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Mythology in Marble

Chapter 70: INTERPRETATION.
By Louie M. Bell
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About This Book

A concise guide that pairs brief retellings of classical myths with descriptive analyses of the marble sculptures inspired by them, offering readers accessible explanations of how narrative themes inform pose, expression, and iconography. Each entry includes notes on artistic features and provenance alongside poetic quotations and illustrations to reinforce popular interpretations. Practical tools such as a table of Greek and Roman deity equivalents and a suggested reading list are appended to aid further study. The overall aim is to equip museumgoers and general readers with the background needed to appreciate mythological sculpture without requiring specialized art-historical training.

Sleeping Ariadne.

“High upon the hill of Drios,
As the day began to waken,
All alone sat Ariadne,
Watching, weary and forsaken.
And with sighing of the pine-trees
By the low wind gently shaken,
All day long in mournful snatches
Rose the plaint of Ariadne,
Watching, weary and forsaken.”
—Thomas Davidson.

STORY.
THE DESERTED PRINCESS.

Minos, the king of Crete, in revenge for the death of his son, slain by the Athenians, exacted a yearly tribute from them of youths and maidens. Theseus, a valiant youth of Athens, offered himself as one of the victims of this tribute, with the intention of slaying the Minotaur, a hideous monster to whom Minos was in the habit of feeding his captives. The cave in which the Minotaur was confined was a labyrinth so constructed that no man who entered could find means to escape before he was met and devoured.

The king’s fair daughter saw and fell in love with Theseus. She gave him a sword and a clue of thread so that he was enabled to slay the Minotaur and find his way out of the labyrinth.

“And the slender clue
Prepared in secret by the enamoured maid,
Through the curved labyrinth his steps conveyed.”
—Catullus.

Fearing the wrath of her father, Ariadne fled with Theseus to the Island of Naxos. But Theseus, ungrateful and selfish, deserted her while she was sleeping, and setting sail to his ship, was soon borne away.

INTERPRETATION.

Theseus is the sun: he slays the Minotaur (the terrible monster of darkness), and carries off Ariadne (dawn). Ariadne is forced to share the woes of all who love the sun god, and must be abandoned.

ART.

The eventful sleep of Ariadne on the Island of Naxos, during which Theseus deserted her, is here represented. It is an unquiet sleep as denoted by the attitude and the disorder of the beautiful but complicated drapery. The uneven surface, upon which the body reclines, causes it to be slightly drawn together, and adds to the idea of unrest. The gentle droop of the head, the relaxed, curving arms, and the languid air of sleep make the figure extremely graceful and feminine, though almost colossal in size.

The statue has been in the Louvre since the time of Pope Julius II.