The tale of how the hero Theseus killed the Minotaur, finding his way out of the labyrinth using Ariadne’s ball of red thread, is one of the most intriguing, suggestive and persistent of all myths, and the labyrinth – the beautiful, confounding and terrifying building created for the half-man, half-bull monster – is one of the foundational symbols of human ingenuity and artistry. Charlotte Higgins, author of the Baillie Gifford-shortlisted Under Another Sky, tracks the origins of the story of the labyrinth in the poems of Homer, Catullus, Virgil and Ovid, and with them builds an ingenious edifice of her own. She follows the idea of the labyrinth through the Cretan excavations of Sir Arthur Evans, the mysterious turf labyrinths of Northern Europe, the church labyrinths of medieval French cathedrals and the hedge mazes of Renaissance gardens. Along the way, she traces the labyrinthine ideas of writers from Dante and Borges to George Eliot and Conan Doyle, and of artists from Titian and Velázquez to Picasso and Eva Hesse. Her intricately constructed narrative asks what it is to be lost, what it is to find one’s way, and what it is to travel the confusing and circuitous path of a lived life. Red Thread is, above all, a winding and unpredictable route through the byways of the author’s imagination – one that leads the reader on a strange and intriguing journey, full of unexpected connections and surprising pleasures.
Author(s): Charlotte Higgins
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Year: 2018
Language: English
Commentary: ---PDF (Conv. From .epub)---
Pages: 243
Tags: Mazes, Labyrinths, Theseus, Minotaur
Contents......Page 3
About the Book......Page 6
About the Author......Page 7
Also by Charlotte Higgins......Page 8
List of Illustrations......Page 9
Title Page......Page 11
Dedication......Page 12
Epigraph......Page 13
Europa......Page 14
The cedarwood box......Page 17
Lost in the midst......Page 23
Immured between hedges......Page 25
The by-street......Page 27
The vanishing labyrinth......Page 28
The most monstrous work of mankind......Page 29
Peliaco quondam......Page 33
Dictys of Crete......Page 37
Odysseus the source......Page 39
Odysseus the liar......Page 40
Epimenides of Crete......Page 41
Pendlebury of Crete......Page 42
Arthur Evans and the Minoans......Page 43
The Ring of Nestor......Page 51
Heraklion, 2016......Page 54
Knossos, 2016......Page 59
Time’s labyrinth......Page 62
The riddle of the knot in the beard......Page 64
Umberto Eco’s labyrinth......Page 71
The Figure in the Carpet......Page 76
The Middle of The Turn of the Screw......Page 77
Passe avaunt......Page 78
Laocoön......Page 80
Michelangelo and Laocoön......Page 84
Laocoöns......Page 86
Troy Town......Page 93
Maze-maker......Page 98
How to find your way......Page 101
Follow the finger that points......Page 104
Cretto di Burri......Page 106
Troy Town, Peckham......Page 108
The arms of Laocoön......Page 109
Eva Hesse’s Laocoön......Page 111
Spiral Jetty......Page 112
Ariadne on Naxos......Page 117
Cleopatra-Ariadne......Page 118
De Chirico’s Ariadnes......Page 123
Ariadne asleep......Page 125
A Minotaur in Middlemarch......Page 127
Buried alive......Page 130
Ovid’s spider......Page 132
Spinners......Page 134
Looking at Ariadne......Page 141
Ariadne on Naxos II......Page 143
Tensawalls......Page 145
Ravenna......Page 146
Lost in the midst......Page 148
Borges in Stoke......Page 151
Forking paths......Page 153
Underground......Page 154
Arnold Bennett in the Underworld......Page 156
Loop Line......Page 157
Thinkbelt......Page 159
Rubens’s Minotaur......Page 163
The wand’ring wood......Page 164
Mazed world......Page 169
In the woods......Page 172
Out of the woods......Page 173
The doors of Daedalus......Page 175
Picasso’s Minotaurs......Page 177
Pastoral interlude......Page 179
Minotauromachy......Page 182
Seven ways to kill the Minotaur......Page 185
Theseus the hero......Page 186
An edge......Page 189
Bacchus and Ariadne......Page 190
Ariadne......Page 192
Coda: Peliaco quondam......Page 194
Endnotes......Page 208
Acknowledgements......Page 211
Bibliography......Page 212
Index......Page 217
Copyright......Page 236
