Minotaure

Summary

Dominique Pagani reads the Minotaur first of all as a political figure: the tribute of young Athenians handed over to the monster represents the tribute the Greeks paid to the Cretans1, and its killing marks the end of Cretan domination over Athens2. He describes it as the son of Pasiphaë and a bull, a product of hubris hidden in the labyrinth, and sees in it a "remnant of the Orient"3. He contrasts it with the sphinx: in Oriental figuration the animal blends with the human, but in the reverse relation4. He also places it in the genealogy of the Cretan Atreids, as half-brother of Phaedra and Ariadne, and in passing corrects an error that made it Ariadne's brother-in-law5. He sometimes uses the labyrinth as an image to say that one must not get lost in it. Finally, he recalls that Nietzsche compares Wagner to the Minotaur who lures young people6.

1. 1#9 Benefits and harms of amnesia…17 Dec 2020 · 1:35:16
2. 2#7 The Greeks, myth and music17 Dec 2020 · 22:40
3. 3#2.7 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 8:35
4. 4Between sea and mountain, the standing stones of Valinco (the Corsican Neolithic)24 Nov 2020 · 34:24
5. 5#2.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 27:41
6. 6Sickness, misfortune, evil20 Sept 2024 · 49:45

Summary produced automatically from 10 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.