Classical Mythology, 7th Edition - obinfonet: dia logou

560 THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
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Death of a Monster, by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Pencil on paper, 1937; 15 X 22V4 in. The
contorted and dying Minotaur sees himself in a mirror held up by a sea-goddess, perhaps
Amphitrite herself. Picasso used the violence and horror of the Minotaur to express
his anger at the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War; this drawing is dated December 6,
1937, eight months after the bombing of Guernica. (Lee Miller Archives, Chiddingly, England,
© 1998 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SPADEM, Paris.)
from her brow and placed it in the heavens so that Ariadne might be made famous
by a constellation. The wreath flies through the thin air, and as it flies its
jewels are turned into fires and become fixed in their place, still with the appearance
of a wreath (corona).
Ariadne is originally a divine person, perhaps another form of Aphrodite.
Hesiod (Theogony 947-949) describes her as the "wife of Dionysus, whom Zeus
made immortal." Later versions of the Theseus legend make her a forlorn heroine,
deserted by her lover Theseus upon the island of Dia (the early name for
Naxos) during the voyage back to Athens (see Color Plate 16). Here is the narrative
of Catullus (64. 52-59):
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Ariadne, with uncontrolled passion in her heart, looking out from the shore of
Dia with its sounding waves, saw Theseus receding into the distance with his
fleet at full speed. Not yet could she believe her eyes, for she had only just been
wakened from deceitful sleep and saw that she was alone, unhappy, upon the