Minotaur Three

# Minotaur #Theseus

I do wonder if the woman on the left is a goddess as she has a white face whereas everyone else is depicted using black slip 

 check out my two prior posts for examples of Theseus and the Minotaur 

Minotaur Archaic Greek Style

 #minotaur #theseus #archaicgreekart 

Again Theseus and the Mintoaur in a slighter older style than that of the prior post 

I like the minor detail of the helmet sitting on the ground and the ?lower ranking? attendants being naked and shoeless whereas Theseus wears a tunic and boots and the two women embroidered robes unless perhaps thats a woven pattern? .

Minotaur by the Edinburgh painter

 #minotaur 

This artist is known as the Edinburgh painter 

The subject is #Theseus slaying the #Minotaur the woman watching is probably #Ariadne ?

Theseus and the Bull

 Theseus and the Bull

#theseus #bull #Classicalgreekart #greekceramics

A simple elegant vessel but I do feel sorry for the bull who doesnt seem to know what comes next ... I also note the woman pictured is certainly not wearing a veil or a cape. She may possibly be Medea and the old man Theseus' father? 

The Story of Theseus and the Bull is that Theseus was sent to marathon to slay a Bull which he lead back to Athens to be sacrificed.

The story claims the Bull was the white one the father of the Minotaur which Heracles had captured and sent to Tiryns but it broke loose and somehow ended up at Marathon.

If there is any history behind this I suspect the bull was meant to be sent as a tribute to Crete and it was killed as an act of defiance of Minoan power.

Amphitrite in Art Two

Amphitrite in Art Two .
Here's two more vase paintings.
The first one features Theseus Athena and Amphitrite.

There is a story that Minos tested Theseus' claim to be a son of Poseidon by throwing a ring into the sea. Theseus dived in after it. Aided by dolphins he swam down to Amphitrite's underseas palace and retrieved not only the ring but also a golden crown.

Given the presence of dolphins and Triton supporting Theseus plus Athena appearing this suggests to me that there may have been another lost version of this story in which Athena sponsors and protects Theseus as he encounters his father's wife and given how mnay dramas did NOT survive even perhaps a play in which Athena argues for the need for wives to be kind to sons their husbands had by other women?

The other story we have about Poseidon and Amphitrite is that she was reluctant to marry him and this image seems to show Iris messenger of the gods acting as a matchmaker between the two gods?

Sometimes when written versions don't surivive as more than summaries in the mythographers vase paintings and other art give us more of the story.

But don't forget the ancients may have perceived these images differently!