CELESTIAL MYTHOLOGY
Thursday mornings
10:30 - noon
Starting October 4, 2018
at the Southworth Planetarium
$75 enrollment ($20 per class)

WALK INS WELCOME!

So, let's say someone approached us and said, "Tell me in one word why you
love celestial mythology so much that if it were a person you'd massage its
feet and make it a cup of tea?"  (Note:  Nobody has ever actually asked us
this.)     What would that word be?

Simple:     LABRYRINTH!


The twisty, turning, contorted construct of winding corridors, shadowy
tunnels and corners leading to nowhere.   That is why we love celestial
mythology!
The labyrinth that master craftsman Daedalus constructed to house the
fearsome Minotaur, who was born out of a wholly unnatural liaison between
the Minotian queen and the beautiful white bull that would one day become
the constellation Taurus. (The less said about that liaison the better,
thank you very much.)   The preternaturally crafty craftsman was so clever
on this occasion that he constructed a labyrinth that would imprison anyone
helplessly forever and forever...be it an ultra-intelligent calculus wizard
or a flesh-craving half-bull prone to rage fits.       Every year the
Athenian king Aegeus sent a tribute of fourteen young people to Crete to be
shoved into this labyrinth to be promptly chased and devoured.

Then, of course, came the year when the hot blooded Theseus joined the
tribute with the express purpose of defeating the maze bound monstrosity.
 He, being the muscle bound hero, did slay the minotaur, of course, but
needed the help of Ariadne, the King's daughter, to escape the labyrinth.
 In return, he promised to marry her and make her blissfully happy the rest
of her days.  Naturally, he abandoned her the following morning on the
island of Naxos, much to her chagrin.  (Although, some wives would insist
that a husband's rapid departure is the surest means of martial bliss.)
No tears for Ariadne, however.   She would go on to wed Dionysius, the god
of wine and merriment, who was so deeply devoted to her that he presented
her with a crown that became the constellation Coronoa Borealis.

Now, to make the plot more convoluted, Ariadne had had  to consult Daedalus
in order to help Theseus escape the labyrinth.   Daedalus told Ariadne to
take a skein of thread to Theseus and instruct him to tie it to the
entrance and draw it out as he moved through the maze.  After kicking the
Minotaur down to the realm of Tartarus, Theseus only had to follow the
thread back out to the entrance!       When King Minos learned that the
Minotaur was killed and the Athenian youth had safely sailed back to
Athens, he realized that slick, crafty and altogether no good Daedalus had
a hand in their escape.   The embittered king then imprisoned Daedalus and
his son Icarus in the labyrinth.    He knew the Minotaur was dead, but he
was confident that the two would starve to death.    They didn't.
Daedalus crafted wings of wax and feathers with which he and his son flew
out of the labyrinth to freedom. Well, it was freedom for Daedalus but
death to Icarus who, in spite of his father's warning, flew too close to
the Sun.  The wings fell apart and the poor youth fell to his death...

And, ladies and gentlemen, that is just 0.05% of 1% of the complex,
convoluted mythologies that comprise the grand, dynamic, expansive, overly
imaginative, often terrifying, but never boring amalgam of human invention
we call "Celestial Mythology."

We would love to see you tomorrow morning!