NB: This post was drafted in late August.
Hello from Heraklion, on the island of Crete, a place I was not expecting to be. Earlier in the trip I mused to a friend about visiting after seeing an exhibition on the Santorini Minoans at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. There’s a lot of interest in the Minoans due to how much trading they did with different cultures, being smack in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, their cultural artifacts are extremely cool. Check this out:
This is a fresco depicting bull leapers that was found in the ancient Minoan palace ruins at Knossos.
Below is a reproduction commissioned by Arthur Evans:
Crete is the origin of the Minotaur/Labyrinth myth. The way it goes is, Theseus (a big-time Athenian warrior) comes to Crete as a human sacrifice for the Labyrinth imprisoned Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull stepson of King Minos of Knossos. The Minotaur, also known as Asterion, was born because Minos (the son of Europa and Zeus) asked Poseidon for a sacrificial bull to legitimize his reign. Poseidon rustles one up for him, but when it comes time to kill the beast, Minos can’t do it. The bull is too beautiful. Poseidon is pissed and casts a spell on Minos’ wife, who ends up desiring the bull. With the help of Daedalus (who also designed the Labyrinth and really needs to mind his business), she dresses up as a cow, and well… you see where I’m going with this. A monster is born.
Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, helps Theseus by giving him a ball of thread so that he can find his way back out of the maze. Theseus finds the Minotaur, kills him, and is able to lead the rest of the would-be sacrifices out of the Labyrinth using Ariadne’s thread.
In the above fresco, one of the female athletes is clearly trying to subdue the bull. The other is getting ready to leap, and the male athlete in the middle is mid-leap. I think a lot about the before, the after, and the doing. Is this worship? Is this fun?
The Minoans died out around 1100 BC, some thought as a result of the volcanic eruption at Thera (now Santorini), but more likely was a long decline due to invaders or civil unrest. A huge, gorgeous, artistic culture: gone. And probably not with a bang.
This whole trip to Crete happened because Mt. Parnitha is currently on fire, as well as the Dadia Forest in Evros. This is the latest in a series of mega fires that have occurred in Greece and the Mediterranean this summer, and they do not bode well for our rapid descent through the effects of climate change. I don’t have any poignant observations to add here, just that I feel intense sadness for the people directly affected by these fires and for our future on this planet. It infuriates me that we have all the tools we need to stop climate change, and yet… *gestures broadly*
There is immense privilege in being able to move freely. I use it now because I just want to be out of the way and not be a burden to anyone in a city and country that I love very much. I left Athens and hope to return to it soon, but I also recognize that this may not be possible. And I feel sadness for the near certainty I have that this will keep happening, that periodically I will try to live my life as an artist and then think “is this helping? does anyone need my art?”
I started writing a new song on the flight to Europe and have been working on a demo for it while I’m here. At one point I had an idea for an outro and immediately thought “that’s a cheesy idea, don’t do it.” I often find myself self-editing in a way that is totally unnecessary and kills a lot of ideas before I even have the time to try them out, and now know that I am missing out on a crucial part of the artistic process when I do this. So I’m trying to practice not killing the ideas because I think they might be all I get to have at this point.
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