character history: THE MYTH: ARIADNE was a princess, born in Knossos, the capital of the island of Crete. Her father was King Minos and her mother Pasiphae. Pasiphae, due to a curse inflicted on her by Poseidon, gave birth to the Minotaur: a terrible monster with a human body but with fur, a tail, hooves and a bull's head. Minos locked the Minotaur inside the labyrinth of Knossos. The Minotaur fed on human flesh and, every year, seven boys and seven girls were sent from Athens to Crete as a sacrifice. One day, however, a young Athenian arrived in Crete, determined to kill the Minotaur: his name was Theseus. From this point on, the myth of Ariadne branches out into a series of variants. The most well-known and widespread version (which we followed to make our phone call) is the one according to which Ariadne instantly fell in love with Theseus and helped him in his enterprise, giving him a sword covered in poison and a ball of wool to unroll in the labyrinth, to then easily find the way out. The girl then fled with the young Athenian, who emerged victorious from the labyrinth. Shortly after leaving, however, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos, taking advantage of her sleep. The princess was rescued by Dionysus with whom she later married and lived happily. When Ariadne died, Dionysus placed the diadem he had given to his wife on their wedding day in the sky, thus creating the “Constellation of Ariadne”. Let's now look at some variations of this myth. 1. Let's start with the abandonment carried out by Theseus: why would it have happened? a. According to the most well-known version, simply because the prince of Athens was a sort of Don Juan and wanted to get rid of the girl, so he could devote himself to his amorous adventures. b. According to another version, however, Theseus was forced to abandon Ariadne by the god Dionysus, who, having fallen in love with the girl, ordered the young prince, during a dream, to leave her, to have her all for himself. 2. According to another tradition, there was no abandonment: Theseus, deeply in love with Ariadne, got her pregnant during their first night of love and, since the girl was suffering from nausea from seasickness and pregnancy, he had her land on the island of Cyprus, while waiting for her to give birth. Ariadne died during childbirth, leaving a deeply grieving Theseus. 3. Even on the island of Naxos, where, according to the most common version, Ariadne was abandoned, we find conflicting information: a. some argue that the abandonment actually occurred on an island called “Dia”, or “the Bright”, a few kilometers away from Knossos; b. secondly, assuming that the island in question is really Naxos, the latter is described as a desolate and almost uninhabited place, suitable for metaphorically describing Ariadne’s pain at the moment of abandonment; in reality, historical sources tell us of a flourishing and civilized island. The presence of so many versions of the same myth is the result of the oral tradition to which the myths themselves were subjected for centuries, before being written down and delivered in a stable form to the perennial memory of humanity. A curiosity about the name of the island itself: given that Ariadne was abandoned on Naxos, it is very likely that the expression “to leave someone alone” derives from here. History of the statue: In 1748, Philip of Bourbon and his wife Louise Elizabeth of France became Duke and Duchess of Parma respectively. From that period onwards, Parma experienced a new cultural splendor, after the one experienced in the Renaissance thanks to the Farnese family. Since the Duchess was French, many personalities came from France to settle in Parma and enrich the city from a political and cultural point of view: one of these was Guillaume du Tillot, Minister of Culture during the reign of Philip and Elizabeth. Du Tillot called two great artists from France, the architect Ennemond Alexandre Petitot and the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Boudard. While Petitot took care of the renovation of the Ducal Park and the Royal Palace of Colorno, and created new buildings, such as the Tempietto d’Arcadia or the Casinetto Petitot, Boudard dedicated himself to the creation of numerous statues to be placed inside the Ducal Park and in some parts of the city. Boudard was so productive that he deserved the title of “court statuary”. SOURCE: Talking Teens- the statues that talk
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