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Ariadne's thread
Posted:
Nov 17, 2011 3:07 AM
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The myth of Minotaur might encode several calendar
cycles.
Minotaur was a man with the head and shoulders
of a bull. He was encaged in the labyrinth of Knossos.
Every ninth year he asked for seven youths and seven
maidens from Athens, whom he devoured. Theseus
killed the beast, and found his way out of the labyrinth
with Ariadne's thread.
On the first level, each youth and maiden personifies
a period of 19 days, all seven and seven of them
266 days. Minotaur, on the first level, personifies
9 lunar years, 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 days,
in all 266 days. 9 lunar years or lunations or synodic
months 'devour' 266 days.
On the second level, each youth and each maiden
personifies a period of 235 days, all seven and seven
of them 3290 days. Meanwhile Minotaur, having 'fed'
on periods of 19 days, has grown to 173 periods of
19 days, 3287 days or 9 solar years (3287.18 days)
which 'devour' the 3290 days of the youths and
maidens.
9 more years pass, Minotaur asks for another seven
and seven young people.
Theseus promises to kill the beast.
Minotaur, having 'fed' on periods of 235 days, turns
them into lunations and now personifies 235 lunar
years or lunations or synodic months, whereupon
Theseus, 19 years old, overcomes Minotaur, 19
solar years corresponding to 235 lunar years.
The labyrinth are the confusing numbers, and
Ariadne's thread may have been an additive number
sequence, as they were used by the Egyptians and
Mesopotamians for geometrical, algebraic and
geometrical purposes.
37 lunations are almost 3 years, while 99 lunations
are slightly more than 8 years:
37/3 (plus 99/8) 136/11 235/19
Use the values 136 lunations for 11 years and 235
lunations for 19 years in order to draw up a longer
sequence that may have been Ariadne's thread:
136/11 (plus 235/19) 371/30 606/49 841/68
1076/87 1311/106 1546/125 1781/144
2016/163 2251/182 2486/201 2721/220
2956/239 3191/258 3426/277 3661/296
3861/296 3896/315 4131/334
4131 lunations are 333.9991... years. 334 years
'overcome' 4131 lunar years or lunations or
synodic months.
Next time: kernos calendar of Mallia
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