 ; Hygin. Fab. 43.) 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. (Hesiod. Theog. 949; Ov. Met. l. c. ; Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 5.) The Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (iii. 996) makes Ariadne become by Dionysus the mother of Oenopion, Thoas, Staphylus, Latromis, Euanthes, and Tauropolis. There are several circumstances in the story of Ariadne which offered the happiest subjects for works of art, and some of the finest ancient works, on gems as well as paintings, are still extant, of which Ariadne is the subject.
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
ARIADNE, THESEUS & THE MINOTAUROS
Not detailed here, but for the story of Theseus, Ariadne and the Minotauros refer the MINOTAUROS
Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 10 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :"[From the description of a painting :] A troup of dancers here, like the chorus which Daidalos is aid to have given to Ariadne, the daughter of Minos. What does the art represent? Young men and maidens with joined hands are dancing."
THE MARRIAGE OF DIONYSUS & ARIADNE
Homer, Odyssey 11. 320 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :"Ariadne, that daughter of subtle Minos whom Theseus bore off from Krete towards the hill of sacred Athens; yet he had no joy of her, since, before that could be, she was slain by Artemis in the isle of Dia [Naxos] because of the witness of Dionysos."
Hesiod, Theogony 947 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :"And golden-haired (khrysokomes) Dionysos made blonde-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife: and [Zeus] the son of Kronos made her deathless and unageing for him."
Anacreon, Fragment 505e (Scholiast on Aratus) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric II) (Greek lyric C6th B.C.) :"Oinopion son of Dionysos and Ariadne."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E1. 9 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"Dionysos fell in love with Ariadne, and kidnapped her [from Naxos], taking her off to Lemnos where he had sex with her, and begat Thoas, Staphylos, Oinopion, and Peparethos."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 997 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :"Remember Ariadne, young Ariadne, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, who was a daughter of Helios. She did not scruple to befriend Theseus and save him in his hour of trial; and then, when Minos had relented, she left her home and sailed away with him. She was the darling of the gods and she has her emblem in the sky: all night a ring of stars called Ariadne’s Crown rolls on its way among the heavenly constellations."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 1074 ff : "[Medea asks Jason about her cousin Ariadne :] Tell me too about that girl you mentioned [Ariadne], who won such fame for herself, the daughter of Pasiphae my father’s [Aeetes’] sister."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 425 ff : "A purple robe which the divine Kharites had made with their own hands for Dionysos in sea-girt Dia [Naxos]. Later, Dionysos gave it to his son Thoas, Thoas left it to Hypsipyle, and she, with many another piece of finery, gave it to Iason as a parting gift. It was a work of art, a joy for ever, as pleasing to the eyes as to the sense of touch. And it still gave out the ambrosial perfume it received when the Lord Dionysos lay on it, tipsy with wine and nectar, embracing Minos’ daughter, the fair young Ariadne, whom Theseus carried off from Knossos and abandoned on the Isle of Dia [Naxos]."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 61. 5 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :“He [Theseus] carried off Ariadne [from Krete] and sailed out unobserved during the night, after which he put in at the island which at that time was called Dia, but is now called Naxos. At this same time, the myths relate, Dionysos showed himself on the island, and because of the beauty of Ariadne he took the maiden away from Theseus and kept her as his lawful wife, loving her exceedingly. Indeed, after her death he considered her worthy of immortal honours because of the affection he had for her, and placed among the stars of heaven the Crown of Ariadne."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 51. 4 : "Theseus, on his voyage back from Krete together with Ariadne, was entertained as a guest by the inhabitants of the island [of Naxos]; and Theseus, seeing in a dream Dionysos threatening him if he would not forsake Ariadne in favour of the god, elft her behind him there in his fear and sailed away. And Dionysos led Ariadne away by night to the mountain which is know as Drios; and first of all the god disappeared, and later Ariadne also was never seen again."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 79. 1 : "To Oinopion, the son of Minos’s daughter Ariadne, he [Rhadamanthys] gave [the island of] Khios."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 20. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"Beside this picture [in the temple of Dionysos at Athens] there are also represented . . . Ariadne asleep, Theseus putting out to sea, and Dionysos on his arrival to carry off Ariadne."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 28. 3 :"Ariadne was taken away from Theseus by Dionysos, who sailed against him with superior forces, and either fell in with Ariadne by chance or else set an ambush to catch her."
Plutarch, Life of Theseus 20. 1 (trans. Perrin) (Greek historian C1st to C2nd A.D.) :"There are many other stories about . . . Ariadne, but they do not agree at all. Some say that she hung herself because she was abandoned by Theseus; others that she was conveyed to Naxos by sailors and there lived with Oenaros the priest of Dionysos, and that she was abandoned by Theseus because he loved another woman . . . Moreover, some say that Ariadne actually had sons by Theseus, Oinopion and Staphylos, and among these is Ion of Khios, who says of his own native city:--`This, once, Theseus's son founded, Oinopion.' Now the most auspicious of these legendary tales are in the mouths of all men, as I may say; but a very peculiar account of these matters is published by Paion the Amathusian. He says that Theseus, driven out of his course by a storm to Kypros, and having with him Ariadne, who was big with child and in sore sickness and distress from the tossing of the sea, set her on shore alone, but that he himself, while trying to succour the ship, was borne out to sea again. The women of the island, accordingly, took Ariadne into their care, and tried to comfort her in the discouragement caused by her loneliness, brought her forged letters purporting to have been written to her by Theseus, ministered to her aid during the pangs of travail, and gave her burial when she died before her child was born. Paion says further that Theseus came back, and was greatly afflicted, and left a sum of money with the people of the island, enjoining them to sacrifice to Ariadne. [For the following section see cult of Ariadne below] . . . Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysos in Naxos and bore him Staphylos and his brother, and the other, of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Korkyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there. . . . [For the rest see cult of Ariadne below.]"
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 4. 430 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :"Two great silver bowls those which Euneus [great-grandson of Dionysos and Ariadne], Jason's warrior son in sea-washed Lemnos to Akhilleus gave to ransom strong Lykaon from his hands. These had Hephaistos fashioned for his gift to glorious Dionysos, when he brought his bride divine [Ariadne] to Olympos, Minos' child far-famous, whom in sea-washed Dia's isle Theseus unwitting left. Dionysos brimmed with nectar these, and gave them to his son; and Thoas at his death to Hypsipyle with great possessions left them. She bequeathed the bowls to her godlike son [Euneus], who gave them up unto Achilles for Lykaon's life."
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1. 15 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :"That Theseus treated Ariadne unjustly--though some say not with unjust intent, but under the compulsion of Dionysos--when he abandoned her while asleep on the island of Dia [i.e. Naxos], you must have heard from your nurse; for those women are skilled in telling such tales and they weep over them whenever they will. I do not need to say that it is Theseus you see there on the ship and Dionysos yonder on the land, nor will I assume you to be ignorant and call your attention to the woman on the rocks, lying there in gentle slumber.Nor yet is it enough to praise the painter for things for which someone else too might be praised; for it is easy for anyone to paint Ariadne as beautiful and Theseus as beautiful; and there are countless characteristics of Dionysos for those who wish to represent him in painting or sculpture . . . but this Dionysos the painter has characterized by love alone. Flowered garments and thyrsoi and fawn-skins have been cast aside as out of place for the moment, and the Bakkhai are not clashing their cymbals now, nor are the Satyroi playing the flute, nay, even Pan checks his wild dance that he may not disturb the maiden’s sleep. Having arrayed himself in fine purple and wreathed his head with roses, Dionysos comes to the side of Ariadne, 'drunk with love' as the Teian poet says of those who are overmastered by love. As for Theseus, he is indeed in love, but with the smoke rising from Athens, and he no longer knows Ariadne, and never knew her, and I am sure that he has even forgotten the labyrinth and could not tell on what possible errand he sailed to Krete, so singly is his gaze fixed on what lies ahead of his prow. And look at Ariadne, or rather at her sleep; for her bosom is bare to the waist, and her neck is bent back and her delicate throat, and all her right armpit is visible, but the left hand rests on her mantle that a gust of wind may not expose her. How fair a sight, Dionysos, and how sweet her breath! Whether its fragrance is of apples or of grapes, you can tell after you have kissed her!"
Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 5 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190) (trans. Pearse) (Greek mythographer C1st to C2nd A.D.) :"Psalakantha was a Nymphe of the isle of Ikaros who, captured by Dionysos, helped him to obtain Ariane on the condition that he should also belong to her, and Dionysos refused; Psalakantha took herself to Ariane and the irritated god turned her into a plany-plant."
Theophilus, To Autolycus 7 (Greek Christian writer C2nd A.D.) : "In the Dionysian tribe there are distinct families . . . [each of these] families have their names [from a founding son of Dionysos]: the family of Ariadne, from Ariadne, daughter of Minos and wife of Dionysos, a dutiful daughter, who had intercourse with Dionysos in another form; the Thestian, from Thestios, the father of Althaia."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 14 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"Phliasus, son of Father Liber [Dionysos] and Ariadne, daughter of Minos . . . Eurymedon, son of Father Liber [Dionysos] and Ariadne, daughter of Minos."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 40 - 43 :"After he [Minos] conquered the Athenians their revenues became his; he decreed, moreover that each year they should send seven of their children as food for the Minotaur. After Theseus had come from Troezene, and had learned what a calamity afflicted the state, of his own accord he promised to go against the Minotaur . . . When Theseus came to Crete, Ariadne, Minos’ daughter, loved him so much that she betrayed her brother and saved the stranger, or she showed Theseus the way out of the Labyrinth. When Theseus had entered and killed the Minotaur, by Ariadne’s advise he got out by unwinding the thread. Ariadne, because she had been loyal to him, he took away, intending to marry her.Theseus, detained by a storm on the island of Dia [Naxos], though it would be a reproach to him hif he brought Ariadne to Athens, and so he left her asleep on the island of Dia. Liber [Dionysos], falling in love with her, took her from there as his wife."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 5 :"When Ariadne wed Liber [Dionysos] on the island of Dia [Naxos], and all the gods gave her wedding gifts, she first received this crown [the crown which became the constellation Corona] as a gift from Venus [Aphrodite] and the Horae. But, as the author of the Cretica says, at the time when Liber [Dionysos] came to Minos with the hope of lying with Ariadne, he gave her this crown as a present. Delighted with it, she did not refuse the terms. It is said, too, to have been made of gold and Indian gems, and by its aid Theseus is thought to have come from the gloom of the labyrinth to the day, for the gold and gems made a glow of light in the darkness."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 8. 173 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"The door [of the Labyrinthos], so difficult, which none of those before could find again, by Ariadne’s aid was found [by Theseus], the thread that traced the way rewound. Then Aegides [Theseus], seizing Minois [Ariadne daughter of Minos], spread his sails for Naxos, where, upon the shore, that cruel prince abandoned her and she, abandoned, in her grief and anger found comfort in Liber’s [Dionysos’] arms. He took her crown and set it in the heavens to win her there a star’s eternal glory."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 459 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[The constellation] Corona (the Crown) of Cnossos’ girl [Ariadne] : Theseus’ crime deified her. She gave that ingrate the winding thread [of the labyrinth] and gladly swapped her perjured husband for Bacchus [Dionysos]. Pleased with her marital fate, she asked : `Why did I sob like a country girl? His lies were my gain.’ Liber [Dionysos] meanwhile conquered the coiffured Indians and returned rich from the Orient world. Among the captive girls of surpassing beauty was a princess whom Bacchus liked too much. His loving wife wept and, as she paced the curving beach, delivered words like these, dishevelled : `Come, waves, listen again to identical sobs. Come, sand, absorb again my weeping. I recall my cry, `Perjured, perfidious Theseus!’ He left me. Bacchus incurs the same charge. Now again I cry, `No woman should trust a man!’ My case is the same, the man’s name altered. I wish my fate had proceeded as it started, and at the present time I was nothing. Why did you save me, Liber [Dionysos], as I faced my death on lonely sands? I could have stopped my pain. Love-light Bacchus and lighter than the leaves hugging your brow, Bacchus known only for my tears, have you the gall to parade a whore before me and ruin our harmonious bed? O, where is your vow? Where are your many oaths? Pity me, how often must I say this? You sued to blame Theseus and call him false. That indictment makes your sin fouler. No one should know this. I burn with silent pain lest someone think I earned such deception. I especially want it kept from Theseus to prevent his delight in sharing guilt. I suppose you prefer a dark whore to my fairness. May my enemies have that complexion. But what’s the point? You like her more for that blemish. What are you doing? She defiles your embrace. Bacchus, remain faithful and prefer no woman to a wife’s love. I love a man forever. The horns of a handsome bull captured my mother [Pasiphae], and your horns me. My love flatters, hers shames. My loving should not hurt. You were not hurt, Bacchus, when you admitted your flames for me. It’s no miracle you burn me. You were born in fire, it’s said, ripped from flames by your father’s hand. I’m the woman to whom you kept promising heaven. Ah, what gifts are mine in place of heaven!’She spoke. Liber [Dionysos] had long been listening to her words of complaint, as he followed behind her. He embraces her and mops her tears with kisses, and says : `Let us seek heaven’s heights together. You have shared my bed and you will share my name. You will be named Libera, when transformed. I will create a monument of you and your crown, which Volcanus [Hephaistos] gave Venus [Aphrodite] and she gave you.’He does what he said, and turns its nine gems to fires, and the golden crown glitters with nine stars."
Ovid, Heroides 2. 75 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"Of all the great deeds in the long career of your sire [Theseus], nothing has made impress upon your nature but the leaving of his Cretan bride [Ariadne] . . . [She] enjoys now a better lord [Dionysos], and sits aloft behind her bridled tigers."
Ovid, Heroides 4. 57 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[Phaedra speaks :] Pasiphaë my mother, victim of the deluded bull . . . [Theseus] the faithless son of Aegeus followed the guiding thread, and escaped from the winding house through the aid my sister [Ariadne] gave. Behold, now I, lest I be thought too little a child of Minos’ line."
Ovid, Heroides 4. 113 ff :"[Phaedra complains :] My sister [Ariadne] he left at the mercy of wild beasts."
Ovid, Heroides 6. 114 ff :"[Hypsipyle, grand-daughter of Ariadne, speaks :] If noble blood and generous lineage move you--lo, I am known as daughter of Minoan Thoas! Bacchus was my grandsire; [Ariadne] the bride of Bacchus, with crown-encircled brow, outshines with her stars the lesser constellations."
Ovid, Heroides 15. 23 ff :"Let horns but spring on your head--you will be Bacchus! . . . Bacchus loved the Gnosian maid [Ariadne]."
Ovid, Heroides 16. 349 ff :"Theseus, too, he who stole you, stole Minos’ daughter; yet Minos called the Cretans ne’er to arms [to recover her]."
Seneca, Oedipus 487 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :"Naxos, girt by the Aegean sea, gave him [Dionysos] in marriage a deserted maiden [Ariadne], compensating her loss with a better husband. Out of the dry rock there gushed Nyctelian liquor [i.e. wine]; babbling rivulets divided the grassy meadows; deep the earth drank in the sweet juices, white fountains of snowy milk and Lesbian wine mingled with fragrant thyme. The new-made bride is led to the lofty heavens; Phoebus [Apollon] a stately anthem sings, with his locks flowing down his shoulders, and twin Cupides [Erotes] brandish their torches. Jupiter [Zeus] lays aside his fiery weapons and, when Bacchus comes, abhors his thunderbolt."
Seneca, Phaedra 759 ff : "Story has spread through every nation whom [Theseus] the sister of Phaedra [Ariadne] preferred to Bromius [Dionysos]."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 43. 420 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"[Dionysos was upset at having lost the contest for Beroe's hand in marriage to Poseidon :] His [Dionysos'] brother Eros came to console him [Dionysos] in his jealous mood : `I have kept a daintier one for your bridechamber, Ariadne, of the family of Minos and your kin.'"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47. 265 ff : "[Dionysos] went in dainty revel to the vineclad district of Naxos. About him bold Eros beat his wings, and Kythereia [Aphrodite] led, before the coming of Lyaios [Dionysos] the bridegroom. For Theseus had just sailed away, and left without pity the banished maiden asleep on the shore, scattering his promises to the winds. When Dionysos beheld deserted Ariadne sleeping, he mingled love with wonder, and spoke out his admiration cautiously to the danceweaving Bakkhantes : `[Dionysos compares the sleeping Ariadne to various goddesses.] . . .‘Hypnos (Sleep) flew away, the poor lovelorn girl scattered sleep, awoke and rose from the sand, and she saw no fleet, no husband [i.e. Theseus had abandoned her on the island]--the deceiver! But the Kydonian maiden lamented with the kingfishers, and paced the heavy murmuring shore which was all that the Erotes (Loves) had given her. She called on the young man’s name, madly she sought his vessel along the seaside, scolded the envious sleep, reproached even more the Paphian’s mother, the sea. She prayed to Boreas and adjured the wind, adjured Oreithyia to bring back the boy [Theseus] to the land of Naxos and to let her see that sweet ship again. She besought hardhearted Aiolos yet more; he heard her prayer and obeyed, sending a contrary wind to blow, but Boreas lovelorn himself cared nothing for the miad stricken with desire--yes, even the Aurai (Breezes) themselves must have had a spite against the maiden when they carried the ship to the Athenian land.Eros himself admired the maiden, and though he saw Aphrodite lamenting in Naxos where all is joy. She was even more resplendent in her grief, and pain was a grace to the sorrower . . . At last in her tears she found a voice to speak thus : `[Ariadne laments her fate] . . .‘Bakkhos was enraptured to hear this lament. He noticed Kekropia, and knew the name of Theseus and the deceitful voyage from Krete. Before the girl he appeared in his radiant godhead; Eros moved swiftly about, and with stinging cestus he whipt the maiden into a nobler love, that he might lead Minos’ daughter to join willingly with his brother Dionysos. Then Bakkhos comforted Ariadne, lovelorn and lamenting, with these words in his mindcharming voice : `Maiden, why do you sorrow for the deceitful man of Athens? Let pass the memory of Theseus; you have Dionysos for your lover, a husband incorruptible for the husband of a day! If you are pleased with the mortal body of a youthful yearsmate, Theseus can never challenge Dionysos in manhood or comeliness. But you will say [he slew the Minotaur] . . . Not for nothing did that fleet [of Theseus] sail from my Naxos, but Pothos (Sexual Longing) preserved you for a nobler bridal. Happy girl, that you leave the poor bed of Theseus to look on the couch of Dionysos the desirable! What could you pray for higher than that? You have both heaven for your home and Kronion for your godfather . . . for you I will make a starry crown [the constellation Corona], that you may be called the shining bedfellow of crownloving Dionysos.’So he comforted her; the girl throbbed with joy, and cast into the sea all her memories of Theseus when she received the promise of wedlock from her heavenly wooer. Then Eros decked out the bridal chamber for Bakkhos, the wedding dance resounded, about the bridal bed all flowers grew; the dancers of Orkhomenos [the Kharites or Graces] surrounded Naxos with foliage of spring, the Hamadryas sang of the wedding, the Naias Nymphe by the fountains unveiled unshod praised the union of Ariadne with the vine-god: Ortygia cried aloud in triumph, and chanting a bridal hymn for Lyaios the brother of Phoibos [Apollon] cityholder she skipt in the dance, that unshakeable rock. Fiery Eros made a round flowergarland with red roses and plaited a wreath coloured like the stars, as prophet and herald of the heavenly Crown; and round about the Naxian bride danced a swarm of the Erotes (Loves) which attend on marriage.The Golden Father [Dionysos] entering the chamber of wedded love sowed the seed of many children. Then rolling the long circle of hoary time, he remembered Rheia his prolific mother; and leaving faultless Naxos still full of Kharites he visited all the town of Hellas."
THE DEATH OF ARIADNE
The accounts of Ariadne's death conflict with the tale that Dionysos brought her to Olympos to be his immortal wife. Although, like his mother Semele, he may have recovered her from Hades.
Homer, Odyssey 11. 320 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :"[Odysseus in the Underworld :] I saw lovely Ariadne, that daughter of subtle Minos whom Theseus bore off from Krete towards the hill of sacred Athens; yet he had no joy of her, since, before that could be, she was slain by Artemis in the isle of Dia [Naxos] because of the witness of Dionysos."
Aratus, Phaenomena 72 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek astronomical poem C3rd B.C.) :"Here too that Crown [constellation Corona], which glorious Dionysos set to be memorial of the dead Ariadne."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 61. 5 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :"Dionysos . . . kept her [Ariadne] as his lawful wife, loving her exceedingly. Indeed, after her death he considered her worthy of immortal honours because of the affection he had for her, and placed among the stars of heaven the Crown of Ariadne."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 23. 7 - 8 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"They say that the god [Dionysos], having made war on Perseus, afterwards laid aside his enmity, and received great honors at the hands of the Argives, including this precinct set specially apart for himself. It was afterwards called the precinct of Kres (the Kretan), because, when Ariadne died, Dionysos buried her here. But Lykeas says that when the [new] temple [of Dionysos] was being rebuilt an earthenware coffin was found, and that it was Ariadne's. He also said that both he himself and other Argives had seen it."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 28. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"[In a painting of the Underworld by Polygnotos at Delphoi :] Ariadne, seated on a rock, is looking at her sister Phaidra."
Plutarch, Life of Theseus 20. 1 (trans. Perrin) (Greek historian C1st to C2nd A.D.) :"Paion the Amathusian says that Theseus, driven out of his course by a storm to Kypros, and having with him Ariadne, who was big with child and in sore sickness and distress from the tossing of the sea, set her on shore alone, but that he himself, while trying to succour the ship, was borne out to sea again. The women of the island, accordingly, took Ariadne into their care . . . and gave her burial when she died before her child was born . . . Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysos in Naxos and bore him Staphylos and his brother, and the other, of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Korkyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47. 665 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"He [Perseus in his battle with Dionysos] shook in his hand the deadly face of Medousa, and turned armed Ariadne into stone. Bakkhos was even more furious when he saw his bride all stone . . . [Hermes descends upon the battlefield and addresses Dionysos :] `She [Ariadne] has died in battle, a glorious fate, and you ought to think Ariadne happy in her death, because she found one so great [Perseus] to slay her, one sprung from heaven and of no mortal stock, one who killed the Keteos (Seamonster) and beheaded horsebreeding Medousa. The Moirai’s (Fates') threads obey not persuasion . . . And your bride even in death shall enter the starspangled sky, and she will be seen near Maia my mother among the seven travelling Pleiades. What could Ariadne wish more welcome than to live in the heavens and give light to the earth, after Krete? Come no, lay down your thyrsus, let the winds blow battle away, and fix the selfmade image of mortal Ariadne where the image of heavenly Hera stands.'"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 25. 104 ff : "[The River] Inakhos was witness to both [Perseus and Dionysos], when the heavy bronze pikes of Mykenai resisted the ivy and deadly fennel, when Perseus sickle in hand gave way to Bakkhos with his wand, and fled before the fury of Satyroi cyring Euoi; Perseus cast a raging spear, and hit frail Ariadne unarmed instead of Lyaios the warrior. I do not admire Perseus for killing one woman, in her bridal dress still breathing of love."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 449 ff : "Ariadne . . . was a stone in a foreign land like the statue of Akhaian Hera."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 530 ff : "The soul of dead Ariadne borne on the wind came, and beside Dionysos sleeping sound, stood jealous after death, and spoke in the words of a dream : `Dionysos, you have forgotten your former bride,: you long for Aura, and you care not for Ariadne. O my own Theseus, whom the bitter wind stole! O my own Theseus, whom Phaidra [Ariadne’s sister] got for husband! I suppose it was fated that a perjured husband must always run from me, if the sweet boy left me while I slept, and I was married instead to Lyaios, an inconstant lover and a deceiver. Alas, that I had not a mortal husband, one soon to die; then I might have armed myself against lovemad Dionysos and been one of the Lemnian women myself. But after Theseus, now I must call you too a perjured bridegroom, the invader of many marriage beds. If your bride asks you for a gift, take this distaff at my hands, a friendly gift of love, that you may give your mountaineering bride what your Minoian wife gave you; then people can say--`She gave the thread to Theseus, and the distaff to Dionysos. You are just like Kronion changing from bed to bed, and you have imitated the doings of your womanmad father, having a n insatiable passion for changing your loves. I know how you lately married your Sithonian wife Pallene, and your wedding with Althaia: I will say nothing of the love of Kronois, from whose bed were born the three Kharites ever inseparable. But O Mykenai, proclaim my fate and the savage glare of Medousa! Shores of Naxos cry aloud of Ariadne’s lot, constrained to a hateful love, and say, "O bridegroom Theseus, Minos’s daughter calls you in anger against Dionysos!’ But why do I think of Kekropia? To her of Paphos, I carry my plaint against them both, Theseus and Dionysos!"'She spoke, and her shade flew away like shadowy smoke. Bold Bakkhos awoke and shook off the wing of Hypnos (Sleep). He lamented the sorrow of Ariadne in his dream."
CROWN OF ARIADNE, THE CONSTELLATION CORONA
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 997 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :"Remember Ariadne, young Ariadne, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, who was a daughter of Helios . . . She was the darling of the gods and she has her emblem in the sky: all night a ring of stars called Ariadne’s Crown rolls on its way among the heavenly constellations."
Aratus, Phaenomena 72 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek astronomical poem C3rd B.C.) :"Here too that Crown [Constellation Corona], which glorious Dionysos set to be memorial of the dead Ariadne."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 61. 5 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :"Dionysos . . . kept her [Ariadne] as his lawful wife, loving her exceedingly. Indeed, after her death he considered her worthy of immortal honours because of the affection he had for her, and placed among the stars of heaven the ‘Crown of Ariadne."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 6 Fragment 4 (from Tertullian On the Crown 13. 4) : "The writer [Diodoros] gives . . . to Ariadna a wreath made of gold and precious stones from India, this wreath becoming also a distinction of Vulcanus [Hephaistos[, and then of Liber [Dionysos], and later a constellation."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 19. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"[Amongst the scenes depicted on the chest of Kypselos dedicated at Olympia :] There is Theseus holding a lyre, and by his side is Ariadne gripping a crown."
Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 5 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190) (trans. Pearse) (Greek mythographer C1st to C2nd A.D.) :"Psalakantha was a Nymphe of the isle of Ikaros who, captured by Dionysos, helped him to obtain Ariane on the condition that he should also belong to her, and Dionysos refused; Psalakantha took herself to Ariane and the irritated god turned her into a plany; then, feeling remorse, he wanted to honour this plant by placing it in the crown of Ariane, who took her place among the celestial constellations."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 5 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"[Constellation Corona] Crown. This is thought to be Ariadne’s crown, placed by Father Liber [Dionysos] among the constellations. For they say that when Ariadne wed Liber [Dionysos] on the island of Dia [Naxos], and all the gods gave her wedding gifts, she first received this crown as a gift from Venus [Aphrodite] and the Horae. But, as the author of the Cretica says, at the time when Liber [Dionysos] came to Minos with the hope of lying with Ariadne, he gave her this crown as a present. Delighted with it, she did not refuse the terms. It is said, too, to have been made of gold and Indian gems, and by its aid Theseus is thought to have come from the gloom of the labyrinth to the day, for the gold and gems made a glow of light in the darkness."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 8. 175 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"She [Ariadne], abandoned [by Theseus], in her grief and anger found comfort in Bacchus’[Dionysos’] arms. He took her crown and set it in the heavens to win her there a star’s eternal glory; and the crown flew through the soft light air and, as it flew, its gems were turned to gleaming fires, and still shaped as a crown their place in heaven they take between the Kneeler and him who grasps the Snake."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 459 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[The constellation] Corona (the Crown) of Cnossos’ girl [Ariadne] . . . He [Dionysos-Liber] embraces her [Ariadne] and mops her tears with kisses, and says: ‘. . . I will create a monument of you and your crown, which Volcanus [Hephaistos] gave Venus [Aphrodite] and she gave you.’ He does what he said, and turns its nine gems to fires, and the golden crown glitters with nine stars [the Constellation Corona]."
Ovid, Fasti 5. 345 ff : "Bacchus loves flowers. Bacchus’ pleasure in the wreath can be known from Ariadne’s star."
Ovid, Heroides 6. 116 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[Ariadne] the bride of Bacchus, with crown-encircled brow, outshines with her stars the lesser constellations."
Ovid, Heroides 18. 151 ff :"Let another fix his eyes on Andromeda and the bright Crown [i.e. of Ariadne], and upon the Parrhasian Bear that gleams in the frozen pole; but for me, I care not for the loves of Perseus, and of Liber [Dionysos] and Jove [Zeus], to point me on my dubious way."
Propertius, Elegies 3. 17 ff (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st B.C.) :"For you [Dionysos] too are not without experience [in love] : to that, carried by your lynx-drawn chariot to heaven, Ariadne bears witness among the stars."
Seneca, Hercules Furens 16 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :"Not alone has Bacchus [Dionysos] himself or the [Semele] mother of Bacchus attained the skies . . . [but also] the heavens wear the crown of the Cretan maid [Ariadne]."
Seneca, Phaedra 663 ff : "[Phaedra prays :] `Thee, thee, O sister [Ariadne], wherever amidst the starry heavens thou shinest, I call to aid for a cause like to thine own [i.e. love for a prince of Athens].'"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47. 265 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"[Dionysos addresses Ariadne :] `For you I will make a starry crown [the constellation Corona], that you may be called the shining bedfellow of crownloving Dionysos.’ . . . [At their wedding] Fiery Eros made a round flowergarland with red roses and plaited a wreath coloured like the stars, as prophet and herald of the heavenly Crown."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 969 ff : "Bakkhos [Dionysos] had not forgotten his Kydonian darling [Ariadne], no, he remembered still the bride once his, then lost, and he placed in Olympos the rounded crown of Ariadne passed away, a witness of his love, an everlasting proclaimer of garlanded wedding."
THE APOTHEOSIS OF ARIADNE
Hesiod, Theogony 947 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :"And golden-haired Dionysos made brown-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife : and [Zeus] the son of Kronos made her deathless and unageing for him."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 51. 4 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :"Dionysos led Ariadne away by night to the mountain which is know as Drios; and first of all the god disappeared, and later Ariadne also was never seen again."
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 4. 385 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :"Two great silver bowls . . . these had Hephaistos fashioned for his gift to glorious Dionysos when he brought his bride [Ariadne] divine to Olympos, Minos' child far-famous, whom in sea-washed Dia's isle [Naxos] Theseus unwitting left."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 224 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"Mortals who were made immortal . . . Ariadne, whom Father Liver called Libera, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 459 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[The constellation] Corona (the Crown) of Cnossos’ girl [Ariadne]: Theseus’ crime deified her. She gave that ingrate the winding thread [of the labyrinth] and gladly swapped her perjured husband for Bacchus [Dionysos] . . . He [Dionysos-Liber] embraces her [Ariadne] and mops her tears with kisses, and says : `Let us seek heaven’s heights together. You have shared my bed and you will share my name. You will be named Libera, when transformed. I will create a monument of you and your crown, which Volcanus [Hephaistos] gave Venus [Aphrodite] and she gave you.’ He does what he said, and turns its nine gems to fires, and the golden crown glitters with nine stars [the constellation Corona]."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47. 265 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"[Dionysos addresses Ariadne :] `You have both heaven for your home and Kronion [Zeus] for your godfather.'"
CULT OF ARIADNE
Homerica, Of the Origin of Homer and Hesiod and of their Contest Fragment 1 (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic B.C.) : "The local feast of Ariadne was being held."
Plutarch, Life of Theseus 20. 1 (trans. Perrin) (Greek historian C1st to C2nd A.D.) :"A very peculiar account of these matters [the story of Ariadne] is published by Paion the Amathusian. He says that Theseus, driven out of his course by a storm to Kypros, and having with him Ariadne, who was big with child and in sore sickness and distress from the tossing of the sea, set her on shore alone, but that he himself, while trying to succour the ship, was borne out to sea again. The women of the island, accordingly, took Ariadne into their care, and tried to comfort her in the discouragement caused by her loneliness, brought her forged letters purporting to have been written to her by Theseus, ministered to her aid during the pangs of travail, and gave her burial when she died before her child was born. Paion says further that Theseus came back, and was greatly afflicted, and left a sum of money with the people of the island, enjoining them to sacrifice to Ariadne, and caused two little statuettes to be set up in her honor, one of silver, and one of bronze. He says also that at the sacrifice in her honor on the second day of the month Gorpiaeus, one of their young men lies down and imitates the cries and gestures of women in travail; and that they call the grove in which they show her tomb, the grove of Ariadne Aphrodite.Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysos in Naxos and bore him Staphylos and his brother, and the other, of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Korkyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there, and has honors paid her unlike those of the former, for the festival of the first Ariadne is celebrated with mirth and revels, but the sacrifices performed in honor of the second are attended with sorrow and mourning."
Plutarch, Theseus 23. 2 : "It was Theseus who instituted also the Athenian festival of the Oskhophoria. For it is said that he did not take away with him all the maidens on whom the lot fell at that time, but picked out two young men of his acquaintance who had fresh and girlish faces, but eager and manly spirits, and changed their outward appearance almost entirely by giving them warn baths and keeping them out of the sun, by arranging their hair, and by smoothing their skin and beautifying their complexions with unguents; he also taught them to imitate maidens as closely as possible in their speech, their dress, and their gait, and to leave no difference that could be observed, and then enrolled them among the maidens who were going to Krete, and was undiscovered by any. And when he was come back, he himself and these two young men headed a procession, arrayed as those are now arrayed who carry the vine-branches. They carry these in honor of Dionysos and Ariadne, and because of their part in the story; or rather, because they came back home at the time of the vintage. And the women called Deipnophoroi, or supper-carriers, take part in the procession and share in the sacrifice, in imitation of the mothers of the young men and maidens on whom the lot fell, for these kept coming with bread and meat for their children. And tales are told at this festival, because these mothers, for the sake of comforting and encouraging their children, spun out tales for them. At any rate, these details are to be found in the history of Damon."
Sources:
Homer, The Odyssey - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th-7th B.C.
Greek Lyric II Anacreon, Fragments - Greek Lyric C6th B.C.
Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd B.C.
Aratus, Phaenomena - Greek Astronomy C3rd B.C.
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History - Greek History C1st B.C.
Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.
Plutarch, Lives - Greek Historian C1st-2nd A.D.
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy - Greek Epic C4th A.D.
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines - Greek Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History - Greek Mythography C1st-2nd A.D.
Theophilus, To Autolycus - Greek Chrisitan Rhetoric C2nd A.D.
Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
Hyginus, Astronomica - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
Ovid, Fasti - Latin Poetry C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
Ovid, Heroides - Latin Poetry C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
Propertius, Elegies - Latin Elegy C1st B.C.
Seneca, Hercules Furens - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
Seneca, Oedipus - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
Seneca, Phaedra - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.
Photius, Myriobiblon - Byzantine Greek Scholar C9th A.D.
Other references not currently quoted here: (mostly references to the story of Ariadne, Theseus & the Minotauros): Odyssey 11.322; Apollodorus 1.9.16 & 3.1.2 & E1.8; Diodorus Siculus 4.60.4; Antoninus Liberalis 27; Parthenius 1.3; Pausanias 1.3.1; Statius Thebaid 5.226
Theoi Project Copyright © 2000 - 2008, Aaron J. Atsma, New Zealand
http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Ariadne.html
Greek Name Ariadnh
Transliteration Ariadnê
Latin Spelling Ariadne
Translation Most Holy (ari adnos)
Dionysus & Ariadne, Athenian red-figure kraterC5th B.C., Archaeological Museum, Naples
ARIADNE was the immortal wife of the wine-god Dionysos. There were several versions of her story. In one, Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Krete, assisted Theseus in his quest to slay the Minotaur, and then fled with him aboard his ship. However, when they landed on the island of Naxos, Theseus abandoned her as she was sleeping. It was here that the god Dionysos discovered her and made her his wife. Some say that she was later slain by Artemis, or else granted immortality. In another account, Ariadne's bridal with Dionysos occurred several generations before, when the god was still wandering the earth introducing his cult. But when he rode into battle against the Argives with his band of sea women, she was slain or turned to stone by King Perseus. The god then descended to the underworld through Lerna to bring her back, before ascending to Olympos.
Ariadne was often depicted alongside Dionysos in Greek vase painting: either amongst the gods of Olympos, or in Bacchic scenes surrounded by dancing Satyrs and Maenads. The discovery of the sleeping Ariadne on Naxos was also a popular scene in both vase painting and mosaic.
PARENTS
[1.1] MINOS (Homer Odysseu 11.320, Hesiod Theogony 947, Plutarch Theseus 20.1, Diodorus Siculus 4.61.5, Ovid Metamorphoses 8.175, and others)[1.2] MINOS & PASIPHAE (Apollonius Rhodius 3.997, Hyginus Fabulae 224. Ovid Heroides 4.59)
OFFSPRING
[1.1] THOAS (by Dionysos) (Quintus Smyrnaeus 4.385, Apollonius Rhodius 4.425, Ovid Heroides 6.114)[1.2] THOAS, STAPHYLOS, OINOPION, PEPARETHOS(by Dionysos) (Apollodorus E1.9)[1.3] OINOPION (by Dionysos) (Anacreon Frag 505e, Diodorus Siculus 5.79.1)[1.4] OINOPION, STAPHYLOS (by Dionysos or Theseus) (Plutarch Theseus 20.1)[2.1] PHLIASOS, EURYMEDON (by Dionysos) (Hyginus Fabulae 14)
ENCYCLOPEDIA
ARIADNE (Ariadnê), a daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë or Creta. (Apollod. iii. 1. § 2.) When Theseus was sent by his father to convey the tribute of the Athenians to Minotaurus, Ariadne fell in love with him, and gave him the string by means of which he found his way out of the Labyrinth, and which she herself had received from Hephaestus. Theseus in return promised to marry her (Plut. Thes. 19; Hygin. Fab. 42 ; Didym. ad Odyss. xi. 320), and she accordingly left Crete with him; but when they arrived in the island of Dia (Naxos), she was killed there by Artemis. (Hom. Od. xi. 324.) The words added in the Odyssey, Dionusou marturiêisin, are difficult to understand, unless we interpret them with Pherecydes by "on the denunciation of Dionysus," because he was indignant at the profanation of his grotto by the love of Theseus and Ariadne. In this case Ariadne was probably killed by Artemis at the moment she gave birth to her twin children, for she is said to have had two sons by Theseus, Oenopion and Staphylus. The more common tradition, however, was, that Theseus left Ariadne in Naxos alive; but here the statements again differ, for some relate that he was forced by Dionysus to leave her (Diod. iv. 61, v. 51; Paus. i. 20. § 2, ix. 40. § 2, x. 29. § 2), and that in his grief he forgot to take down the black sail, which occasioned the death of his father. According to others, Theseus faithlessly forsook her in the island, and different motives are given for this act of faithlessness. (Plut. Thes. 20; Ov. Met. viii. 175, Heroid. 10 ; Hygin. Fab. 43.) 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. (Hesiod. Theog. 949; Ov. Met. l. c. ; Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 5.) The Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (iii. 996) makes Ariadne become by Dionysus the mother of Oenopion, Thoas, Staphylus, Latromis, Euanthes, and Tauropolis. There are several circumstances in the story of Ariadne which offered the happiest subjects for works of art, and some of the finest ancient works, on gems as well as paintings, are still extant, of which Ariadne is the subject.
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
ARIADNE, THESEUS & THE MINOTAUROS
Not detailed here, but for the story of Theseus, Ariadne and the Minotauros refer the MINOTAUROS
Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 10 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :"[From the description of a painting :] A troup of dancers here, like the chorus which Daidalos is aid to have given to Ariadne, the daughter of Minos. What does the art represent? Young men and maidens with joined hands are dancing."
THE MARRIAGE OF DIONYSUS & ARIADNE
Homer, Odyssey 11. 320 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :"Ariadne, that daughter of subtle Minos whom Theseus bore off from Krete towards the hill of sacred Athens; yet he had no joy of her, since, before that could be, she was slain by Artemis in the isle of Dia [Naxos] because of the witness of Dionysos."
Hesiod, Theogony 947 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :"And golden-haired (khrysokomes) Dionysos made blonde-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife: and [Zeus] the son of Kronos made her deathless and unageing for him."
Anacreon, Fragment 505e (Scholiast on Aratus) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric II) (Greek lyric C6th B.C.) :"Oinopion son of Dionysos and Ariadne."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E1. 9 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"Dionysos fell in love with Ariadne, and kidnapped her [from Naxos], taking her off to Lemnos where he had sex with her, and begat Thoas, Staphylos, Oinopion, and Peparethos."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 997 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :"Remember Ariadne, young Ariadne, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, who was a daughter of Helios. She did not scruple to befriend Theseus and save him in his hour of trial; and then, when Minos had relented, she left her home and sailed away with him. She was the darling of the gods and she has her emblem in the sky: all night a ring of stars called Ariadne’s Crown rolls on its way among the heavenly constellations."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 1074 ff : "[Medea asks Jason about her cousin Ariadne :] Tell me too about that girl you mentioned [Ariadne], who won such fame for herself, the daughter of Pasiphae my father’s [Aeetes’] sister."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 425 ff : "A purple robe which the divine Kharites had made with their own hands for Dionysos in sea-girt Dia [Naxos]. Later, Dionysos gave it to his son Thoas, Thoas left it to Hypsipyle, and she, with many another piece of finery, gave it to Iason as a parting gift. It was a work of art, a joy for ever, as pleasing to the eyes as to the sense of touch. And it still gave out the ambrosial perfume it received when the Lord Dionysos lay on it, tipsy with wine and nectar, embracing Minos’ daughter, the fair young Ariadne, whom Theseus carried off from Knossos and abandoned on the Isle of Dia [Naxos]."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 61. 5 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :“He [Theseus] carried off Ariadne [from Krete] and sailed out unobserved during the night, after which he put in at the island which at that time was called Dia, but is now called Naxos. At this same time, the myths relate, Dionysos showed himself on the island, and because of the beauty of Ariadne he took the maiden away from Theseus and kept her as his lawful wife, loving her exceedingly. Indeed, after her death he considered her worthy of immortal honours because of the affection he had for her, and placed among the stars of heaven the Crown of Ariadne."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 51. 4 : "Theseus, on his voyage back from Krete together with Ariadne, was entertained as a guest by the inhabitants of the island [of Naxos]; and Theseus, seeing in a dream Dionysos threatening him if he would not forsake Ariadne in favour of the god, elft her behind him there in his fear and sailed away. And Dionysos led Ariadne away by night to the mountain which is know as Drios; and first of all the god disappeared, and later Ariadne also was never seen again."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 79. 1 : "To Oinopion, the son of Minos’s daughter Ariadne, he [Rhadamanthys] gave [the island of] Khios."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 20. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"Beside this picture [in the temple of Dionysos at Athens] there are also represented . . . Ariadne asleep, Theseus putting out to sea, and Dionysos on his arrival to carry off Ariadne."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 28. 3 :"Ariadne was taken away from Theseus by Dionysos, who sailed against him with superior forces, and either fell in with Ariadne by chance or else set an ambush to catch her."
Plutarch, Life of Theseus 20. 1 (trans. Perrin) (Greek historian C1st to C2nd A.D.) :"There are many other stories about . . . Ariadne, but they do not agree at all. Some say that she hung herself because she was abandoned by Theseus; others that she was conveyed to Naxos by sailors and there lived with Oenaros the priest of Dionysos, and that she was abandoned by Theseus because he loved another woman . . . Moreover, some say that Ariadne actually had sons by Theseus, Oinopion and Staphylos, and among these is Ion of Khios, who says of his own native city:--`This, once, Theseus's son founded, Oinopion.' Now the most auspicious of these legendary tales are in the mouths of all men, as I may say; but a very peculiar account of these matters is published by Paion the Amathusian. He says that Theseus, driven out of his course by a storm to Kypros, and having with him Ariadne, who was big with child and in sore sickness and distress from the tossing of the sea, set her on shore alone, but that he himself, while trying to succour the ship, was borne out to sea again. The women of the island, accordingly, took Ariadne into their care, and tried to comfort her in the discouragement caused by her loneliness, brought her forged letters purporting to have been written to her by Theseus, ministered to her aid during the pangs of travail, and gave her burial when she died before her child was born. Paion says further that Theseus came back, and was greatly afflicted, and left a sum of money with the people of the island, enjoining them to sacrifice to Ariadne. [For the following section see cult of Ariadne below] . . . Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysos in Naxos and bore him Staphylos and his brother, and the other, of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Korkyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there. . . . [For the rest see cult of Ariadne below.]"
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 4. 430 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :"Two great silver bowls those which Euneus [great-grandson of Dionysos and Ariadne], Jason's warrior son in sea-washed Lemnos to Akhilleus gave to ransom strong Lykaon from his hands. These had Hephaistos fashioned for his gift to glorious Dionysos, when he brought his bride divine [Ariadne] to Olympos, Minos' child far-famous, whom in sea-washed Dia's isle Theseus unwitting left. Dionysos brimmed with nectar these, and gave them to his son; and Thoas at his death to Hypsipyle with great possessions left them. She bequeathed the bowls to her godlike son [Euneus], who gave them up unto Achilles for Lykaon's life."
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1. 15 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :"That Theseus treated Ariadne unjustly--though some say not with unjust intent, but under the compulsion of Dionysos--when he abandoned her while asleep on the island of Dia [i.e. Naxos], you must have heard from your nurse; for those women are skilled in telling such tales and they weep over them whenever they will. I do not need to say that it is Theseus you see there on the ship and Dionysos yonder on the land, nor will I assume you to be ignorant and call your attention to the woman on the rocks, lying there in gentle slumber.Nor yet is it enough to praise the painter for things for which someone else too might be praised; for it is easy for anyone to paint Ariadne as beautiful and Theseus as beautiful; and there are countless characteristics of Dionysos for those who wish to represent him in painting or sculpture . . . but this Dionysos the painter has characterized by love alone. Flowered garments and thyrsoi and fawn-skins have been cast aside as out of place for the moment, and the Bakkhai are not clashing their cymbals now, nor are the Satyroi playing the flute, nay, even Pan checks his wild dance that he may not disturb the maiden’s sleep. Having arrayed himself in fine purple and wreathed his head with roses, Dionysos comes to the side of Ariadne, 'drunk with love' as the Teian poet says of those who are overmastered by love. As for Theseus, he is indeed in love, but with the smoke rising from Athens, and he no longer knows Ariadne, and never knew her, and I am sure that he has even forgotten the labyrinth and could not tell on what possible errand he sailed to Krete, so singly is his gaze fixed on what lies ahead of his prow. And look at Ariadne, or rather at her sleep; for her bosom is bare to the waist, and her neck is bent back and her delicate throat, and all her right armpit is visible, but the left hand rests on her mantle that a gust of wind may not expose her. How fair a sight, Dionysos, and how sweet her breath! Whether its fragrance is of apples or of grapes, you can tell after you have kissed her!"
Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 5 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190) (trans. Pearse) (Greek mythographer C1st to C2nd A.D.) :"Psalakantha was a Nymphe of the isle of Ikaros who, captured by Dionysos, helped him to obtain Ariane on the condition that he should also belong to her, and Dionysos refused; Psalakantha took herself to Ariane and the irritated god turned her into a plany-plant."
Theophilus, To Autolycus 7 (Greek Christian writer C2nd A.D.) : "In the Dionysian tribe there are distinct families . . . [each of these] families have their names [from a founding son of Dionysos]: the family of Ariadne, from Ariadne, daughter of Minos and wife of Dionysos, a dutiful daughter, who had intercourse with Dionysos in another form; the Thestian, from Thestios, the father of Althaia."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 14 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"Phliasus, son of Father Liber [Dionysos] and Ariadne, daughter of Minos . . . Eurymedon, son of Father Liber [Dionysos] and Ariadne, daughter of Minos."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 40 - 43 :"After he [Minos] conquered the Athenians their revenues became his; he decreed, moreover that each year they should send seven of their children as food for the Minotaur. After Theseus had come from Troezene, and had learned what a calamity afflicted the state, of his own accord he promised to go against the Minotaur . . . When Theseus came to Crete, Ariadne, Minos’ daughter, loved him so much that she betrayed her brother and saved the stranger, or she showed Theseus the way out of the Labyrinth. When Theseus had entered and killed the Minotaur, by Ariadne’s advise he got out by unwinding the thread. Ariadne, because she had been loyal to him, he took away, intending to marry her.Theseus, detained by a storm on the island of Dia [Naxos], though it would be a reproach to him hif he brought Ariadne to Athens, and so he left her asleep on the island of Dia. Liber [Dionysos], falling in love with her, took her from there as his wife."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 5 :"When Ariadne wed Liber [Dionysos] on the island of Dia [Naxos], and all the gods gave her wedding gifts, she first received this crown [the crown which became the constellation Corona] as a gift from Venus [Aphrodite] and the Horae. But, as the author of the Cretica says, at the time when Liber [Dionysos] came to Minos with the hope of lying with Ariadne, he gave her this crown as a present. Delighted with it, she did not refuse the terms. It is said, too, to have been made of gold and Indian gems, and by its aid Theseus is thought to have come from the gloom of the labyrinth to the day, for the gold and gems made a glow of light in the darkness."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 8. 173 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"The door [of the Labyrinthos], so difficult, which none of those before could find again, by Ariadne’s aid was found [by Theseus], the thread that traced the way rewound. Then Aegides [Theseus], seizing Minois [Ariadne daughter of Minos], spread his sails for Naxos, where, upon the shore, that cruel prince abandoned her and she, abandoned, in her grief and anger found comfort in Liber’s [Dionysos’] arms. He took her crown and set it in the heavens to win her there a star’s eternal glory."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 459 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[The constellation] Corona (the Crown) of Cnossos’ girl [Ariadne] : Theseus’ crime deified her. She gave that ingrate the winding thread [of the labyrinth] and gladly swapped her perjured husband for Bacchus [Dionysos]. Pleased with her marital fate, she asked : `Why did I sob like a country girl? His lies were my gain.’ Liber [Dionysos] meanwhile conquered the coiffured Indians and returned rich from the Orient world. Among the captive girls of surpassing beauty was a princess whom Bacchus liked too much. His loving wife wept and, as she paced the curving beach, delivered words like these, dishevelled : `Come, waves, listen again to identical sobs. Come, sand, absorb again my weeping. I recall my cry, `Perjured, perfidious Theseus!’ He left me. Bacchus incurs the same charge. Now again I cry, `No woman should trust a man!’ My case is the same, the man’s name altered. I wish my fate had proceeded as it started, and at the present time I was nothing. Why did you save me, Liber [Dionysos], as I faced my death on lonely sands? I could have stopped my pain. Love-light Bacchus and lighter than the leaves hugging your brow, Bacchus known only for my tears, have you the gall to parade a whore before me and ruin our harmonious bed? O, where is your vow? Where are your many oaths? Pity me, how often must I say this? You sued to blame Theseus and call him false. That indictment makes your sin fouler. No one should know this. I burn with silent pain lest someone think I earned such deception. I especially want it kept from Theseus to prevent his delight in sharing guilt. I suppose you prefer a dark whore to my fairness. May my enemies have that complexion. But what’s the point? You like her more for that blemish. What are you doing? She defiles your embrace. Bacchus, remain faithful and prefer no woman to a wife’s love. I love a man forever. The horns of a handsome bull captured my mother [Pasiphae], and your horns me. My love flatters, hers shames. My loving should not hurt. You were not hurt, Bacchus, when you admitted your flames for me. It’s no miracle you burn me. You were born in fire, it’s said, ripped from flames by your father’s hand. I’m the woman to whom you kept promising heaven. Ah, what gifts are mine in place of heaven!’She spoke. Liber [Dionysos] had long been listening to her words of complaint, as he followed behind her. He embraces her and mops her tears with kisses, and says : `Let us seek heaven’s heights together. You have shared my bed and you will share my name. You will be named Libera, when transformed. I will create a monument of you and your crown, which Volcanus [Hephaistos] gave Venus [Aphrodite] and she gave you.’He does what he said, and turns its nine gems to fires, and the golden crown glitters with nine stars."
Ovid, Heroides 2. 75 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"Of all the great deeds in the long career of your sire [Theseus], nothing has made impress upon your nature but the leaving of his Cretan bride [Ariadne] . . . [She] enjoys now a better lord [Dionysos], and sits aloft behind her bridled tigers."
Ovid, Heroides 4. 57 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[Phaedra speaks :] Pasiphaë my mother, victim of the deluded bull . . . [Theseus] the faithless son of Aegeus followed the guiding thread, and escaped from the winding house through the aid my sister [Ariadne] gave. Behold, now I, lest I be thought too little a child of Minos’ line."
Ovid, Heroides 4. 113 ff :"[Phaedra complains :] My sister [Ariadne] he left at the mercy of wild beasts."
Ovid, Heroides 6. 114 ff :"[Hypsipyle, grand-daughter of Ariadne, speaks :] If noble blood and generous lineage move you--lo, I am known as daughter of Minoan Thoas! Bacchus was my grandsire; [Ariadne] the bride of Bacchus, with crown-encircled brow, outshines with her stars the lesser constellations."
Ovid, Heroides 15. 23 ff :"Let horns but spring on your head--you will be Bacchus! . . . Bacchus loved the Gnosian maid [Ariadne]."
Ovid, Heroides 16. 349 ff :"Theseus, too, he who stole you, stole Minos’ daughter; yet Minos called the Cretans ne’er to arms [to recover her]."
Seneca, Oedipus 487 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :"Naxos, girt by the Aegean sea, gave him [Dionysos] in marriage a deserted maiden [Ariadne], compensating her loss with a better husband. Out of the dry rock there gushed Nyctelian liquor [i.e. wine]; babbling rivulets divided the grassy meadows; deep the earth drank in the sweet juices, white fountains of snowy milk and Lesbian wine mingled with fragrant thyme. The new-made bride is led to the lofty heavens; Phoebus [Apollon] a stately anthem sings, with his locks flowing down his shoulders, and twin Cupides [Erotes] brandish their torches. Jupiter [Zeus] lays aside his fiery weapons and, when Bacchus comes, abhors his thunderbolt."
Seneca, Phaedra 759 ff : "Story has spread through every nation whom [Theseus] the sister of Phaedra [Ariadne] preferred to Bromius [Dionysos]."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 43. 420 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"[Dionysos was upset at having lost the contest for Beroe's hand in marriage to Poseidon :] His [Dionysos'] brother Eros came to console him [Dionysos] in his jealous mood : `I have kept a daintier one for your bridechamber, Ariadne, of the family of Minos and your kin.'"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47. 265 ff : "[Dionysos] went in dainty revel to the vineclad district of Naxos. About him bold Eros beat his wings, and Kythereia [Aphrodite] led, before the coming of Lyaios [Dionysos] the bridegroom. For Theseus had just sailed away, and left without pity the banished maiden asleep on the shore, scattering his promises to the winds. When Dionysos beheld deserted Ariadne sleeping, he mingled love with wonder, and spoke out his admiration cautiously to the danceweaving Bakkhantes : `[Dionysos compares the sleeping Ariadne to various goddesses.] . . .‘Hypnos (Sleep) flew away, the poor lovelorn girl scattered sleep, awoke and rose from the sand, and she saw no fleet, no husband [i.e. Theseus had abandoned her on the island]--the deceiver! But the Kydonian maiden lamented with the kingfishers, and paced the heavy murmuring shore which was all that the Erotes (Loves) had given her. She called on the young man’s name, madly she sought his vessel along the seaside, scolded the envious sleep, reproached even more the Paphian’s mother, the sea. She prayed to Boreas and adjured the wind, adjured Oreithyia to bring back the boy [Theseus] to the land of Naxos and to let her see that sweet ship again. She besought hardhearted Aiolos yet more; he heard her prayer and obeyed, sending a contrary wind to blow, but Boreas lovelorn himself cared nothing for the miad stricken with desire--yes, even the Aurai (Breezes) themselves must have had a spite against the maiden when they carried the ship to the Athenian land.Eros himself admired the maiden, and though he saw Aphrodite lamenting in Naxos where all is joy. She was even more resplendent in her grief, and pain was a grace to the sorrower . . . At last in her tears she found a voice to speak thus : `[Ariadne laments her fate] . . .‘Bakkhos was enraptured to hear this lament. He noticed Kekropia, and knew the name of Theseus and the deceitful voyage from Krete. Before the girl he appeared in his radiant godhead; Eros moved swiftly about, and with stinging cestus he whipt the maiden into a nobler love, that he might lead Minos’ daughter to join willingly with his brother Dionysos. Then Bakkhos comforted Ariadne, lovelorn and lamenting, with these words in his mindcharming voice : `Maiden, why do you sorrow for the deceitful man of Athens? Let pass the memory of Theseus; you have Dionysos for your lover, a husband incorruptible for the husband of a day! If you are pleased with the mortal body of a youthful yearsmate, Theseus can never challenge Dionysos in manhood or comeliness. But you will say [he slew the Minotaur] . . . Not for nothing did that fleet [of Theseus] sail from my Naxos, but Pothos (Sexual Longing) preserved you for a nobler bridal. Happy girl, that you leave the poor bed of Theseus to look on the couch of Dionysos the desirable! What could you pray for higher than that? You have both heaven for your home and Kronion for your godfather . . . for you I will make a starry crown [the constellation Corona], that you may be called the shining bedfellow of crownloving Dionysos.’So he comforted her; the girl throbbed with joy, and cast into the sea all her memories of Theseus when she received the promise of wedlock from her heavenly wooer. Then Eros decked out the bridal chamber for Bakkhos, the wedding dance resounded, about the bridal bed all flowers grew; the dancers of Orkhomenos [the Kharites or Graces] surrounded Naxos with foliage of spring, the Hamadryas sang of the wedding, the Naias Nymphe by the fountains unveiled unshod praised the union of Ariadne with the vine-god: Ortygia cried aloud in triumph, and chanting a bridal hymn for Lyaios the brother of Phoibos [Apollon] cityholder she skipt in the dance, that unshakeable rock. Fiery Eros made a round flowergarland with red roses and plaited a wreath coloured like the stars, as prophet and herald of the heavenly Crown; and round about the Naxian bride danced a swarm of the Erotes (Loves) which attend on marriage.The Golden Father [Dionysos] entering the chamber of wedded love sowed the seed of many children. Then rolling the long circle of hoary time, he remembered Rheia his prolific mother; and leaving faultless Naxos still full of Kharites he visited all the town of Hellas."
THE DEATH OF ARIADNE
The accounts of Ariadne's death conflict with the tale that Dionysos brought her to Olympos to be his immortal wife. Although, like his mother Semele, he may have recovered her from Hades.
Homer, Odyssey 11. 320 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :"[Odysseus in the Underworld :] I saw lovely Ariadne, that daughter of subtle Minos whom Theseus bore off from Krete towards the hill of sacred Athens; yet he had no joy of her, since, before that could be, she was slain by Artemis in the isle of Dia [Naxos] because of the witness of Dionysos."
Aratus, Phaenomena 72 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek astronomical poem C3rd B.C.) :"Here too that Crown [constellation Corona], which glorious Dionysos set to be memorial of the dead Ariadne."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 61. 5 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :"Dionysos . . . kept her [Ariadne] as his lawful wife, loving her exceedingly. Indeed, after her death he considered her worthy of immortal honours because of the affection he had for her, and placed among the stars of heaven the Crown of Ariadne."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 23. 7 - 8 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"They say that the god [Dionysos], having made war on Perseus, afterwards laid aside his enmity, and received great honors at the hands of the Argives, including this precinct set specially apart for himself. It was afterwards called the precinct of Kres (the Kretan), because, when Ariadne died, Dionysos buried her here. But Lykeas says that when the [new] temple [of Dionysos] was being rebuilt an earthenware coffin was found, and that it was Ariadne's. He also said that both he himself and other Argives had seen it."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 28. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"[In a painting of the Underworld by Polygnotos at Delphoi :] Ariadne, seated on a rock, is looking at her sister Phaidra."
Plutarch, Life of Theseus 20. 1 (trans. Perrin) (Greek historian C1st to C2nd A.D.) :"Paion the Amathusian says that Theseus, driven out of his course by a storm to Kypros, and having with him Ariadne, who was big with child and in sore sickness and distress from the tossing of the sea, set her on shore alone, but that he himself, while trying to succour the ship, was borne out to sea again. The women of the island, accordingly, took Ariadne into their care . . . and gave her burial when she died before her child was born . . . Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysos in Naxos and bore him Staphylos and his brother, and the other, of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Korkyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47. 665 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"He [Perseus in his battle with Dionysos] shook in his hand the deadly face of Medousa, and turned armed Ariadne into stone. Bakkhos was even more furious when he saw his bride all stone . . . [Hermes descends upon the battlefield and addresses Dionysos :] `She [Ariadne] has died in battle, a glorious fate, and you ought to think Ariadne happy in her death, because she found one so great [Perseus] to slay her, one sprung from heaven and of no mortal stock, one who killed the Keteos (Seamonster) and beheaded horsebreeding Medousa. The Moirai’s (Fates') threads obey not persuasion . . . And your bride even in death shall enter the starspangled sky, and she will be seen near Maia my mother among the seven travelling Pleiades. What could Ariadne wish more welcome than to live in the heavens and give light to the earth, after Krete? Come no, lay down your thyrsus, let the winds blow battle away, and fix the selfmade image of mortal Ariadne where the image of heavenly Hera stands.'"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 25. 104 ff : "[The River] Inakhos was witness to both [Perseus and Dionysos], when the heavy bronze pikes of Mykenai resisted the ivy and deadly fennel, when Perseus sickle in hand gave way to Bakkhos with his wand, and fled before the fury of Satyroi cyring Euoi; Perseus cast a raging spear, and hit frail Ariadne unarmed instead of Lyaios the warrior. I do not admire Perseus for killing one woman, in her bridal dress still breathing of love."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 449 ff : "Ariadne . . . was a stone in a foreign land like the statue of Akhaian Hera."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 530 ff : "The soul of dead Ariadne borne on the wind came, and beside Dionysos sleeping sound, stood jealous after death, and spoke in the words of a dream : `Dionysos, you have forgotten your former bride,: you long for Aura, and you care not for Ariadne. O my own Theseus, whom the bitter wind stole! O my own Theseus, whom Phaidra [Ariadne’s sister] got for husband! I suppose it was fated that a perjured husband must always run from me, if the sweet boy left me while I slept, and I was married instead to Lyaios, an inconstant lover and a deceiver. Alas, that I had not a mortal husband, one soon to die; then I might have armed myself against lovemad Dionysos and been one of the Lemnian women myself. But after Theseus, now I must call you too a perjured bridegroom, the invader of many marriage beds. If your bride asks you for a gift, take this distaff at my hands, a friendly gift of love, that you may give your mountaineering bride what your Minoian wife gave you; then people can say--`She gave the thread to Theseus, and the distaff to Dionysos. You are just like Kronion changing from bed to bed, and you have imitated the doings of your womanmad father, having a n insatiable passion for changing your loves. I know how you lately married your Sithonian wife Pallene, and your wedding with Althaia: I will say nothing of the love of Kronois, from whose bed were born the three Kharites ever inseparable. But O Mykenai, proclaim my fate and the savage glare of Medousa! Shores of Naxos cry aloud of Ariadne’s lot, constrained to a hateful love, and say, "O bridegroom Theseus, Minos’s daughter calls you in anger against Dionysos!’ But why do I think of Kekropia? To her of Paphos, I carry my plaint against them both, Theseus and Dionysos!"'She spoke, and her shade flew away like shadowy smoke. Bold Bakkhos awoke and shook off the wing of Hypnos (Sleep). He lamented the sorrow of Ariadne in his dream."
CROWN OF ARIADNE, THE CONSTELLATION CORONA
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 997 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :"Remember Ariadne, young Ariadne, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, who was a daughter of Helios . . . She was the darling of the gods and she has her emblem in the sky: all night a ring of stars called Ariadne’s Crown rolls on its way among the heavenly constellations."
Aratus, Phaenomena 72 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek astronomical poem C3rd B.C.) :"Here too that Crown [Constellation Corona], which glorious Dionysos set to be memorial of the dead Ariadne."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 61. 5 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :"Dionysos . . . kept her [Ariadne] as his lawful wife, loving her exceedingly. Indeed, after her death he considered her worthy of immortal honours because of the affection he had for her, and placed among the stars of heaven the ‘Crown of Ariadne."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 6 Fragment 4 (from Tertullian On the Crown 13. 4) : "The writer [Diodoros] gives . . . to Ariadna a wreath made of gold and precious stones from India, this wreath becoming also a distinction of Vulcanus [Hephaistos[, and then of Liber [Dionysos], and later a constellation."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 19. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :"[Amongst the scenes depicted on the chest of Kypselos dedicated at Olympia :] There is Theseus holding a lyre, and by his side is Ariadne gripping a crown."
Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 5 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190) (trans. Pearse) (Greek mythographer C1st to C2nd A.D.) :"Psalakantha was a Nymphe of the isle of Ikaros who, captured by Dionysos, helped him to obtain Ariane on the condition that he should also belong to her, and Dionysos refused; Psalakantha took herself to Ariane and the irritated god turned her into a plany; then, feeling remorse, he wanted to honour this plant by placing it in the crown of Ariane, who took her place among the celestial constellations."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 5 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"[Constellation Corona] Crown. This is thought to be Ariadne’s crown, placed by Father Liber [Dionysos] among the constellations. For they say that when Ariadne wed Liber [Dionysos] on the island of Dia [Naxos], and all the gods gave her wedding gifts, she first received this crown as a gift from Venus [Aphrodite] and the Horae. But, as the author of the Cretica says, at the time when Liber [Dionysos] came to Minos with the hope of lying with Ariadne, he gave her this crown as a present. Delighted with it, she did not refuse the terms. It is said, too, to have been made of gold and Indian gems, and by its aid Theseus is thought to have come from the gloom of the labyrinth to the day, for the gold and gems made a glow of light in the darkness."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 8. 175 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"She [Ariadne], abandoned [by Theseus], in her grief and anger found comfort in Bacchus’[Dionysos’] arms. He took her crown and set it in the heavens to win her there a star’s eternal glory; and the crown flew through the soft light air and, as it flew, its gems were turned to gleaming fires, and still shaped as a crown their place in heaven they take between the Kneeler and him who grasps the Snake."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 459 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[The constellation] Corona (the Crown) of Cnossos’ girl [Ariadne] . . . He [Dionysos-Liber] embraces her [Ariadne] and mops her tears with kisses, and says: ‘. . . I will create a monument of you and your crown, which Volcanus [Hephaistos] gave Venus [Aphrodite] and she gave you.’ He does what he said, and turns its nine gems to fires, and the golden crown glitters with nine stars [the Constellation Corona]."
Ovid, Fasti 5. 345 ff : "Bacchus loves flowers. Bacchus’ pleasure in the wreath can be known from Ariadne’s star."
Ovid, Heroides 6. 116 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[Ariadne] the bride of Bacchus, with crown-encircled brow, outshines with her stars the lesser constellations."
Ovid, Heroides 18. 151 ff :"Let another fix his eyes on Andromeda and the bright Crown [i.e. of Ariadne], and upon the Parrhasian Bear that gleams in the frozen pole; but for me, I care not for the loves of Perseus, and of Liber [Dionysos] and Jove [Zeus], to point me on my dubious way."
Propertius, Elegies 3. 17 ff (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st B.C.) :"For you [Dionysos] too are not without experience [in love] : to that, carried by your lynx-drawn chariot to heaven, Ariadne bears witness among the stars."
Seneca, Hercules Furens 16 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :"Not alone has Bacchus [Dionysos] himself or the [Semele] mother of Bacchus attained the skies . . . [but also] the heavens wear the crown of the Cretan maid [Ariadne]."
Seneca, Phaedra 663 ff : "[Phaedra prays :] `Thee, thee, O sister [Ariadne], wherever amidst the starry heavens thou shinest, I call to aid for a cause like to thine own [i.e. love for a prince of Athens].'"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47. 265 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"[Dionysos addresses Ariadne :] `For you I will make a starry crown [the constellation Corona], that you may be called the shining bedfellow of crownloving Dionysos.’ . . . [At their wedding] Fiery Eros made a round flowergarland with red roses and plaited a wreath coloured like the stars, as prophet and herald of the heavenly Crown."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 969 ff : "Bakkhos [Dionysos] had not forgotten his Kydonian darling [Ariadne], no, he remembered still the bride once his, then lost, and he placed in Olympos the rounded crown of Ariadne passed away, a witness of his love, an everlasting proclaimer of garlanded wedding."
THE APOTHEOSIS OF ARIADNE
Hesiod, Theogony 947 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :"And golden-haired Dionysos made brown-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife : and [Zeus] the son of Kronos made her deathless and unageing for him."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 51. 4 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :"Dionysos led Ariadne away by night to the mountain which is know as Drios; and first of all the god disappeared, and later Ariadne also was never seen again."
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 4. 385 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :"Two great silver bowls . . . these had Hephaistos fashioned for his gift to glorious Dionysos when he brought his bride [Ariadne] divine to Olympos, Minos' child far-famous, whom in sea-washed Dia's isle [Naxos] Theseus unwitting left."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 224 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :"Mortals who were made immortal . . . Ariadne, whom Father Liver called Libera, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 459 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :"[The constellation] Corona (the Crown) of Cnossos’ girl [Ariadne]: Theseus’ crime deified her. She gave that ingrate the winding thread [of the labyrinth] and gladly swapped her perjured husband for Bacchus [Dionysos] . . . He [Dionysos-Liber] embraces her [Ariadne] and mops her tears with kisses, and says : `Let us seek heaven’s heights together. You have shared my bed and you will share my name. You will be named Libera, when transformed. I will create a monument of you and your crown, which Volcanus [Hephaistos] gave Venus [Aphrodite] and she gave you.’ He does what he said, and turns its nine gems to fires, and the golden crown glitters with nine stars [the constellation Corona]."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47. 265 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :"[Dionysos addresses Ariadne :] `You have both heaven for your home and Kronion [Zeus] for your godfather.'"
CULT OF ARIADNE
Homerica, Of the Origin of Homer and Hesiod and of their Contest Fragment 1 (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic B.C.) : "The local feast of Ariadne was being held."
Plutarch, Life of Theseus 20. 1 (trans. Perrin) (Greek historian C1st to C2nd A.D.) :"A very peculiar account of these matters [the story of Ariadne] is published by Paion the Amathusian. He says that Theseus, driven out of his course by a storm to Kypros, and having with him Ariadne, who was big with child and in sore sickness and distress from the tossing of the sea, set her on shore alone, but that he himself, while trying to succour the ship, was borne out to sea again. The women of the island, accordingly, took Ariadne into their care, and tried to comfort her in the discouragement caused by her loneliness, brought her forged letters purporting to have been written to her by Theseus, ministered to her aid during the pangs of travail, and gave her burial when she died before her child was born. Paion says further that Theseus came back, and was greatly afflicted, and left a sum of money with the people of the island, enjoining them to sacrifice to Ariadne, and caused two little statuettes to be set up in her honor, one of silver, and one of bronze. He says also that at the sacrifice in her honor on the second day of the month Gorpiaeus, one of their young men lies down and imitates the cries and gestures of women in travail; and that they call the grove in which they show her tomb, the grove of Ariadne Aphrodite.Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysos in Naxos and bore him Staphylos and his brother, and the other, of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Korkyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there, and has honors paid her unlike those of the former, for the festival of the first Ariadne is celebrated with mirth and revels, but the sacrifices performed in honor of the second are attended with sorrow and mourning."
Plutarch, Theseus 23. 2 : "It was Theseus who instituted also the Athenian festival of the Oskhophoria. For it is said that he did not take away with him all the maidens on whom the lot fell at that time, but picked out two young men of his acquaintance who had fresh and girlish faces, but eager and manly spirits, and changed their outward appearance almost entirely by giving them warn baths and keeping them out of the sun, by arranging their hair, and by smoothing their skin and beautifying their complexions with unguents; he also taught them to imitate maidens as closely as possible in their speech, their dress, and their gait, and to leave no difference that could be observed, and then enrolled them among the maidens who were going to Krete, and was undiscovered by any. And when he was come back, he himself and these two young men headed a procession, arrayed as those are now arrayed who carry the vine-branches. They carry these in honor of Dionysos and Ariadne, and because of their part in the story; or rather, because they came back home at the time of the vintage. And the women called Deipnophoroi, or supper-carriers, take part in the procession and share in the sacrifice, in imitation of the mothers of the young men and maidens on whom the lot fell, for these kept coming with bread and meat for their children. And tales are told at this festival, because these mothers, for the sake of comforting and encouraging their children, spun out tales for them. At any rate, these details are to be found in the history of Damon."
Sources:
Homer, The Odyssey - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th-7th B.C.
Greek Lyric II Anacreon, Fragments - Greek Lyric C6th B.C.
Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd B.C.
Aratus, Phaenomena - Greek Astronomy C3rd B.C.
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History - Greek History C1st B.C.
Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.
Plutarch, Lives - Greek Historian C1st-2nd A.D.
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy - Greek Epic C4th A.D.
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines - Greek Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History - Greek Mythography C1st-2nd A.D.
Theophilus, To Autolycus - Greek Chrisitan Rhetoric C2nd A.D.
Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
Hyginus, Astronomica - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
Ovid, Fasti - Latin Poetry C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
Ovid, Heroides - Latin Poetry C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
Propertius, Elegies - Latin Elegy C1st B.C.
Seneca, Hercules Furens - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
Seneca, Oedipus - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
Seneca, Phaedra - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.
Photius, Myriobiblon - Byzantine Greek Scholar C9th A.D.
Other references not currently quoted here: (mostly references to the story of Ariadne, Theseus & the Minotauros): Odyssey 11.322; Apollodorus 1.9.16 & 3.1.2 & E1.8; Diodorus Siculus 4.60.4; Antoninus Liberalis 27; Parthenius 1.3; Pausanias 1.3.1; Statius Thebaid 5.226
Theoi Project Copyright © 2000 - 2008, Aaron J. Atsma, New Zealand
http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Ariadne.html
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Anti-Anxiety Spell - Marigold
Anti-Anxiety Spell - Marigold
Use a marigold flower.
Marigolds are the flower of the sun, so it's most potent when picked at high noon.
Take your noonday blossom in hand and say,
The light of the sun shines on my heart.
Chase the shadows, all sadness depart!
Tear up the flower and release it to the Earth to release your anxiety.
From A Floral Grimoire by Patricia Telesco
Use a marigold flower.
Marigolds are the flower of the sun, so it's most potent when picked at high noon.
Take your noonday blossom in hand and say,
The light of the sun shines on my heart.
Chase the shadows, all sadness depart!
Tear up the flower and release it to the Earth to release your anxiety.
From A Floral Grimoire by Patricia Telesco
Friday, June 27, 2008
The Charge of the Goddess
The Charge of the Goddess
Posted by: "Katy_Ravensong"
yahoo group greenwitchgarden
Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:06 pm (PDT)
another goodie from our files (from my favorite author)
The Charge of the Goddess
by Maggie Shayne
I am darkness as well as light,
Mistress of Death but also of life,
Bow before me on this night
and worship both my black and bright!
By myriad names have I been known
I rule both Hel* and heaven's throne
I rain my love upon my own
be they en masse or one alone!
If a gift you would receive
Come to be by darksome eve,
In forest glens my altars dwell
So dance, rejoice and cast the spell!
All the secrets shall be known
The chains that held you now disown
I crush them with the force of love
For as below, so is above!
I'll teach you all the mysteries,
The circle of life and rebirth, is me!
And the only sacrifice I ask
Is that you love, that is is your task,
Love me, that you surely do,
But love your fellow humans too,
For surely as I live in thee,
I live in each of them, you see.
For every breath and every stone
and every being is mine to own
From me they come, to me they go
We all are one, As above, so below!
______________
Posted by: "Katy_Ravensong"
yahoo group greenwitchgarden
Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:06 pm (PDT)
another goodie from our files (from my favorite author)
The Charge of the Goddess
by Maggie Shayne
I am darkness as well as light,
Mistress of Death but also of life,
Bow before me on this night
and worship both my black and bright!
By myriad names have I been known
I rule both Hel* and heaven's throne
I rain my love upon my own
be they en masse or one alone!
If a gift you would receive
Come to be by darksome eve,
In forest glens my altars dwell
So dance, rejoice and cast the spell!
All the secrets shall be known
The chains that held you now disown
I crush them with the force of love
For as below, so is above!
I'll teach you all the mysteries,
The circle of life and rebirth, is me!
And the only sacrifice I ask
Is that you love, that is is your task,
Love me, that you surely do,
But love your fellow humans too,
For surely as I live in thee,
I live in each of them, you see.
For every breath and every stone
and every being is mine to own
From me they come, to me they go
We all are one, As above, so below!
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