The Ariadne Myth, an image of an Feminine Individuation story?
Author: Christopher Chayban
I will raise the question, could the Minotaur be an image of projection from the feminine Ego perspective that needs to be slayed? Could that be why Ariadne is relatively absent? And by slayed I mean, made conscious and differentiated? The Animus is tied to the inferior function which is a doorway to the unconscious. The think one meaning of this myth might be to leave room for inner growth (which gets projected externally in the cash cow) rather than get stuck with in certain threads (one-sidedness) and lines of thinking of the observing Ego Ariadne, about what is or isn’t “suitable” in the external world. A redeeming image for this myth might come from another culture. The image of Shiva and the bull called “Nandi.” In this image connects above and below that was originally fused in the Minotaur with the head of Bull being above and the body of the human below. With Shiva and Nandi, the spiritual male principle of is both separated and in a coniunctio with the chthonic male principle when the inner male or partner, Shiva is mounted on the Divine Bull. Nandi means to flourish or grow (Wikipedia) which as I said earlier, I think gets concretized externally in the cash cow motif found or even the wild man Animus motif that is found in projection, carried by Minotaur men. So, in my interpretation, I see the slaying of the minotaur as withdrawing the projection of external success (but found more so in men can we say?), but also adding, to leave room to grow and flourish (Nandi) internally once the inner figures of man and bull are separated.
The bull is a vehicle of which the Self can come through but not the “Self” itself. I hope I have aroused an interesting hypothesis, rather than advocate gender stereotypes, which is absolutely not my intention at all. I will apologize in advance if that’s how anyone perceives it.
Resources:
Here are some images of Shiva and Nandi.
Nandi (bull). (2018, March 30). Retrieved March 31, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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