DRAMA
HISTORIC / EROTIC
Our Lady
of the
Horn
A Play in Two Acts
John E. Darling
Based on the history and myth of
Ariadne and her lover, the Minos-Bull in Bronze Age Crete,
a root myth of Western Culture
representing our shift from Earth-centered matriarchy
to the skygod, warrior societies.
Copyright 1995
Oregon Darlings Press
Ashland
Jdarling@jeffnet.org
Author’s Note
All persons and places here are found in the mythical and arachaeological record. Many of the events are actual, but I have been careful that no events would be contradicted by the archaeological record. There was only the scantiest writing or historical record of Minoan Crete, so any attempt to reconstruct their life will include much subjectivity.
This play was written for an evening of short, erotic plays in Seattle but not performed. It was read twice among a group of friends in Ashland, Oregon in 1997, with Alyson Grant producing. The erotic segments can be brief and tasteful or they can be produced more explicitly and at greater length, as desired.
A good part of the play is sacred ritual and the whole thing can be done as a bardic, ritualistic drama, in which I’ve attempted to pesent a possible creation story for Western civilizaiton.
John Darling
Ashland, Oregon
Feb. 1995
Author’s Note, 2011
How terse the above note, how reserved, showing nothing of the author’s passions. Now, almost two decades later, things are a little different.
I had the fascinating experience that, to save it in modern Word on Mac, I had to retype this dear little play from archaic MS-DOS on 5-inch floppy, as printed via dot-matrix on paper and, page-by-page I had no idea where the play was going, how it would turn out and what surprises were in store for me. I’d forgotten the whole thing!
So, it was a dizzying treat to read it, very slowly, typing, line-by-line, learning the minds and goals of these characters, with great respect for the vision and integrity of its author, me, who clearly, at that time, was possessed, taken, infused or, literally, en-thused, which means filled with the gods. He was guided by them. I was shocked by this playwright, just back from a trip to Knossos (a real one, on a plane and ferry) and his daring as he voyaged alone (no friends or colleagues anywhere close) on this sea of deities and humans, with the boundaries constantly blurred between them. What a kick it was! It was like finding a previous version of myself buried in an archaeological dig, but not dead, just in suspension - and I could breathe life back into him and come to love him. What a great man he is! A Theseus or Minos himself, wading into the labyrinth of 3,500 year old myth and spirituality to fetch out an understanding of love, war, violence, longing and, at the core of this myth, the immense human sexuality, this madness we have to know and be touched by...each other!
I laud me, don’t I? Yes, deliciously. Am I him anymore? Yes, I am, but it was hard to know this material and be a man in America in the 20th century. I felt weird and alone. My kids were small then and I was married to their mother and much life lay ahead. That wife is long gone, the kids out out of college or nearly -- and my pagan world? I think it retreated in me and lives secretly, like the gods themselves in our strange post-pagan world, waiting for the right terms and season to emerge. Maybe this play will do it! I write this note half-way through the retyping of it. I haven’t dared read ahead! I wonder how it will turn out!!
John Darling
Ashland, Oregon
July 2011
Cultural Background
The palace civilizations on the island of Crete in this age are the first cities of Europe, while at the same time being the last matriarchal culture of the Western world. The Cretan palace-cities had no defensive walls and practiced no warfare that we know of.
Cretan culture was rich in sensuality and sexuality, as well as passion and danger, as seen in acrobatics with raging bulls. Women wore flounced, floor-length skirts and bolero jackets, baring their breasts. Men wore brief, shorts-length garments with phallic sheaths. They are known to have practiced mass sacred orgies to welcome the return of life in spring. The chief priestess was a queen, though she was not a ruler in the sense of Queen Elizabeth I. She is more queen in the sense of her devotion to the sacred and the cycles of life and season. It is this role which entitles her to residence in the palace. Their ritual life featured the Great Goddess embodied in the queen, mating with the bull, who embodied the annual god fertilizing the Goddess, then being sacrificed (dying with the vegetation at year’s end).
Cretans were not Greek. The Greeks (called Achaeans at this time) are a newly settled, fiercely patriarchal, Zeus-worshipping warrior clan from the steppes of Asia, who learned the arts of civilization from Crete, so they could trade and coexist among the more advancd cultures of the area: Crete, Egypt, Lydia, Palestine, the Cyclades, Babylon and Assyria. Crete taught them art, seal-engraving, ceramics, frescoe-painting, architecture, iconography and whatever they possess of Goddess lore and the feminine sacred principle. These humanistic gifts they ultimately passed onto Roman and thence to Western Civilization.
~
Characters
ARIADNE -- (Ahr-ee-AHD-nee) Queen and High Priestess of Knossos. Archetype of the fertile, life-producing, sexually active, young, woman/mother. Early 20s. She represents the primordial woman immersed in divine nature, who feels the call of individual love but is tied to the old ways.
PHAEDRA -- (FAY-druh) Younger sister to Ariadne, about 16, youngest member of the chorus, archetype of the maiden/virgin. She represents the modern woman, preciptated out of nature, who heeds the call of individual love, recognizes it as the shape of the world to come and abandons her tribal-like Minoan paradise.
PASIPHAE -- (Pahs-uh-FAY-uh) Archetype of the Crone or Great Mother in her wise old age. Ritual mother of Ariadne and Phaedra. Wise, older fomer queen and advisor to Ariadne; mother of the line of lover-husbands who mate with the Queen-Priestess at sacred orgy every spring. In her 30s. Leader of the Chorus, she often speaks solo lines, which are answered by the Chorus.
MINOS -- (MEE-nohs) Consort to Ariadne, age 18-23. A noble, fine and humble being of great energy. Archetype of the Bull, the phallos, the male fertilizing principle, the god-who-dies but yet cannot die, the son-brother-mate who adores and seeds his mother-sister-wife as archetypal Great Goddess. The love and passion he shares with Ariadne is the archetype of male nature for feminine nature, thus it is immortal. He unfailingly regards Ariadne with reverence and awe. He can’t take his eyes off her, for all her beauty and majesty.
THESEUS -- (THEE-see-us) Prince of Athens, a small city on mainland Hellas. Hale, hearty, strong, erect. Archetype of the conquering hero-warrior of patriarchal culture and master of his wife. Mid-20s. He is legendary, with many heroic deeds. The love he shares with Ariadne, then with Phaedra, represents something new on the earth: the archetype of two individual mortals who can fall in love, even while they know this love must die.
CHORUS -- Five Minoan Priestesses, advisors and ladies-in-waiting to Ariadne, plus its leader, the queen-mother. When not assigned elsewhere, the chorus speaks downstage or from the orchestra, a space in front of and lower than the stage. They speak clearly, sometimes in unison, sometimes with each taking a line. They have masks mounted on sticks which they hold and put on from time to time. They can use various masks as appropriate to mood. The mask covers only their upper faces. The chorus must be thought of as sorceresses who create magic, sacred senual space and bring up the energy of the setting and the queen. It will be uncharacteristic of them to stand there mouthing their lines like the male chorus of Greek tragedy; they are in motion, alive with information, inhabited by goddesses and also by their own individual personalities.
GODDESS -- The great mother, embodies nature, sexuality, life, reproduction, food supply, vegetation, abundance. Encompasses early Hera, Athena and others. Earthly form is bare-breasted, snake-brandishing, fertile, fierce-visaged being. Paired breasts represent power of birth and life; paired snakes represent power of death-regeneration. The presence of this deity is always felt and sometimes embodied in the priestesses.
DIONYSOS -- God of ecstasy and wine, whose pre-classic roots are as the consort-lover of the Goddess or queen. In patriarchal times, he is lover of Ariadne, in her role as the Great Goddess. The myth says he married Ariadne after she was “rejected” by Theseus. This signifies that the Goddess, during patriarchal times goes into a cthonic, hidden, regenerative and transformative phase with her devoted lover and mate, who, himself, is finally twisted into the cloven-hooved “devil” by Christianity.
DAEDALUS -- Aide, companion, advisor to Minos. Architect of the Palace of Knossos, which is called “the Labyrinth.”
Pronunciations:
Aegeus -- ee-GEE-us (hard g)
Knossos -- k’no-SOHSS, with long O.
Synopsis
It is a spring evening in Knossos on the island of Crete, 1400 BCE, time of the first return of the crescent moos closest to equinox. In her chamber, Queen Ariadne prepares for her ritual coupling, as Great Goddess, with her consort Minos II, as the Bull, which will take place the following day, at dusk. These rites welcome the annual return of life and bless the fertility of the new season.
Ariadne’s chorus of priestesses assist her, as they sing the benefits of this mating rite: fertility, the peace and safety of island Crete, understanding the divine design and, of course, a personal, transcendent, ecstatic union with the Goddess for all people of Knossos - the annual sacred orgy.
Ariadne and the women of the Chorus gather for a pre-ritual oracle with Goddess. The older, wise seer Pasiphae, leader of the Chorus, becomes deeply anguished when her vision is one of the Minos-Bull’s blood flowing upon the mating bed of the Queen of Knossos. The sacrifice of the Bull is customarily at year’s end, not at it’s start or in the mating bed.
Minos, returning from a sea voyage to Athens, enters with presents for Ariadne. Their love and reverence for each other are obvious. They are old friends but they have never mated. The coming festival will be the first time. They kiss madly, but she holds him off. Goddess comes tomorrow night. We must wait.
Minos and the women banter raucously about the coming mating rites and the powers of the Bull to please women. They also banter about the inept lovemaking skills of the Greeks and express hope that Greek warriors will absorb the fineries of life from Crete. The women are disturbed by two reports from Minos: that the Athenians graced him with flowers, which the women say reminds them of a sacraficial rite. And that the Greeks have worked Crete into their mythology now, making Zeus born in a cave here and mated with Europa, ancestor of the royal women present.
Minos has undertaken the trip to bring Athenian Prince Theseus and his entourage of 13 Athenians for their education in the fineries of art, writing, goddess-worship and civilization in general. The Cretans each year take on seven men and seven women, who then return to educate the mainland Greeks.
The Queen bids Theseus into her chamber. His aide accompanies him. Ariadne and Theseus recognize each other: during a voyage Ariadne took to the mainland at about age 12, she and Theseus were each other’s first lover, but they have never met again. Theseus drops to one knee and whispers his knowledge of her. The others are surprised. No queen of Knossos may have left the holy soil of Crete, so how can this have happened? Ariadne tries to take control of the situation and orders the others out.
Ariadne and Theseus are alone. He says he has never been able to get her out of his mind, that their lovemaking as adolescents has been something precious he has never found since. She discourages him. She indicates she knows why he has come: to fetch the queen for his bride, so that his empire as king may incorporate Crete.
Ariadne asks if he loves her. Theseus says he does. She questions: but what is love? He says anyone knows that. But she replies that it means a very different thing in Crete, where people are not bound in pairs for life, but are free to love as they will it. He scoffs. She invites him, if he wants to learn what love is, to come enter many years of training to be the Minos-Bull and learn lovemaking from the priestesses here. Theseus scoffs at the bull who is sacrificed, but Ariadne informs him that Minos plays a big role in the thriving of the life of Crete. Theseus adds he doesn’t want lessons from young girls; he wants the queen for his bride, in Greece. The earth rumbles at his arrogance and Theseus becomes afraid. Ariadne soothes him, telling him he will lie with the queen tonight. She sends him off to clean up.
Ariadne tells Phaedra the Prince will be instructed by and embraced by the Goddess tonight. Phaedra greets the news cheerily but then is informed it is she, Phaedra, who will be the queen-goddess, lying with Theseus. Ariadne says, he will call you by my name.
The Chorus does ritual, preparing Phaedra for lovemaking with Theseus, including an ancient Homeric Hymn to the Mother of Us All. Theseus enters, is annointed with oils and escorted to the Queen-Goddess, who is undraped for him in the dim chamber. It is Phaedra, but he thinks it to be Ariadne.
Music indicates passage of a day. It is dusk on the eve of the mating rites. Music and celebration heat up in the city. Chorus gathers in ritual communion with Goddess as Pasiphae seeks clarification of last eve’s disturbing vision. The oracle now tells them the goddesses -- and the glories of Knossos -- wil be going underground to gestate and go through profound changes, so as to emerge in completely different form in a distant age. It is Goddesses’s will and we must trust it. We must do this last rite tonight.
The Chorus prepares Ariadne on her couch. She is adorned with the horns of the cow. Minos is seen by the Chorus in his procession up the Sacred Way to Ariadne’s chamber. He is wearing a leather cape and the head of a bull, so that he appears as the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull, but with human face visible in the lower part of the bull’s head. He is honored and garlanded by Knossians.
Minos enters the chamber with much sensual ritual. They begin to mate, as four-footed beasts mate. The window of Ariadne’s chamber opens to the great palace garden, where the citizenry of Knossos are able to view the subtly-lit event, lustily cheering on the return of life and replicating the event themselves.
Theseus bursts in the chamber, his aide guarding the door. All are aghast. The citizenry are thrown into an uproar. It is the worst imaginable omen and offense, to interrupt the most sacred moment of the ritual year. Theseus draws his sword. Pasiphae and Ariadne throw their bodies over the Bull’s, trying to protect him. Aides of Theseus pull them off and, in a ritualistic, sacrificial, slow-motion stroke, Theseus draws his sword across the throat of the Minos-Bull, slaying him.
Minos-Bull falls to the floor and a grief-striken, wailing Pasiphae cradles the dying bull-god, who is her son.
Theseus blurts out his past love of Ariadne in Greece, revealing that Ariadne has been off the island of Crete. Pasiphae pronounces that Ariadne is therefore unable to be a Queen. She takes the wreath off Ariadne’s head and places it on the head of the next-in-line Phaedra. If it is a Queen you seek, then you must woo Phaedra, she says.
Theseus is dumbfounded and insists he must have Ariadne, as their lovemaking was so wonderful last night. The women reveal it was Phaedra who was his lover. Theseus in enraged, feels he’s being made a fool of, says he can tell the woman he made love with. Phaedra reveals she scratched a sign in his shoulder, a snake, which is now shown. Phaedra confesses her love for Theseus and, realizing their bond, he begins to fall in love with her.
A Palace Lady bursts in, saying the populace has seen the killing of Minos and is very upset. What is going to happen? The women insist Theseus must take the place of Minos and complete the rite, if he ever wants a Cretan Queen for a wife. He agrees and is crowned with the Bull’s head from the dead Minos. Phaedra pulls him to the couch, but he refuses to do it bull-style, insisting he must love her vis-a-vis, as lovers do. Such is the rite presented to the populace.
Downstage, Pasiphae goes trancing again and finds she can still contact those sacred old depths, but in a different way, with her still as herself, yet with Goddess seeming close at hand. And what does she see? A new kind of man coming upon the world. No, it is a god, actually. Slowly, the apparition of Dionysos materializes. He whispers her name louder and louder. Ariadne sees him and approaches him. Pasiphae, prophesying, says Ariadne will find her mate in this new god-man, who is the next step beyond the Minos-Bull, but more sweet, more canny, more human. And he will never leave her. As she prophesies this, Ariadne and Dionysos come together in a kiss. Pasiphae, still not seeing the new god present, pronounces a benediction on his coming.
-- end --
Act I
Chamber of Queen-Priestess ARIADNE in the lavish and labyrinthine Palace of Knossos the greatest city of Minoan Crete. The time is a warm spring evening, height of the Bronze Ace, 1400 BCE. Altars, featuring bare-breasted Minoan Snake Goddess, stands beside bed. Large, double-bladed axe (labrys) stands upright by couch. Lyre, drum and flute are heard.
(Enter CHORUS, happily decorating room with flowers, veils and statuettes. Candles and one incense are lit.)
PASIPHAE:
This chamber is made for love.
CHORUS:
This couch is made for joy.
PASIPHAE: (fills ceramic libation cup from pitcher)
Mmm. What love is made within this holy room
Delights all people
And heals the wounds of the world
(sips cup, passes it to each, pours some around bed)
CHORUS:
What love is made in this chamber,
Makes the world right.
Minds are calmed, bellies are filled,
And the beast, fear, is soothed.
The hungry bronze fang of war is stayed.
PASIPHAE:
What love is made on this couch
Binds us to this lovely world
And all who walk, fly or swim in it.
CHORUS:
No less than shining paradise
Is this dear earth of flesh and sense
Of touch and light
No less than immortal paradise
Is this rich world of food and sleep
Of music and laughter
PASIPHAE:
Alone among nations,
We, the fortunate children of Knossos
Slay no one for life’s wealth.
CHORUS: (a little too seriously)
Goddess be thanked.
PASIPHAE: (playfully)
And a little goat meat.
CHORUS:
Just a little.
(they snort and laugh, scrape as if with hooves, mimic horns and thrust their hips against each other, moan and begin kissing up each others’ arms and necks.)
(Enter ARIADNE, who laughs at the scene. CHORUS smiles, bows, seems to pass the energy on to her)
PASIPHAE:
Our Queen is made for love.
ARIADNE:
Mother, my wise Pasiphae.
Sister, my lovely Phaedra.
CHORUS:
Mmm. Our Queen is born for love.
Schooled to it all her happy years.
For her people, for herself and for life-giving Goddess
She navigates the nether shores (indicates couch)
Of this joyful sea.
ARIADNE: (upon kissing last chorus member)
He comes tomorrow!
(she lays on couch; they caress and annoint her with oil, speaks raunchily, yet with wise tenderness)
Oh, come quickly, my Minos, come soon, come often
You great snorting, smooth-flanked monster.
CHORUS:
When the moon lies crescent in lavender heaven.
ARIADNE:
I cannot wait to hear your roar in my ears.
Unloose your thrusting horn, my lover!
PASIPHAE: (holds aloft her hands joined in yonic sign)
Each journey in this ship,
Guided by its infallible eye of desire
Binds us to Our Lady, our loving Goddess
ARIADNE:
There is no perfume, no wine
Like the smell of my lover
Swollen with the fever of my beauty.
CHORUS:
There is no smell like the mating scent of our Queen.
Journeying on the liquid seas of Paradise,
She weds us all to the soul and secrets of Holy Mother.
CHORUS MEMBER #3:
Perhaps there will be some left for me?
CHORUS MEMBER #4
And maybe a tiny smidgen for me?
ARIADNE:
Fear not my ladies.
Has any Minos ever failed to love us all?
Mother’s magic will keep him up all night.
(lusty howls of laughter)
PASIPHAE: (using Snake Goddess statuette as wand)
Our Lady,
We bless and now protect this circle in eternity:
(indicating PHAEDRA)
Mother, woman, creatrix of life.
CHORUS: (indicating PASIPHAE)
And you, wise woman
Companion to those in the next world
Conqueror of fear, regeneratrix of all life.
PASIPHAE: (forms all into oracular circle)
Goddess is Mother to Us All.
From Her we learn prophecy
We have learned to carry and embody her.
To make love with her flesh.
To speak with her voice.
CHORUS:
Unfailingly, She appears to us.
She joins us. Now
PASIPHAE: (now in prophetic mode)
Always she sits in our circle.
Even when we cannot see or hear her.
She is part of us.
The generous creatrix and merciful destroyer
Of all that lives.
She...
(suddenly shakes her head, side to side, violently, as if trying
to make a bad thought go away. Speaks in low tones of horror:)
Oh, grief, no!
This serpent, fate, bites deep and firm.
No! Mother, not this.
I see blood, the blood of our Minos-Bull.
PHAEDRA: (trying to put a cheery face on it)
He is supposed to bleed.
The Bull must die - this we know.
Like olive, the grape, the leaf,
He goes to the lower world in autumn,
His work of seeding mother done, only to return in...
PASIPHAE: (weeping)
No, no no, dear child
Our noble Minos bleeds on the altar...
ARIADNE:
As he should...
PASIPHAE:
No, not that altar, not in the courtyard
(indicating couch)
This altar.
ARIADNE:
Your words, Grandmother, cut me.
Do you not mean our Minos will be so filled with ecstasy
That, like a grape, he bursts
And blesses our couch with his life’s blood?
I must then not make quite so much love,
Maybe a little less would do just as well
To annoint holy Kriti with Goddess’s sweet grace.
Our boy must not be harmed at year’s beginning.
Not in spring.
Not our strong Minos.
PASIPHAE: (still in seer mode)
No, my Ariadne, his blood still flows.
O, my boy, my good, young boy, dear son of my body,
It’s your bloood, not your seed that falls like rain
On our fair palace, our holy Knossos.
ARIADNE:
Perhaps you mean
In some distant age, surely
Some thousand summers from now
When, as with all things
They must give up their form
And return happily to their source
In the dark and happy caves of our Great Mother.
To change...
PASIPHAE:
When is not clear
But that he bleeds and dies on the mating bed.
That is.
(knock on door)
CHORUS MEMBER #5 (answering door)
It’s him. (with fingers indicating horns
Minos!
(ARIADNE beckons from couch. MINOS dashes to kneeling position by ARIADNE, amid shouts of good-humored and bawdy joy from chorus. They pinch his butt as he goes by. MINOS shamelessly stares at the beauty of Ariadne’s body. Queen and consort interlace fingers of both hands and gaze on each other’s faces with utmost delight and reverence. Minos’s aide enters to stand by door, arms full of presents. They bring their lips to almost touching. She smells him deeply and he, her.)
ARIADNE:
My Minos.
MINOS:
My Lady.
Your beauty moves across this island
Like spring’s buzzing bees
And makes all things swell with life.
ARIADNE: (releasing his hands, glances at generous phallic sheath)
They drip with sweetest honey.
(chorus hoots with laughter, aide stifles his)
Don’t they, honey.
MINOS: (blushing)
The honey of the Bull does not drip
(hamming it up playfully)
Penned up all winter
He emerges stampeding
Making earth ring with thunder
To sate the appetite of any and all.
But first the Queen-cow, our Goddess.
(kisses ARIADNE’s feet, begins inching up inside her calf to knee,
driving her a bit off the edge.)
CHORUS:
And so life goes on
And the beast in men is soothed,
Between the knees of Goddess.
The devil, war, is tamed on woman-honey
And his rage is sopped up in bliss
PHAEDRA: (all turn to her)
The children are saved.
They grow to fulness, as I have,
In the freedom of dear nature, not behind walls.
PASIPHAE:
Better for Minos-Bull to live his year
Loved for his thunder and honey
Than married, like the Greeks
And dreaming up distant slaughter
To get them out of the house.
ARIADNE:
How are the Greeks, my Minos?
Successful voyage?
You brought them back with you?
All fourteen, for another summer?
MINOS:
Aye, Lady
(beckons for the gifts; THESEUS’ aide responds, placing
In MINOS’ hands)
ARIADNE:
I hope our lessons take.
MINOS:
They were grateful, as usual
For the gifts of civilizaiton.
(he adorns ARIADNE with necklaces, brooches and places vases and jewel boxes about her)
ARIADNE:
They are coming along, aren’t they?
Ladies, look at this gold work.
Our goddesses, bare breasts and all.
PASIPHAE: (with hint of sarcasm)
Good company for old warrior Zeus.
MINOS:
They are saying now that he was born here.
ARIADNE: (elated)
Here?
MINOS:
In our cave, dark Dikte,
Full with thousands of our oil lamps
And our tiny gold axes.
PASIPHAE:
In the holy womb of Great Mother.
Hm. I do not like it.
Not at first.
But with each moment, the pieces fall into place.
They are marrying us, one way or the other.
He, stallion Zeus, of course found a mate here?
MINOS:
Yes.
It is Europa, the grandmother, many generations back.
The first Goddess-Queen, the great white cow
When the foundations of Knossos were laid.
PASIPHAE:
My grandmother.
(feeling her belly)
I may have eaten some bad fish.
I confess, I do not like this.
But enough. I will hear the tale later
From brave Theseus himself, over wine, perhaps.
CHORUS MEMBER #3:
Or on the couch perhaps.
The conqueror’s education is far from done.
As any Minoan woman will tell you.
CHORUS MEMBER #4:
He dashes like a warrior into the fray.
CHORUS MEMBER #5
One soon spent and fallen.
CHORUS MEMBER #3:
Carried off on his shield, limp.
CHORUS MEMBER #4
To raise his mighty sword
(fingers indicate a few inches)
Another day.
(all cackle bawdily)
ARIADNE: (slaps her hand playfully, but seriously)
Enough.
We cannot taunt them about such things.
They must be schooled.
Would that they had our Minos.
Did you delight them in Athens, sweet Bull?
MINOS:
I did all that would delight any fleshly creature, Lady.
I give all that is wanted
But never more than is wanted.
As I was taught.
ARIADNE:
More than your lovemaking, dear Bull,
It is your sweet soul that pleases us.
PHAEDRA: (to MINOS)
She’s right, you know.
We nurse from the soft breast of a Goddess.
But these are men making their living
Plowing human flesh with the hard edge of a sword.
Such heroes see all things as victory or defeat.
MINOS:
It crossed my mind, Lady.
When we were sailing home
But don’t be alarmed.
The Greeks are wonderful hosts.
They feasted me and adorned me with jewels and flowers
In the fashion we taught them.
ARIADNE: (aside, to PASIPHAE)
As we do at sacrifice.
PASIPHAE: (aside)
I did not fail to notice it, also.
(knock on door)
AIDE OF MINOS:
Lady, the Prince of Athens
(enter THESEUS and his aide, who stays at the door, arms full of presents. All bow. ARIADNE, reclining, nods.
THESEUS: (just inside the door, grandly)
Eyes filled with beauty
I behold the Goddess of Holy Kriti!
Hail, high Mistress of the Moon.
DAEDALUS:
Good Lord Theseus,
I would relieve the weight of these weapons
After your long journey
That you may relax and enjoy the charms of this palace.
(Chorus member #3 gives him wine)
ARIADNE:
All hail to you, son of noble Aegeus.
Welcome to Paradise.
(indicating weapons confiscation)
They make me do this.
Don’t worry.
No harm comes to anyone on this peaceful island
Sit by me, sir.
(extends hand to be kissed. As he draws near, both experience shock of recognition)
THESEUS: (stage whispers)
Lady, I know you.
PHAEDRA:
How can this be?
PASIPHAE:
Again - how many times today?
I do not like this.
Like grass before the coming storm.
All the blades are beginning to bend.
ARIADNE: (embarrassed, tries to withdraw her hand, but THESEUS is reluctant to let it go)
Please, everyone
Noble Theseus needs a change of clothing and
His quarters made ready
Be busy.
(waves them out. CHORUS forms downstage in shadows, seemingly in oracular suspension)
THESEUS:
Good Queen
The Goddess obviously attends you
ARIADNE:
She does not attend.
She lives, and happily,
In the body of the Queen of this land
And this palace is but her altar.
THESEUS:
I meant no offense. I don’t know your ways, but...
I have never seen such beauty
As sits upon your cheek and lip and about your eye
And I have known it before,
But younger, unformed, unfinished, unlike this vision.
ARIADNE:
Do not woo me.
I was a girl then.
THESEUS:
I was younger too, when last I saw this face.
Not a man, but no child.
And I do not woo or persuade you now
But let my words come out
Wearing the plain cloth of truth.
Truth, Lady, you were my first
And I have been longing for you every day since.
You taught me love.
ARIADNE:
I know.
THESEUS:
Had anyone else said that
I would take it for arrogance.
But I see you do know it. How?
ARIADNE:
Do you love me?
THESEUS: (taken aback by her forewardness)
Yes. I do Lady.
ARIADNE:
I know why you are here.
No prince had ever come to learn our arts.
But you have come.
And you do not intend to go home empty-handed.
But rather bearing trophies of a hero.
Say it. Say what you want.
THESEUS:
I want you for my Queen.
ARIADNE:
So you love me.
I know what that means.
We have not learned this custom of yours.
We love, but it is the unfailing, shared love within the Goddess.
Not this owning, this binding to a single person forever.
THESEUS:
You play with words.
I asked you to be my Queen.
And anyone knows what love is.
ARIADNE:
I know what it is to make love.
THESEUS:
And when we were together in Argos ten years ago,
I learned what it is to make love.
ARIADNE:
What is it to make love?
THESEUS:
I...it is...like nothing I ever...
ARIADNE:
The Prince is not used to being speechless.
THESEUS:
If only...I could learn it,
Could understand what you did.
ARIADNE:
They you must commit yourself to a course of study lasting seven years, here in this palace, between the knees of one of our priestesses.
THESEUS: (laughs to break his tension)
Please, Lady!
You drive me mad with this!
I don’t want one of your priestesses.
I want you. Tonight!
ARIADNE:
You want the Queen, hm?
THESEUS:
You, I want you - and forever.
ARIADNE:
You are being invited to become a master of lovemaking, like our Minos-Bull.
THESEUS:
Yes, I’ve heard about your Minos.
He dies for love.
Or rather for love-making.
ARIADNE:
It is love, sir.
He keeps this world alive.
Not just Kriti
The whole world
And in his death, he defeats death.
He comes back...for more.
THESEUS:
My Lady, Greece is not kept alive by the humpings of a Bull.
It lives by the thrustings of this!
(reaches for sword, finds it gone)
ARIADNE:
A different kind of sword conquers in this chamber, Lord.
Just as hard - and dripping not with death, but life.
THESEUS:
I feel the tendrils threading about me, lovely Queen.
What spider is at work, what sorcery binds up
Both tongue and sword arm?
(turns to call his AIDE outside door)
ARIADNE:
Relax, fierce Lord.
No harm will come to you on this island.
We were talking about lovemaking, not evil.
The love you knew
On the beaches of Argos, sweet Theseus?
It is no sorcery.
It is nothing to fe... (stops herself from saying “fear”)
Nothing to unleash the lions
Who crouch in your sword, sir.
The love you knew then, sir
Was not my love alone, but the love
That lives among this Goddess-infested people
And I swear you shall know it again tonight, dear man
But better, deeper, sweeter
Here on my couch.
THESEUS: (drops to knees, embraces her hips)
Oh, yes Goddess
Forgive me. I was afraid
Where I have been afraid before no man, no army
I know fear here tonight.
I survive because I advance into the face of it.
For there have I found all my ...
ARIADNE:
Yes, good Prince, say it, all your glory
And an unmatched glory it is.
THESEUS:
A glory that needs a Queen to...
ARIADNE:
The shine is in the illuminations.
You mustn’t be shy about your achievements, Lord.
Now go, get out of this dusty gear.
You can feel no love through this stuff.
The ladies will outfit you.
They wait by your room.
Hurry back - and bring your sword.
The one a woman loves best.
(exit THESEUS)
Sister, come Phaedra.
(PHAEDRA emerges from shadowed CHORUS)
Dear, the instruction of the Greeks begins tonight.
The Prince, Theseus - Goddess will embrace him with the riches of her body.
PHAEDRA:
Oh, he is a beautiful one
How lucky for you.
And so fortunate to be helping the Greeks on this.
They were always slowest at this, but coming along.
ARIADNE:
Not me, sister.
(looks steady at PHAEDRA, who gradually understands ARIADNE is referring to her. PHAEDRA places her fingers to her own chest. ARIADNE nods.)
It is time for you to know a man.
The time of the child playmates in your bed is over.
But only - only if you choose it.
PHAEDRA:
I am ready?
(ARIADNE nods)
Of course I am. I know that.
But something else is going on here. I can feel it.
This isn’t just pleasure or teaching.
ARIADNE:
What is not pleasure or teaching?
But there is something more to this.
It has to do with our visions - what Pasiphae saw.
We can’t tell yet.
But what you do is very important.
So we will all be with you.
We will all be inside you making love.
And Phaedra? One more thing.
He will call you my name, Ariadne.
PHAEDRA:
The name of the Goddess?
ARIADNE:
Yes. He will think he is making love to me. To her.
PHAEDRA:
In a way, he will be.
This morning, I had not expected such honors.
ARIADNE:
And now, one final request, sister. (whispers in her ear)
(lights dim, music up, CHORUS emerges from shadows, chants, surrounds couch.
PHAEDRA reclines and ARIADNE joins chorus. They paint her face: crescent moon on her forehead, eyes outlines in black, green and gold a la Cleopatra; this is also to disguise her.
They drape her with large veils, pour libations around couch and light a single oil lamp.
While this is going on, CHORUS sings
Homeric Hymn #30, “To Earth, the Mother of Us All.”)
PASIPHAE: (begins the hymn)
Now I will sing
Of the Mother of the Gods, eldest of all beings.
She feeds all creatures that are in the world.
CHORUS:
All that go upon the goodly land
And all that are in the paths of the seas and all that fly
All these are fed by her blissful bounty.
PASIPHAE:
Through you, O Queen
We are blessed in our children
And blessed in our harvests.
CHORUS:
And to you it belongs
To give means of life to mortals
And to take it away
(enter THESEUS, in lovely robe. All nod to him. He remains standing, beholding the rite. Two begin disrobing him, annointing him with olive oil.)
PASIPHAE:
Mother of the Gods!
Happy is the man you delight to honor!
He has all things abundantly.
CHORUS:
His fruitful land is laden with corn.
His pastures are covered with cattle
And his house is filled with good things.
PASIPHAE:
Such men rule orderly in their cities of fair women.
Great riches and wealth follow them.
CHORUS:
Their sons exult with ever-fresh delight
And their daughters in flower-laden bands
Play and skip merrily over soft flowers in the field.
PASIPHAE:
Thus it is with those whom you honor,
O holy Goddess, bountiful spirit.
CHORUS:
Hail, Mother of the Gods, Queen of Starry Heaven!
Freely bestow upon us
For this our song that cheers the heart!
PASIPHAE:
And soon we will remember you in another song (end hymn)
(the two escort THESEUS to the couch. CHORUS unveils PHAEDRA and recedes. PHAEDRA extends her arms to THESEUS, who is drawn in)
THESEUS:
Ariadne, Ariadne
You are the Goddess.
PASIPHAE:
And you, loving Lord, are her son.
You, adoring Prince, are her brother.
CHORUS:
You, good man, are her husband.
You, loving sir, the Bull of Nature
Are welcome eternally into her golden thighs
Into the mystery and meaning of all life.
All joy comes from Her wise and silken womb.
The creator and cradle of all life.
(dimming of lights, music indicate passage of one day. Noise of crowd gatheres outside palace for ritual. ARIADNE paces about. CHORUS stands)
Act II - the Next Day
ARIADNE:
You look beautiful today, sister.
PHAEDRA:
The beauty you see
Is the beauty of love that entered me last night.
Nothing you have all said could have prepared me for it.
I was not myself at all
Only a small berry on a great bush
Bursting with color, taste, joy, soaring ecstasy and...love.
So...this is love.
ARIADNE:
You have always known Goddess’s love.
It is much greater when you wear her crown
And carry her soul for all of Knossos.
PHAEDRA:
Yes, she was with me.
ARIADNE:
But more? Something else?
PHAEDRA:
The Greek. The Prince.
He was so strange, so...powerful
He even smelled all different from the boys I’ve known
Yet he was tender.
ARIADNE:
Goddess embraced him and soothed him with her music.
PHAEDRA:
Yes, She did, and more
Something different has happened.
I can’t understand it.
Help me, grandmother.
PASIPHAE:
I am here, child -- child no more.
And I am seeing it.
Something has happened.
Some cord, some vine has grown between you
You two.
You and the Greek.
PHAEDRA:
It’s here in my chest, in my belly
(indicating yoni)
In here, too, powerfully in here.
I must see him again
That’s what I feel.
Is it wrong?
Am I under some Greek magic?
PASIPHAE: (she and ARIADNE become Goddess; CHORUS gathers)
No.
It’s all my will
You are leaving us.
You are walking through a great door.
It’s all changing now.
You are in love.
PHAEDRA:
In love??
But we are all in love!
ARIADNE:
Yes. We have all been in love here.
But it’s different with you now.
You are in love with a man. One man.
And you will stay that way all your life.
Or try.
PHAEDRA:
I cannot help but feel joy.
PASIPHAE:
It’s all bleeding, coming undone,
Not just for Phaedra, but for all of us.
I am withdrawing.
The seed miscarries, but is not lost.
What I have done for you, you must learn to do.
PHAEDRA:
What? But why?
ARIADNE:
Don’t ask anymore.
You don’t know the answer.
You cannot stay in this garden.
Your mother has been close, preening over you
Feeding you this rich milk.
But you’re growing up -- everyone has to.
PASIPHAE:
I am receding. I am falling away.
All the gods are.
And, as hard as it is
You are going to take their place.
PHAEDRA:
Forever??? Me???
ARIADNE:
No, not just you - and not forever.
PASIPHAE:
It’s people.
You want to run the world.
You want to do it yourself.
We’re going to let you.
PHADREA:
I don’t want to run the world!
I need you always beside me and inside me!
ARIADNE:
No, you have left me.
You do want to run the world
In your own way, on your own terms
And you will.
That’s what falling in love is
(increased noise of crowd waiting for rite)
PASIPHAE:
It’s time.
Bring on the Bull.
(CHORUS begins to prepare ARIADNE for rite, annointing with oil, perfumes, drames, etc)
PHAEDRA:
You said you will not be gone forever.
When? When will you be back?
PASIPHAE:
Not soon, not bloody soon.
But someday.
It was you decided the time of my leaving
So you will decide my return
Some distant age, though, not this one.
PHAEDRA:
You keep saying “you.”
Who? You don’t mean me, Phaedra, do you?
PASIPHAE:
Men.
Men did it.
But then, women went along.
For their own reasons.
You need this or it would not happen.
CHORUS MEMBER #4
Phaedra, enough!
The Minos comes to love our Queen!
PHAEDRA:
But what reasons do women have for this?
To lose the goddesses and gods themselves!
To bathe the world in war’s foul curse!
To live on these two-person islands!
PASIPHAE:
You run the world now, woman.
You ask yourself.
The answer is right there in your mouth,
If you dare ask the question.
(PASIPHAE and ARIADNE leave prophetic mode)
hARIADNE:
My women, take strength.
Do not forget
That we stand on the cusp of spring moon
And cannot fail
In our duties to the lifeblood of Holy Kriti
Put doom out of your minds
As is the law of this holy island.
CHORUS MEMBER #2
He comes!
Our Minos walks the long stone way
Finding his way to us.
PASIPHAE: (continuing ARIADNE’s speech)
All things are fated to pass out of this world
Are they not?
All things must outwear their forms.
Spirit outlasts flesh.
Wine is drunk and gone, but the vine is immortal.
So stand by me
And remember what has always protected this paradise:
That we are unwavering
We are relentless, more than any army of Greeks
In our celebrating the juices of life flow.
CHORUS MEMBER #1 (comically)
They’re flowing, they’re flowing!
(enter MINOS, wearing bull head with gilded horns. He roars for ARIADNE, who lies on couch. CHORUS swoon.)
CHORUS:
The god is among us.
Father of us all.
PASIPHAE:
Bull of the sun
Meet and marry Our Lady of the Moon, our Ariadne.
(MINOS mounts ARIADNE, as a bull would a cow; crowd celebrates)
Let life come again to Knossos for another summer.
Dear Goddess, you’ve never led us astray.
The seed shall be planted.
The seed shall...
(Enter THESEUS, bursting violently through door. He draws sword, grabs MINOS by the horns, yanks his head back and cuts his tHroat. Screams, mayhem. PASIPHAE throws self on the body of MINOS, dragging him off onto floor to die.)
PASIPHAE:
No, my good boy, no!
This is ill, this is red life watering spring buds
It is upside down
Holy Kriti is sinking, crashing into the sea.
THESEUS:
The Bull of Kriti is sacrificed.
His season is done.
In spring.
ARIADNE: (reclining on couch; to THESEUS)
And I suppose this makes you my wife, right?
THESEUS:
Just as you were mine in Argos
Those many summers ago.
My Queen.
CHORUS MEMBER #5
In Argos???
CHORUS MEMBER #2
Then...she...
PASIPHAE:
She is no Queen and never has been.
(to ARIDADNE)
It’s true, then? What this Greek says?
(ARIADNE nods; Pasiphae removes the wreath of golden leaves from her head and places it on PHAEDRA)
Love live the Queen.
Long live Goddess.
THESEUS:
What are you doing,
Putting the Queen’s wreath on this girl?
Ariadne no Queen?
What madness is this?
Are you all in moon-blood? Is that it?
PASIPHAE:
The Queen here must have never been out of sight of Crete.
If she has loosened that bond,
She be no Queen.
ARIADNE:
You want Crete?
You have to marry a Queen to get it.
So much easier than war, isn’t it?
Well, there’s your Queen.
THESEUS:
Ladies, with the blow of this sword
I became Lord of Crete.
It is my will that this custom is ended also.
I don’t care where she’s been.
Ariadne is Queen of Knossos AND Athens.
(all women laugh)
PASIPHAE:
It doesn’t work that way.
You can chop up all kinds of peole
With your chopper there,
But that doesn’t mean you get to make the rules
About what Goddess does and doesn’t do.
ARIADNE:
Lord, the Queen here in Knossos IS the Goddess.
Phaedra is Queen now.
The question is: will she have you?
THESEUS: (to ARIADNE)
I thought you loved me.
Last night, you...
ARIADNE:
Bright Lord of Athens,
You said you loved me.
I’ve not loved you.
I can’t change.
I’ve been loved by Minos.
I’ve walked this Earth as a living Goddess.
You can only love what you can conquer and
Sir, you can’t conquer me.
THESEUS:
That web again.
These ladies without lords.
They’re spinning their spells on me again.
ARIADNE:
Good King, you said you can only love
That woman who made love to you as it was in Argos.
THESEUS:
And last night, great thundering Zeus.
Last night!
How you’ve come along in these years since we were young.
Good Queen, no one, NO ONE, could ever love me like that!
ARIADNE: (presents PHADRA)
Meet your lover of last evening, good sir.
And your Queen.
THESEUS:
What? Lies!
They told me no one could match the wily whores of Crete!
This cannot be true!
It was you. I saw your face.
ARIADNE: (puts her face beside PHAEDRA’s)
You saw the face of my sister,
Who learned the arts of love the same way I did:
From Goddess herself.
And when you make love with us, you make love with Goddess.
THESEUS:
Such rubbish!
You think I could be fooled by that?
I know what woman is in my arms.
PHAEDRA:
Sir, in truth it was me and
I left a mark on your shoulder, right here.
The shape of a snake.
(pulls back his garment, indicating spot; AIDE of Theseus steps forward, examines)
AIDE:
Aye, a serpent, Lord
A fearsome one, in blood
And recent.
PHAEDRA:
You were good, sir,
A beast, a monster,
Yet tender.
I love that.
Especially when you...
(whispers in his ear)
THESEUS:
So! It was you!
(scarcely believing, he involuntarily caresses her face and takes a long, adoring look at her body, then glances back and forth from PHADRA to ARIADNE)
PHAEDRA:
Love, Lord.
We are in love.
That’s what it’s called.
How to tell
Is how good we made love last night.
And I know how you say it.
You say
I love you.
(mounting crowd noise; enter PALACE LADY)
PASIPHAE:
She loves him.
He’s the new Minos.
THESEUS: (unable to say it)
I...luh...luh.
ARIADNE:
The Greeks shall shape the world
That’s what we saw.
But we shall shape the Greeks.
PALACE LADY:
Highness, I’m sorry, the people
They saw the killing of our Minos.
(sees MINOS dead)
What has happened? They are wondering. Please.
ARIADNE:
The seed shall be planted, tell them.
It is all Our Lady’s will.
And the meaning shall be known soon. Go!
(exit PALACE LADY)
(to THESEUS)
You sir, you wanted to be Lord of Crete.
There is only one way you can do it.
And not with your took there
(indicates sword)
If you want the blessing of Goddess on it,
(indicates phallos)
You have to use this other tool.
Mate the Queen.
THESEUS:
Well, we could do that.
Drape the window, to start with.
ARIADNE:
That’s not how it works here, King.
You have to show them it’s done.
(pulls bull head off MINOS. PHAEDRA, moves it toward THESEUS)
You have to lead them in it.
Everyone does the rite together.
It ensures the life of Crete.
If you want a thriving land to rule over.
You have to do it now.
You are the Minos now.
(in coronation-like movement, PHAEDRA puts Bull head on THESEUS)
PHAEDRA:
Our good Minos.
Rule with love, good friend and sir.
(ARIADNE stands PHAEDRA and THESEUS at the window, presents them to crowd, which roars acclaim)
ARIADNE:
Long live our new Ariadne, Queen Phaedra!
(PHAEDRA pulls THESEUS to couch, assuming the cow position)
THESEUS:
No, not that.
PHAEDRA:
It is how the moon-cow is always...
THESEUS:
I know.
But you are not that anymore
(pulls her around to face him)
You are my Queen
And my wife
And my dear love
I must see you.
I must look into your eyes
And see the moisture of your cheek and lips.
I must smell the skin of your face
Must, above all, kiss you.
(THESEUS kisses PHAEDRA; she pulls him down on couch for mating rite, but vis-a-vis)
PHAEDRA:
Say it, my King.
Let those lovely lips move with sweet words
Which will fix our love this night in the stars.
This night and forever.
THESEUS:
Phaedra, I love you.
And nothing can every stop that.
PHAEDRA: (playing with the words gleefully)
I love you, I love you, I love you.
PASIPHAE:
It’s a different world.
I feel the power of those words.
As powerful as many we’ve spoken and done magic with.
ARIADNE:
But not replacing our words,
Which will continue on in the minds of all women and men
And will find life in the juices of their love
To the end of time.
CHORUS MEMBER #2:
Is it over? Our way of life?
Is Goddess gone?
PASIPHAE:
Well, let’s see
(she moves into seer mode)
No, I can still feel the old magic
But it’s different.
There’s more - more space
Isn’t there, Ariadne?
ARIADNE: (also moving into seer mode)
Yes. It’s nice. A new generation is coming in.
Like when Zeus and Hera replaced Kronos and Rhea.
PASIPHAE:
A new man is coming in.
CHORUS MEMBER #4:
You don’t mean these old war lovers from Greece?
PASIPHAE:
No. We’ve got some dark ages coming.
That’s what they will call them - dark ages.
After they’re over, of course.
It’s a new man to get us through that.
ARIADNE:
Yes, I see him.
But not a new man - a new god.
A young man, one wearing a crown taken from a vine.
(apparition of DIONYSOS materializes)
PASIPHAE:
And a beard.
He’s offering us wine.
As a sacrament.
He will be called a savior.
ARIADNE:
And he loves women.
He understands the deepest things we want.
PASIPHAE:
Devoted, wild, happy.
ARIADNE:
Mother, guess what?
Minos never died.
It’s him.
PASIPHAE:
Aye, it is, but different
Like I said, a new generation.
His son, then.
(DIONYSOS walks, lovingly kissing each of the CHORUS on the cheek, whispering in their ear)
CHORUS: (whispering, louder and louder)
Dionysos, Dionysos, Dionysos.
PASIPHAE:
Now that sweet vision returns.
I am finding Goddess within me,
But yet I am not Goddess, rather, still myself.
And still I see the glorious old depths.
(ARIADNE rises to her feet, finally seeing the ever-brightening vision of DIONYSOS; they gaze lovingly on each other)
ARIADNE:
And you see?
PASIPHAE:
The new god coming.
He will return to live in place of the slain one
And reign forever and ever
Bringing delicious joy of couch and vine
We must be ready for his coming back.
He shall be the groom of our Queen,
The Queen of Knossos.
CHORUS MEMBER #5
The Queen? You mean...
(points to ARIADNE and the shadowed PHAEDRA)PASIPHAE: (laughs)
The Queen this moon is the same Queen as last moon.
The other one goes with the Greek.
Ariadne will be our Queen forever.
(DIONYSOS and ARIADNE kiss)
CHORUS: (chanting in a beautiful melody)
Dionysos, Dionysos, Dionysos
Ariadne-Dionysos-Ariadne-Dionysos
I love you, I love you, I love you.
PASIPHAE:
And her groom, her mate, will never die.
And so will never leave her.
There it is again, this loving in pairs.
So he is not like the Bull.
More gentle, more canny
More...human.
That’s it, human and a god.
And living here on this good world with us.
The world made for love.
<3 <3 <3
Our Lady of the Horn
A play in placed in ancient Knossos, Crete, the last Goddess culture, 1400 BCE, as Queen Ariadne prepares for the spring rites of mating with the Minotaur - and is visited by Prince Theseus of the patriarchal Greek city of Athens, who seeks a queen, as well as domination of Crete. Synopsis: It is a spring evening in Knossos on the island of Crete, 1400 BCE, time of the first return of the crescent moos closest to equinox. In her chamber, Queen Ariadne prepares for her ritual coupling, as Great Goddess, with her consort Minos II, as the Bull, which will take place the following day, at dusk. These rites welcome the annual return of life and bless the fertility of the new season. Ariadne’s chorus of priestesses assist her, as they sing the benefits of this mating rite: fertility, the peace and safety of island Crete, understanding the divine design and, of course, a personal, transcendent, ecstatic union with the Goddess for all people of Knossos - the annual sacred orgy. Ariadne and the women of the Chorus gather for a pre-ritual oracle with Goddess. The older, wise seer Pasiphae, leader of the Chorus, becomes deeply anguished when her vision is one of the Minos-Bull’s blood flowing upon the mating bed of the Queen of Knossos. The sacrifice of the Bull is customarily at year’s end, not at it’s start or in the mating bed. Minos, returning from a sea voyage to Athens, enters with presents for Ariadne. Their love and reverence for each other are obvious. They are old friends but they have never mated. The coming festival will be the first time. They kiss madly, but she holds him off. Goddess comes tomorrow night. We must wait. Minos and the women banter raucously about the coming mating rites and the powers of the Bull to please women. They also banter about the inept lovemaking skills of the Greeks and express hope that Greek warriors will absorb the fineries of life from Crete. The women are disturbed by two reports from Minos: that the Athenians graced him with flowers, which the women say reminds them of a sacraficial rite. And that the Greeks have worked Crete into their mythology now, making Zeus born in a cave here and mated with Europa, ancestor of the royal women present. Minos has undertaken the trip to bring Athenian Prince Theseus and his entourage of 13 Athenians for their education in the fineries of art, writing, goddess-worship and civilization in general. The Cretans each year take on seven men and seven women, who then return to educate the mainland Greeks. The Queen bids Theseus into her chamber. His aide accompanies him. Ariadne and Theseus recognize each other: during a voyage Ariadne took to the mainland at about age 12, she and Theseus were each other’s first lover, but they have never met again. Theseus drops to one knee and whispers his knowledge of her. The others are surprised. No queen of Knossos may have left the holy soil of Crete, so how can this have happened? Ariadne tries to take control of the situation and orders the others out. Ariadne and Theseus are alone. He says he has never been able to get her out of his mind, that their lovemaking as adolescents has been something precious he has never found since. She discourages him. She indicates she knows why he has come: to fetch the queen for his bride, so that his empire as king may incorporate Crete. Ariadne asks if he loves her. Theseus says he does. She questions: but what is love? He says anyone knows that. But she replies that it means a very different thing in Crete, where people are not bound in pairs for life, but are free to love as they will it. He scoffs. She invites him, if he wants to learn what love is, to come enter many years of training to be the Minos-Bull and learn lovemaking from the priestesses here. Theseus scoffs at the bull who is sacrificed, but Ariadne informs him that Minos plays a big role in the thriving of the life of Crete. (Written 1995)
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