Alexa Demie In Fairy Tales (2020) Photography: Petra Collins

The Minotaur in the Labyrinth

The Minotaur in the Labyrinth stands as one of the ancient stories that has survived the test of time and continuously appears in mainstream entertainment. Most understand that this concept began with the story of Theseus of ancient Athens and how he navigated the labyrinth and slayed the beast within, but many don’t know the inspiration of this idea.

Nearly a millennia before Classical Greece rose to the height of its power (500-350 BCE) the two leading cultures of the Aegean Sea were the Mycenaeans on the mainland and the Minoans on modern day Crete, and it is on this island that we find the labyrinthian structures of Bronze age Greece.

The Bronze Age Palace at Knossos: Plan and Sections by British archaeologist Sinclair Hood and Canadian archaeologist William E, Taylor, Jr., was published as Supplementary Volume No. 13 of The British School at Athens in 1981. It shows the archaeological remains of one of the many Minoan Palaces. Though mostly destroyed and crumbling, we can still see the complex layout of halls and rooms that twist, turn, and abruptly end. Beginning with the excavations of Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, scores of theories have been raised about the purpose of such confounding architecture, from a form of defense to a means of controlling foreign visits.  

Besides the confusing architecture, though no depictions of minotaurs were found, Minoan Palaces such as the one at Knossos did contained several pieces of art that depicted bulls. Upon further inspection, the symbol of the Bull was quite prominent throughout the ancient culture from sports, such as bull leaping, to religious sacrifice.

When looking to those who lived in the past, one should remember that we are not the only ones who inquired about archaeological remains. These ruins would’ve been seen by the Classical Greeks, but by that time their imaginations about the great Palaces and Bull iconography of the Minoan civilization was transformed into the myth of the Minotaur in the Labyrinth.

View more posts on Ancient Greece.

– LauraJean, Special Collections Undergraduate Classics Intern

The costume of Medea worn by Maria Callas in Pasolini’s Medea (1969).

“The story of Hades and Persephone, frequently retold and referenced, became a motif for marrying death… In addition, wedding and funeral rites, in which women played a crucial role, had many similarities. The bride and corpse were washed, dressed, anointed, and either veiled (bride) or shrouded (corpse). Both journeyed to a new home, led by a procession of family and friends carrying torches, with song and dance, blessings, gifts, and a feast. Antigone makes those connections explicit in marrying Antigone to death in her last scene instead of to Kreon’s son, her betrothed.”

— Diane J. Rayor, excerpt from the “Introduction” to Antigone

Cats at the Temple of Philae, Egypt

Source: CatsWithJobs Reddit

toni morrison, sula // stephanie peters, fire // seneca, medea (trans. a.j. boyle) // david mcconochie, medea // peter russell, night the first // stephanie peters, roaring flame // hozier, arsonist’s lullabye // jackson pollock, the flame

Here are some diversified open-source syllabi and reading lists on race, gender, Kashmir, Palestine, caste, sexuality, colonialism and modernism, design and systems, feminism, anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, data and tech, labour studies, African studies, disability studies, violence and it’s textures by some amazing educators and activists. Reblog, share and email decolonis.zing@gmail.com to include more in the list!

Decoloniszing Gender - khari jackson, Malcolm Shanks

Modernity and Coloniality - Ahmed Ansari

Design Thinking For Complex Systems- Ahmed Ansari

Feminist and Social Justice Studies- Dr. Alex Ketchum

Afrotectopia

Design + Anthropology - Shannon Mattern

“Shakespeare in the ‘Post'Colonies” -Amrita Dhar

At the Intersection of Critical Race and Disability Studies: A Bibliography - Amrita Dhar

Testimonials + local literature - Mountain Voices

Introduction to Critical Race Theory for 2017- Adrienne Keene

Mini Courses on Art and Culture - Asia Art Archive

Sound and Violence, Sound as Violence - Pedro Oliveira

Violence - Pedro Oliveira

Border thinking and Border as culture - Pedro Oliveira

Introduction to decolonial thinking and decolonising methodologies -Pedro Oliveira

The Kashmir Syllabus - Stand With Kashmir

Palestine Reading List - Danah Abdulla

A Bibliography of Caste Readings - Jyothi James

Decolonizing the Malabari Mind - Jyothi James

Labour and Tech Reading List - Alexandra Mateescu and Eve Zelickson

Diversifying your Design Syllabus: Recommended Readings by Women, Non-binary, and Culturally Diverse Authors - Hillary Carey

Between Scarcity and Excess: Capitalism, Population Control and the Climate Crisis - Luiza Prado

Decolonising Science Reading List - Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Everyday Orientalism - Katherine Blouin, Usama Ali Gad, Rachel Mairs

Four books by Frantz Fanon - Downloadable

The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove, 2004. Here it is.

Black Skin, White Masks. London: Pluto, 2008. Here it is.

A Dying Colonialism. New York, NY: Grove, 2007. Here it is.

Toward the African Revolution. New York, NY: Grove, 1994. Here it is.

If you haven’t read Fanon, now is the time. The zip file password is: archive.

Body/Horror/Monster reading list

Vivienne Westwood: Orb Key Lighter (2009)

“The manifold self-contradictions in Greek ideas and phrasing about death are not errors. They are styles of imagining the unimaginable, and are responsive both to personal needs and to old conventions. The same conflicts surge up in many cultures. They are necessary ambiguities in a realm of thinking where thinking cannot really be done, and where there is no experience.”

— Emily Vermeule, “Immortals are Mortal, Mortals Immortal,” Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry