awesome things

ANIMALS:

catenarwhal: #mandatory 'how cows produce milk' mention#i'll never recover from that one I fear

piromantic: #one time i saw someone fake their way through describing how spiders behave

pluto-lichen: horses

misskittypotter: #stardew valley faking its way through what fresh fish smell like

pa-pa-plasma: #saw someone faking their way through knowing what a seal is once #i still am fucked up over that one to this day. they just straight up did not know #& they were NOT good at guessing it either like it was clear they had never googled that animal ever #& was only just now realizing via answering questions from anons that seals are not!! what they assumed. initially

SEX:

dykevandyke: #what a prostate is #and where it is located #as in. external.

dreamyeyedrose: #I remember back in the ff.net days reading an Ichigo/Renji fic where the writer assumed the penises go inside each other #and I was like “I mean I don't know how it works for sure I don't have one but idk if that's how it works”

SOME OTHER FOOD STUFF:

thetrekkiehasthephonebox: #add another one to the list bloggers#this character is cooking a salad

shosta: #still baffled about the published work that didn't know food could freeze

sun-dari: #once i read a fic where the author didn't understand cinnamon

alto-tenure: #read something recently where the author was just. blatantly wrong about spices

dramatic-dolphin: #i saw someone try to fake their way through what ramen is once. like 14 years ago.#but i remember.#i was very confused about ramen for a few months. they were writing it so authoritatively.

the-celery-stalks-at-midnight: #i will never ever forget someone putting leftover fries in the microwave to reheat them and setting the timer for five minutes

typeghost: #this sparked a memory of a hannibal fic where the author had to fake their way through writing about gravy

draculin: #the one fanfic where the author knows about coffee only as a concept wrote a character as a coffee drinker#was very interesting#I don't remember the fandom or the plot but I was mesmerized by the coffee actions and choices

11235811235811: #there's a lot of faking their way thru congee in the svsss fandom i'll also note

fishali3n: #read one where the person clearly didnt know what tofu is

emmy-everafter: #in the aftermath of shadow and bone s2 i saw a lot of people pretending to know what stroopwafels are #babes they are more like cookies than breakfast waffles #like yes there is a waffle pattern but you're not gonna cut into a stack of them with syrup and sugar#🤣🤣🤣

NON-FOOD STUFF:

red-umbrella-811: Shoutout to Dame Agatha Christie for faking her way through what a wrench is in a very popular published work.

bluebeetle: #once saw someone have a character put an entire phone book in their pocket

nonametis: #- sex talk in languages other than english #<- or just the petnames in a different language other than English

sadisticpony: #the fanfiction i saw this week where op DIDNT KNOW HOW AUTOMATIC DOORS WORKED #and that they arent in peoples homes!!! of course. also opening the automatic door for someone is unironically very funny but its not #its not like. grabbing the door handle to let someone in. helpppp

danmeichael: #reminds me of the fic with the figure drawing class where the character started with the feet. #i love you feet first figure drawing author

meowmix1100blr: #me watching this one fic absolutely obliterate what the board of directors does

vexedhexes: #one time i read an architect character making a doorway bigger by building a bigger door #what a beautiful world. #OH. also gravity falls fic where they go 'oh piedmont is in california so its warm all year round'

leveragehunters: #characters going to a beer garden #And it's literally a garden outside the pub#It was a very cute mistake

fitofpique: #yes! #grown men do not get blind drunk off two beers #but i am possibly guilty of the hypothermia one #assuming it does not make you very horny?

dadvans-likes: #always thinking abt the soup kitchen fic #the entire setting of the fic was 'soup kitchen' #and i very quickly realized #the author did not know what a soup kitchen was #and they thought that soup kitchens only served soup #fic

msmargaretmurry: #i love fanfiction #once read a fic where the characters played 20 questions #but the author seemed to not know how to play 20 questions and was just kind of winging it........ #immaculate

shakespeareaddict: #Look I know not all of us are hockey experts #But it takes about ten seconds of research or any attention paid to the show to realize #That the Stanley cup playoffs are not in fucking September

baejax-the-great: #the funniest one i saw #was someone faking what church is like #like 1. they really didn't have to write an entire church experience for their fic #and 2. they had clearly never even watched a show where people went to church #it was bonkers weird

twosunson: #things ive seen authors faking #knowing how to unclog a drain #knowing. literally any history #knowing what ketamine looks like (apparently- oregano) #(you know who you are)

waterhorseyblues-ao3: #beltane being celebrated in winter #wales being portrayed as a completely separated land from england (i wish) #characters getting up after weeks of bedrest like that dosnt completely fuck you up

violetfairydust: #i once read a fic where the flight time from london to seattle was 3 hours

Pseudo-Hyginus, still in Astronomica, however, also says that, depending on the version, the crown was a gift from Venus (Aphrodite) and the Horae at the wedding of Ariadne and Dionysus (2.5.1), apparently part of the typical version in which Ariadne marries the god after being left on Naxos/Dia. Another version present in Astronomica is that the crown was a gift from Amphitrite to Theseus and a gift from Theseus to Ariadne (2.5.3). The idea that Amphitrite presented Theseus with a crown is older than Pseudo-Hyginus, as it is already mentioned in the poem Youths of Bacchylides (5th century BCE), in which Aphrodite is said to have given it to Amphitrite at her wedding to Poseidon. I remember reading in Giuliana Ragusa the interpretation that this crown given to Amphitrite for Theseus is a sign of how his erotic relationship with Ariadne is linked to victory, which if this is indeed the case only makes the erotic aspect of the intentions surrounding the crown even more obvious. In the most common version where Dionysus meets Ariadne on the island of Dia/Naxos, he also gives her a crown, which is placed in the constellations.

Overall, Ariadne's crown, regardless of who gave it to her (Liber/Dionysus, Venus/Aphrodite and Horae, Theseus), clearly represents an erotic and/or conjugal factor: Aphrodite gave the crown to Amphitrite because of her marriage with Poseidon, Theseus gave the crown to Ariadne and she became his lover, Dionysus gave the crown to Ariadne as a courtship or as a post-wedding gift, Venus gave the crown to Ariadne because of her marriage with Liber. I think it would be unlikely that Ariadne had no romantic pretensions towards Theseus, if apparently all versions surrounding this crown include the marital/courtship aspect. This makes Ariadne's act of giving this crown to Theseus in the version indicated above even more likely to have been done with romantic intentions, even though she was betrothed to Dionysus. And that's what's confusing me… I would love for this Cretica to have survived the test of time, I want to know how the hell Ariadne and Dionysus' relationship happens in all this confusion.

Kind of a summary of the versions about the crown:

There was also another version of the story, recorded in the astronomical literature, in which Theseus lit his way through the labyrinth with a wondrous crown that he had received from Ariadne. For Dionysos had previously visited Crete with the intention of seducing her, and had given her this marvellous crown, which had been made by Hephaistos with gold and Indian jewels, and it shone in the dark, enabling Theseus to lighten the gloom of the labyrinth (and presumably escape without any need for the thread). In the usual tradition, as we will see, Ariadne first met Dionysos after leaving Crete with Theseus, and he gave her the crown at that later time when he took her as his wife. He was said to have placed it in the heavens after her death in any case, to become the constellation of the Northern Crown (Corona Borealis).

The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology by Robin Hard, 296.

I also found a theory that attempted to combine the statement in The Odyssey that Ariadne was killed by Artemis it was what Dionysus wanted (11.321-225), the comment in the Homeric scholia that the reason for her death was that Theseus and Ariadne had sex in a sacred place (The Odyssey scholia, 2.11.2, 325) and this version in which Dionysus had already betrothed Ariadne before Theseus (Pseudo-Hyginus), but she still apparently courted Theseus:

By piecing together a few other references to Ariadne we can suggest what the original version of her myth may have been, before the transition from pre-Greek to Greek religion; and an examination of the reconstruction of this pre-Homeric version will bring some order to the difficult passages sum- marized above. Dionysus was Ariadne's first lover and gave her the golden crown that later became a constellation (Epimenides F. Gr. Hist 457 F 19- Vorsokr. 3 B. 25; Hyginus Astr. 2.5; Schol. ad Od. 11.322). He later accused her of sleeping with Theseus (Schol. ad Od. 11.325). Pausanias mentions a tomb of Ariadne in the temple of Cretan Dionysus at Argos (2.23). When we take these references into account, the story compounded from the hypothetical older, "original" (pre-Homeric) version (in which Ariadne would be a cyclical vegetation goddess) and the later, canonical version (where she was a mere heroine) reads: 1) Ariadne married Dionysus. 2) She ran away with Theseus. 3) Dionysus, betrayed, had Artemis slay Ariadne. The god could not permit his wife to abandon him for a mortal husband, albeit a hero. Artemis was in charge of chastity in general and known for cruelly punishing women who strayed from proper behavior (e.g. Callisto). It would be distasteful and ungallant to have the husband himself do the killing. 4) Dionysus came and reclaimed the deserted Ariadne. [...]

Some Anomalies in the Myth of Ariadne by Robert Eisner, pg 176.

But an often overlooked part is that there is actually another significant dance in this myth! About this description of the shield of Achilles made by Hephaesthus because of Thetis’ request, the Homeric scholia (5th century BCE to 12th century CE) says:

He wrought a dancing floor on it, etc. (ἐν δὲ χορὸν ποίησε καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς) Hephaistos also carefully wrought on [the shield] a dance that has a similar arrangement of dancers as the one that was created by the inventor Daidalos for Ariadne in the city of Knossos on Crete. For the story is told that when Theseus traveled from Aphidnai to Athens, he arrived just as the tributes—the seven boys and seven girls—were being sent to Minos on Crete. The Athenians were performing this tribute as payment for the treacherous murder of Androgeos, Minos’ son, when he was taking part in the Panathenaia festival and kept winning. Anyways, they say that Theseus willingly enlisted with the those heading off, and when he got to Crete he caught the eye of Ariadne, Minos’ daughter. Because of this he was saved by the skill of Daidalos in the following way. Daidalos gave Ariadne a ball of thread and told her to give it to Theseus so that he could attach the end of the thread to the entranceway. That would allow him to unwind the ball as he entered the Labyrinth, and, once he overcame the beast, he would have a simple and easy way back out of the Labyrinth, which had a complex, interwoven set of passages out. When Theseus got out after overcoming the beast, he along with the other boys and girls weaved a choral dance for the gods in such a way that it reflected his intricate weaving in and out of the Labyrinth. It was Daidalos that came up with and created the practice of choral dance.

Scholia D, 18.590. Translation by Scott Smith et al.

Although this scholia is very late, it certainly drew from older sources. Hesychius (5th/6th century CE) knew about geranos dance and Theseus dancing in gratitude:

[...] The mention of the two "leaders" is amplified by Hesychius. A yeрavovλκós, he says (s. v.), is "the leader of the dance on Delos." The same lexicographer defines the geranos (s. v.) as "a dance," without further elaboration; and the Etymologicum Magnum (s. v.) glosses it merely as "a kind of dance."[...] [...] A somewhat corrupt gloss of Hesychius (s. v. *Aŋλkakòs ẞwμós) speaks of the "running around the altar on Delos in a circle, and being beaten," and says that Theseus began the rite, in gratitude for his escape from the Labyrinth. [...]

The Geranos Dance — A New Interpretation by Lilian Brady Lawler, pgs 113 and 115.

But there is more! Already in the Roman Era, Pollux (2nd century CE) said something similar:

Pollux (4.101) says that the geranos is danced κатà πλños, one dancer beside another in line, with "leaders" holding the end posi- tions on either side — ἕκαστος ὑφ ̓ ἑκάστῳ κατὰ στοῖχον, τὰ ἄκρα ἑκατέρωθεν τῶν ἡγεμόνων ἐχόντων. He says also that the followers of Theseus were the first to perform the dance, that they danced around the Delian altar, and that they imitated in their dance their escape from the Labyrinth.

The Geranos Dance — A New Intepratation by Lilian Brady Lawler, pgs 112-113.

From a similar period of Pollux, Plutarch (1st/2nd century CE) provides us with information about Theseus and the saved Athenians dancing in celebration of their freedom and the fact that they were alive:

On his voyage from Crete, Theseus put in at Delos, and having sacrificed to the god and dedicated in his temple the image of Aphrodite which he had received from Ariadne, he danced with his youths a dance which they say is still performed by the Delians, being an imitation of the circling passages in the Labyrinth, and consisting of certain rhythmic involutions and evolutions. This kind of dance, as Dicaearchus tells us, is called by the Delians The Crane, and Theseus danced it round the altar called Keraton, which is constructed of horns ("kerata") taken entirely from the left side of the head. He says that he also instituted athletic contests in Delos, and that the custom was then begun by him of giving a palm to the victors

Life of Theseus, 21.1-2. Translation by Bernadotte Perrin.

Plutarch credits this to Dicaearchus (4th/3rd century BCE, if this is Dicaearchus of Messana), indicating the existence of this myth in the Hellenistic Era. And indeed, we have a surviving source that confirms this! Callimachus (3rd century BCE), an author from Hellenistic Era, had already presented it in the Delian Hymn:

[...] Then, too, is the holy image laden with garlands, the famous image of ancient Cypris whom of old Theseus with the youths established when he was sailing back from Crete. Having escaped the cruel bellowing and the wild son of Pasiphaë and the coiled habitation of the crooked labyrinth, about thine altar, O lady, they raised the music of the lute and danced the round dance, and Theseus led the choir. Hence the ever-living offerings of the Pilgrim Ship do the sons of Cecrops send to Phoebus, the gear of that vessel.

Hymn to Delios, 307-315. Translation by A.W. Mair.

We have also a visual representation on the famous François Vase, which is supposed to date from around the 6th century BCE. Although the context isn’t fully known (I’ll explore this later), a dance is depicted and the names next to the characters indicate the connection to the myth of the Minotaur. For example, one of the girls is named as “Ariadne”.

François vase: details of Theseus’s Cretan adventure. Photo courtesy Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana. Retired from Guy Herdeen, pg 493.

François vase (Firenze, Museo Archeologico Nazionale): Top Friezes (sides A & B). Drawing reproduced from A; Furtwängler, Griechische Vasenmalerei, München, 1900/1993, plate 13. Retired from Sara Olsen.

One interpretation is that the vase was intended to be the dance performed on Delos by Theseus and the Athenians, mentioned by Plutarch:

One prominent element in the representation of Paris appears as yet unmatched in the metaphor: just how appropriate is the image of Paris as a dancer trying to fight to the metaphor of the cranes attacking the Pygmies? In fact, γέρανος ‘crane’ is the name of the famous dance performed on Delos by Theseus, Ariadne, and the Athenian youths and maidens on their return from Crete. In nature, cranes actually do perform a remarkable group dance all year round, [56] and their symbolic attributes in the Greek bestiary are especially appropriate to the context of the Theseus myth, as Marcel Detienne has shown: the γέρανος dance, which is consistently described as imitating the entry into or the passage from the labyrinth, is, like Ariadne’s thread, an invention of Daidalos. [57] But in form and function both the thread and the dance recall Greek descriptions of the two-headed, twisting line of flight made by cranes migrating from the ends of the earth and back. [58] In epic, the dancing-place on Akhilleus’ shield (cited above, 86–87) is explicitly likened [59] to the one Daidalos contrived for Ariadne in Crete, and the scholia identify the dance being performed by the ἠΐθεοι καὶ παρθένοι ‘adolescents and maidens’ on it as one performed on Crete {91|92} imitating the twists and turns of the labyrinth. [60] In fact, the scholia may be correct: this may actually be the dance called γέρανος that was later performed on Delos (see the discussion below). [...]

The Simile of the Cranes and Pygmies: A Study of Homeric Metaphor by Leonard Muellner.

There is, however, the problem of Ariadne's presence, as literary sources indicate that she was left on Naxos/Dia, that is, she wasn’t present on Delos:

Confirmation that the scholiast was reporting a well-known version of the myth comes from the François vase (ca. 570). One scene on this vase shows Theseus with a lyre leading the fourteen youths in a dance formation, as they alternate by sexes and hold hands. Ariadne stands facing the chorus and holding out a ball of string to Theseus. The old theory that this scene represents the dance on Delos mentioned by Plutarch has been conclusively refuted by Johansen. He cites the presence of Ariadne, who in all accounts of the myth was abandoned or killed before Theseus reached Delos, as well as parallel representations on other vases, to show that the painter of the François vase was depicting the liberation dance of Theseus and his companions on Crete the very same scene that the scholiast reports Homer was describing on Achilles' shield.

Homer and Ariadne by Kathryn J. Gutzwiller, pg 35.

On the other hand, there are those who think that it is a dance performed in Crete (hence the presence of Ariadne) and that it could represent the post-defeated moment of the Minotaur, as described in the Byzantine scholia — I won't present the arguments here because I imagine you can already imagine what they are, that is, ancient literary sources like scholia. However, Guy Hedreen interprets the possibility that François Vase shows the dance at the beginning of the arrival in Crete as an establishment of the relationship between Ariadne and Theseus, and not a post-triumphal dance as is the case in the literary sources:

Although the François vase clearly depicts Theseus leading a dance upon his arrival on Crete, most commentators have argued, on the basis of literary accounts, that Kleitias intended to depict a later moment in the story. The dance upon arrival, however, has several discursive functions within the image: by characterizing Theseus as the choregos of a dance traditionally performed by marriageable young people, it presents him as a promising husband for Ariadne; and by evoking the triumphal ritual arrival of Dionysos, the image anticipates that Theseus will be victorious. In this image, mythical narrative, spectacle, and the socialization of adolescence are carefully woven together. [...] [...] On the level of the narrative logic that governs the tale of the Cretan adventure, it would be premature to celebrate a victory dance before the victory has occurred. On the discursive level, however, Greek pictorial art often takes advantage of the possibilities of analeptic or proleptic allusion. Narrative art relies on the viewer to relate the elements of an image to the appropriate actions, characters, or logic in the underlying story, reformulating the story when necessary to account for the pictorial features. Many scholars have rightly connected the triumphant gestures of the sailors on the François vase with Theseus’s impending triumph over the Minotaur. It does not follow from the gestures, however, that the triumph has already occurred. Of greater interest are the ways in which the particular characterization of the dance contributes to the narrative intelligibility of the image. First, by depicting Theseus, at the moment when he first meets Ariadne, as the leader of a mixed dance of adolescent boys and girls, Kleitias offers an explanation of Ariadne’s decision to help him. The explanation operates at the level of the narrative as well as that of the discourse: putting ourselves in Ariadne’s place, we can appreciate why she might have decided that Theseus was an attractive (if risky) candidate for marriage. Kleitias conveys this idea by characterizing the choral dance on the vase as the sort of dance performed at a particular point in Greek life, the moment when adolescents begin to identify themselves as potential spouses, and “focalizes” it through Ariadne by making her a spectator of Theseus’s performance. By depicting the dance in this way, Kleitias has effectively imported into his visual narrative connotations of fitness for marriage. [...] [...] Kleitias represented the arrival of Theseus on Crete as a triumphal, mixed-gender dance for the sake of the connotations that those forms of dance contribute to the narrative potential or intelligibility of the image. Although it is possible that Kleitias was the first person to introduce choral dance into this heroic legend, there are good reasons to think that he has taken an existing element of the underlying story, the creation of the geranos by Theseus, and reconfigured it in the manner described here. In either case, the resulting image sets up a relationship between Theseus’s Cretan adventure as a myth and one particular form of ritual associated with marriage as a rite of passage. [...]

Bild, Mythos and Ritual: Choral Dance in Theseus' Cretan Adventure on the François Vase by Guy Herdeen, pgs 491 and 506-507.

More about the courtship possibility:

Of course, already about 570 BCE, with the explosion of mythical themes in Attic vase-paintings Theseus becomes a prominent figure in them. In the François vase he appears twice. In his Cretan exploit (fig. 5.5) the ship that brought the fourteen Athenian boys and girls who were to be Minotaur’s victims is landing; the gestures of the ship’s crew look like lamentation, while Theseus, richly gowned, is playing the lyre and leading the dancing young Athenians as he approaches Ariadne. She stretches out her hand holding a wreath and the ball of wool with the thread that will show him the way into the labyrinth, while her nurse, apparently uneasy about the happenings, gesticulates vividly. Theseus is wooing Ariadne (the wreath she holds might be his love gift) and she is responding; so it seems he will get her help and save the young Athenians from the Minotaur: an appropriate deed for the polis-hero. That there is no consistent rendering of time and place is not unusual:  the vase-painters choose instead to represent what they deem characteristic for the story

Innovations and Inventions in Athens c. 530 to 470 BCE – Two Crucial Generations by Marion Meyer, pg 105.

About the context, Sarah Olsen draws similarities between Apollo and Theseus to reinforce his role as the leader of the chorus of dancers, as the choregos, and also presents the interpretation that François Vase demonstrated the moment of the creation of the dance:

I have argued that reading the sailors in relation to the central dancing figures illuminates how this image conceptualizes choral performance as an activity distinct from the motion and physical activity of ordinary life. I turn now to the right side of the image, to consider how Theseus relates to the dance. Theseus stands with his back to the fourteen dancers, his body turned towards Ariadne. His stance recalls that of the other dancers – left foot forward, body twisted. Yet he is also clearly distinguished by his long garment and lyre. I argue that this instrument is a particularly important symbol of Theseus’ role in the dance, marking his role as both choregos, the internal leader of the dance, and choreographer, the external creative author of the choral production. As choregos, Theseus is both a participant in and leader of the chorus. On the François vase, his position at the head of the line of dancers marks him as a leader, while his stance and physical orientation, like that of the other fourteen youths, marks him as a dancer. In his later account of Theseus as a choral leader, Plutarch describes Theseus as both dancing and leading when he says: ἐχόρευσε μετὰ τῶν ἠϊθέων χορείαν ([Theseus] “danced a dance with the youths,” Thes. XXI) – Theseus is explicitly dancing himself, yet he is accompanied, implicitly followed, by the other youths.

The Homeric Hymn to Apollo, a roughly contemporary literary source, helps to further illuminate Theseus’position here. In the final episode of the hymn, Apollo leads a group of Cretan sailors in a choral procession to Delphi, intending to install them as priests of his newly-founded shrine (Homeric Hymn to Apollo 453-547). The poet describes Apollo thus: ἦρχε δ᾽ ἄρα σφιν ἄναξ Διὸς υἱὸς Ἀπόλλων, φόρμιγγ᾽ ἐν χείρεσσιν ἔχων ἐρατὸν κιθαρίζων καλὰ καὶ ὕψι βιβάς∙ […] “And lord Apollo, son of Zeus, led them, holding a lovely lyre in his hands , playing well and stepping high (515-517).” Like Theseus on the François vase, Apollo is marked by a combination of lyre-playing and performance leadership. His high steps (ὕψι βιβάς) do not suggest ordinary movement – he is certainly dancing in some loose sense of the word. Yet he also holds an instrument in his hands, thus providing both the choreography and the musical accompaniment required for the procession. For the Athenian youths depicted on this frieze, Theseus plays a similar role. The orientation of the dancers’ bodies implies that they are following his physical lead, while his lyre presumably offers the aural component of their performance.

Yet Apollo, in his hymn, is more than just an internal choregos. He is also a choreographer – a producer of choral performance who brings his own vision to life through the bodies of the dancers. He leads the Cretans to Delphi for a very specific purpose, and uses his choral leadership to orient them towards the shrine and generate a model for future ritual procession. A choreographer, in this sense, is one who orchestrates the process of ritualization through choral performance. Theseus’ leadership and lyre indicate that he, too, may be more than an internal choregos of some previously established choreography. His leadership extends to the creation of the dance itself, the invention and instantiation of a new ritualized performance. As I argued in the first section of this essay, the contrast between the sailors and the dancers is consistent with the process of ritualization, the formalization and unification of bodily motion that allows dance to create group cohesion without overriding all individual distinctions. The iconography of Theseus on this frieze further suggests that this ritualization process begins with the choreographer: the figure holding the lyre and setting the steps of the dance. Thus, if we read this frieze from right to left, Theseus strums the lyre and initiates the dance, while the dancers embody a sense of communal activity and identity without the loss of personalizing details. Phaidimos, as the final dancer, is only just becoming a choral participant: his body not yet like the others, but nearly there. The sailors, on the far left, remain as spectators, still engaged in the disordered, non-ritualized motions of ordinary life. The uppermost frieze of the reverse side of the François vase thereby depicts a moment of choreographic creation: the initiation of a ritualized performance.

Conceptualizing Choreia on the François vase: Theseus and the Athenian Youths by Sarah Olsen, paragraphs 22-29.

It has been suggested that although the geranos dance probably existed for a considerable time, it wasn’t always associated with Theseus and that this association possibly had an Athenian origin, since Theseus was the national hero. Ben S Cassel addresses this in “The Thesean Ritual Landscape: Appropriation, Identify and Athenian Collective Memories” and I recommend reading at least those pages 243-245 if you are interested in this political context. She also argues for the symbolism of cultural maintenance in memory and other religious aspects.

Another factor is that, because The Iliad depicts a dance between young people of different genders and uses Ariadne as a comparison, it has been theorized that perhaps it was the poet's intention to allude to this myth. Although we cannot be certain, if this were indeed the case, it would place it as an element already present in the archaic period. Lawler (pgs 113-114), however, thinks that the dance described by Homer doesn't match the descriptions of dancing performed by Athenians in later sources. From a similar period (7th century BCE) there is the vase attributed to Analatos Painter, which depicts people of different genders dancing. There have been attempts to connect this with the possible Theseus myth, but the lack of names and the fact that the leader uses a flute and not a lyre (as is more typical of Theseus), has led to disagreement. It has been argued that the lyre might be a later development and therefore would not prevent Theseus from using a flute, but at present this vase is quite uncertain (Gutzwiller, pgs 35-36).

Furthermore, regarding the lyre in Theseus' hands, the idea of ​​a lyrist Theseus is present in ancient literature. To cite, Pausanias (2nd century CE) and Pseudo-Hyginus (1st century):

[...] There is Theseus holding a lyre, and by his side is Ariadne gripping a crown. [...]

Description of Greece, 5.19.1. Translation by W.H.S. Jones.

[...] In this connection, too, some have said that the Lyre, placed nearest this sign, is the lyre of Theseus, for he was skilful in all the arts and seems to have learned the lyre as well. This, too, Anacreon says: Near Theseus, son of Aegeus, is the Lyre.

Astronomica, 2.6.3. Translation by Mary Grant.

About Pausanias, Lawler comments “the general context here is of a dance, but there is no detail” (pg 113). In this sense, Pausanias was possibly making some sort of reference to a myth involving dance, one that included Ariadne. In addition to the François Vase, there are other visual representations in a cup by Oltos/Euphronios/Kachrylion (there are differents attributions) that include a boy, a girl and a lyre, similar to how Pausanias saw them depicted (Pausanias was describing a visual representation on the chest of Kypselos). Because of the resemblance, it has been suggested that they could be Theseus and Ariadne:

However, the London Oltos cup is considered here not solely for the abduction scene on the obverse, but for its other scenes as well. The tondo (pl. 41, fig. 3), as stated above, shows two confronted figures — a long- haired, beardless male playing a lyre at the left, and a young female holding a flower at the right. He is wreathed and wearing a himation. She wears a chiton and mantle, fillet, earrings, bracelet and sandals, and as she draws up her skirt, looks strikingly like an archaic kore. The inscription, emanating from the mouth of the youth, is no aid to their identification, for it reads simply "Chaire su." Beazley has suggested that the figures are Theseus and one of the maidens rescued from Crete, and cites the François vase as a comparison. If this analogy is apt, then surely we are dealing with Theseus and Ariadne, as suggested originally by Murray. The two are occasionally paired in earlier Greek art, and Theseus' traditional attribute in such depictions is the lyre. A mythological interpretation of this scene has been opposed by Greifenhagen who cites the facts that the figures are not labeled as on the obverse, and that on the Oxford cup (pl. 40, fig. 2) mentioned above (where, we might add, the mythological figures are also not labeled), the tondo filler is a mere hetaira. He, therefore, doubts that the pair by Oltos are anything other than singer and girlfriend. However, here there are no accoutrements denoting the banquet, as one finds on the Oxford kylix (ladle and cup) and elsewhere in such scenes. Also, the fancy apparel of the girl and her flower suggest more than genre. [...]

The Loves of Theseus: An Early Cup by Oltos by Jenifer Neils, pg 178.

Theseus and Ariadne. Attic red-figure cup, ca. 510 b.c., attributed to Euphronios. London, British Museum E 41 (GR 1837.6-9.58). Photo © Trustees of the British Museum. Retired from Guy Hedreen, pg 498.

It has been theorized that before the depiction of a man with a lyre and a woman became popular in Greek iconography in general without necessarily having any connection to myth, perhaps it was initially intended to represent Theseus and Ariadne (Hedreen, pg 409). In any case, this cup is from a period when the Athenians seemed interested in using the entire length of the object to tell a relatively linear story rather than myths of different characters. Considering this, there is also the factor that the other parts of the cup seem to indicate other Theseus myths involving women, hence the possible identification of Theseus and Ariadne.

Geranos dance is also commonly called the "crane dance" (although some have questioned whether the translation is actually "crane", see Lawler pg 117), and the dance is mentioned by Lucian of Samosata (2nd century CE) in his text "Dance". Although the mention is brief and Lucian doesn't give many details, he later cites inspirations for the dancers, one of which is "the wanderings of the island Delos" (trans. Fowler), a location heavily referenced in the sources.