emilyroberson

[emilyroberson]

Oh, this one. I love how she's kind of playing keep away with the thread. Look at Theseus, he's like, "hey, can I have that?" Also, cherubim.

[emilyroberson]

What if it were all true?

When I started Lifestyles of Gods and Monsters, it was with two questions - why these stories still call out to us and What if they were true? 

If they were true, what would it be like to fight the Minotaur? or to have him be your brother?

I went to Greece when I was 18, and I remember looking at the statues and thinking - those people were people, just like us, we just haven't changed that much. So what happens when you treat these stories like they were real?

[emilyroberson]

This ancient roman one falls in the uncanny valley of beautiful/creepy for me. Those empty eyes, staring back at us over millennia. On the other hand, she does have an Adele-style cleft chin, which I fully support. And fruit in her hair. But those eyes. What has she seen?

[emilyroberson]

Here’s one of Ariadne by Asher Brown Durand from 1834, and if you look very carefully, you can see Theseus and his guys loading the boats and leaving her. Jerks.

[emilyroberson]

The first one is "Theseus and Ariadne, from 'Game of Mythology' (Jeu de la Mythologie)" by Stefano della Bella from 1644 and the second is "Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus" by Thomas Rowlandson from around 1790.

They are both of Ariadne being abandoned by Theseus, and the good thing about them (I guess) is that she isn’t just laying there moaning like she is in many of the pictures of her at this point in her story.

[emilyroberson]

Theseus & Ariadne by Crispijn van de Passe

I kind of love this one. Theseus looks like a salesman, making his case. While Ariadne seems blissfully oblivious to the fact that her shirt is missing some really important elements - like a front. Meanwhile, the maze is just sitting out in the middle of a field somewhere, while people point at it. Is that the Minotaur down there, in the center?

What are they saying, I wonder?

[emilyroberson]

One of the most fun things about retelling an old story is engaging with all the other versions of the story that are out there in the world. 

My Ariadne lives very comfortably in my head and imagination (and before long, she'll be in your heads and imaginations), but I love seeing all the other ways that people have represented her over the centuries (millennia, actually).

A lot of times they just make me mad - especially all the pictures of her at Naxos, so sad and naked (I’m not sure why she’s always naked). But I loved the chance to mess around in a playground where so many people have been before me.