Chapter 1

THE STORY

This study is an attempt to investigate a small area of early Greek history with special attention to the influence of electrical phenomena, which appear to have been of a magnitude greater than we are familiar with today, and which can be traced ultimately to extra-terrestrial activity, not by a god or monster in the superficial sense of the words, but by an intrusive body, or bodies, such as a comet, causing disturbances in the solar system. A full study of this would range over many early civilisations; the present short study has Minoan Crete as its starting point.

The story of Theseus, Ariadne, the Minotaur and Dionysus is well known, but a brief summary may be useful. The accounts vary in details.

Theseus was born in Troezen, the son of Aethra and of Aegeus, king of Athens. Aegeus left his sword and sandals under a large rock. Theseus, at the age of sixteen, lifted the rock and set out on a career of eliminating troublemakers and criminals, e. g. Skiron and Procrustes who robbed and killed travellers.

Aegeus and Medea ordered him to catch the Marathonian bull. This fierce animal had been brought to Greece from Crete by Herakles.

King Minos of Crete had a son, Androgeos. Androgeos was killed on Attic territory, so Minos exacted a three yearly tribute of seven Athenian youths and as many girls.

The Athenian youths and girls were sacrificed to a monster, the Minotaur, the offspring of Pasiphae, wife of Minos, and a bull, in the labyrinth at Knosos. Theseus determined to kill the monster and end the payment of tribute. He set sail in a ship with a black sail. It was arranged that if he returned successful, the ship would have a white sail set instead of the black one, to give watchers early news of the result.

On his way to Crete Theseus dived down into the sea to visit Amphitrite. This was supposed to prove that he was descended from Poseidon. He was presented with a crown.

Minos had a daughter, Ariadne, who helped Theseus to find his way in the labyrinth where he was to kill the Minotaur. The usual version of the story is that Ariadne gave Theseus a thread to help him to find the way out. Another version is that he had a magic crown of light.

After killing the Minotaur, Theseus sailed to Naxos with Ariadne. Here, he either abandoned her, or lost her to a rival, the god Dionysus. There was also a story that she was killed by Artemis.

Theseus then went to Delos, where he taught the Delian girls the crane dance. He sailed homewards to Athens, but forgot to change the black sail for a white one. Aegeus, watching from the Acropolis at Athens, assumed that the mission had ended in failure, and threw himself over the Acropolis cliff to his death. While some parts of the story are like simple adventure stories such as are found in most literatures, there are things that cannot be taken at their face value, and it is these which are especially significant and they will be discussed later.