Great Women of Greek Mythology: Ariadne of Naxos by Brainfood

GREAT WOMEN OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY

A woman’s weak and timid in most matters. The noise of war, the look of steel, makes her a coward. But touch her right in marriage, And there’s no bloodier spirit.

Medea, Euripides, 265. Translated by Philip Vellacott

Where tenderness meets rage and sweet peace meets hideous war: this is where the women of Greek mythology find themselves, some proud, others deeply wounded.

The ancient Greek woman is mother, daughter and sister. She is loving and monstrous, reckless and ingenious; she lurks in the shadows of night and shines with the bright joy of the Sun. She stands at the side of the warrior men, but is also trailblazing and – when necessary –leads from behind. Along with the spirit of matriarchy of the Aegean, she gave birth to amazing characters that stand tall to this day in Greek literature and theatre, and feels more relevant now than ever.

Made by soil and sea, the mythological women of Greece are Earth itself.

Through Great Women of Greek Mythology , we present the most iconic women of our ancient history: Medea, Electra, Circe, Antigone, Helen, Ariadne and Medusa. And there’s more to come! With simple, comprehensible texts compiled and edited by a great team of writers, editors and scientists, we invite you to meet the famous daughters of mythology and their universe.

Elena Spandoni

Brainfood Digital Media and Publishing M.E.P.E

GREAT WOMEN OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY Ariadne of Naxos

WRITTEN AND EDITED BY Mike French and Vittorio Mattioli, Read Panda Editing OÜ

COVER DESIGN

Little Miss Grumpy

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

Nikos Chatzopoulos

SERIES EDITOR Elena Spandoni

Brainfood Digital Media and Publishing M.E.P.E. 28 Empedokleous Str., 12131 Peristeri, Athens, GREECE Tel.: +30 210 2514123, Email: contact@brainfood.gr www.brainfood.gr

May 2024

ISBN: 978-618-5427-88-7

All rights reserved. No portion of the book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Ariadne of Naxos

INTRODUCTION

GREAT WOMEN OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY

is a series of short books for young and old introducing readers to the ancient world through its heroines. Whether simplified adaptations of classic tragedies by Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles or original works based on the surviving sources, these books aim to bring readers on a journey filled with excitement, drama, death and love, all while focussing on the women that have played such an important role in our history yet are still remembered as mere bystanders.

The series starts with six books: the tales of Helen, Electra, Ariadne, Antigone, Medea and Circe. While each book can be read separately, and in any order, there is an underlying thread that ultimately connects all these characters and provides a wider view of what it was to be a woman in the ancient Greek world.

The story of Helen begins with her birth from a swan’s egg, the result of Zeus’ liaison with her mother, Leda. Helen’s supernatural beauty is immediately obvious and affects her childhood in the palace of Sparta. The book then focusses on how men, such as Theseus and Paris, steal her away for her beauty and on seeing how much can be put down to her own choices.

In Mycenae, Helen’s niece, Electra, is married to a destitute farmer and lives a life of misery. While her husband is honourable, she has only one pair of clothes, and she still cuts her hair short in a sign of mourning for the killing of her father, Agamemnon, after his triumphant return from Troy. The only reason Electra has not killed herself is because she is waiting for her brother Orestes to come and help her take revenge against Aegisthus, the usurper, and Clytemnestra, his lover and their mother, who betrayed Agamemnon and killed him.

In her book, it is Ariadne herself who shares her memories from childhood and into adulthood. Helen’s abductor, Theseus, appears here too, and we are taken from Minoan palaces on

Crete, with the great labyrinth built by Daedalus for Ariadne’s brother, the monstrous Minotaur, to the deserted island of Naxos, where Ariadne is abandoned by the traitorous Theseus on his way back to Athens. We see how on the brink of death, she is saved by the god Dionysus, who takes a keen interest in her, and how they end up as a couple. We are told of her sister Phaedra and her fate at the court of Athens.

We move on to a relation of Dionysus, Antigone, the daughter and granddaughter of Oedipus. After the discovery of Oedipus’ crimes, her family falls apart. With both her parents dead, her two brothers fight for rule of the Greek city of Thebes. The story takes place in the aftermath of that civil war. Antigone’s brother Polynices has been killed outside the walls of Thebes. When she shows his body the proper rites, thus defying a decree issued by the city’s ruler, Creon, she is arrested and condemned to death. The central tension of the book lies between her respect for the unwritten laws of the gods and Creon’s for those of the city.

Medea is a princess in faraway Colchis. She is married to Jason of the Argonauts, but now

that he has no more need for her, Jason wishes to be rid of her in favour of a wife from a more civilised land. Most of Medea’s story takes place in a single day in the palace at Corinth where she, Jason and their children are staying. This is the 24 hours during which Jason is meant to marry the Corinthian princess Glauce. Despite all the help Medea has provided Jason, he has decided to discard her, something Medea will not take lying down.

Medea and Ariadne’s aunt, Circe, is the daughter of the Sun god, Helios. She lives alone on the island of Aeaea. Odysseus’ ship lands there on his journey home. When 23 of his men seek her out, she promptly turns them into pigs and locks them up in a sty. An immortal goddess herself, Circe is not to be trifled with: her concoctions and witchcraft are second to none. Made famous by her appearance in the Odyssey, Circe’s story looks at the time spent by Odysseus and his men on Aeaea but from her own perspective.

The main part of each book is the novel itself. In writing these books, we researched the surviving ancient sources. Where a full-length play

by one of the ancient Greek masters – such as Aeschylus, Sophocles or Euripides – survived, we have adapted that into a more modern novel, following its plot. This is the case with Electra, Medea and Antigone. Circe, Ariadne and Helen, on the other hand, are more original pieces in which we used information gained from surviving sources to create an engaging narrative and coherent whole. At the end of each book there is a small, more academic – but simply written – section that analyses the characters, the sources and the historical background.

Vittorio

Mattioli, Mike French

Chapter I

You say you wish to find out more about me, learn my history and my life directly from me. You do know, I hope, that such a telling will be anything but objective. I am going to be very selective in what anecdotes I choose to share, and how I tell them.

But this subjectiveness is not coming out of some attempt to hide the truth; it is merely how humans work, and I too was human once. No, what you will hear is the truth; just be aware that some others may choose to tell it differently. Well, the joke’s on them, as they’re all long gone, dead to the world, while I’m still here.

Where should I start?

I guess the best place would be the end. Yes, let us begin with the day I died, the moment I realised I was dead. You cannot imagine what hunger does to you, and I hope you never will. But more than