Book Review by Kathryn Rangeley: I chose this book thinking it would be for children. My knowledge of the author came from my childhood when I knew her as a poet and storyteller. She was also the author of the words to ‘Morning has Broken’ a favorite school assembly hymn during the 1960s.
What I did not know was that she was a playwright and author of some novels for adults.
Ariadne and the Bull falls into this latter category.
If you were looking for a retelling of the Greek myth of the title you would be disappointed.
I should have learned from the blurb inside th cover that this was not going to be the case, but I did not read this until after I’d read the novel.
Eleanor Farjeon calls her ‘new’ novel a New Fantasia on an Ancient Theme; and there seems to be no doubt that she has gone ‘all Disney in her treatment of the story of Ariadne and Theseus’.
And
‘ To describe the body of Miss Farjeon’s theme is unnecessary- it can be found in any Greek
mythology; while to describe the dress in which she has clothed the old bones is impossible, so many incongruous materials have gone to fashion it.’First edition cover.
Before I go on to review the book, I think it would be helpful to briefly describe the story of Ariadne and the Minotaur.
The Minotaur lived In the labyrinth on the island of Crete. He had the head of a man and the body of a bull, being the result of the union of Pasiphae, wife of Minos and Zeus, King of the Gods who had disguised himself as a bull.
Every year, King Minos demanded seven Athenian men and seven Athenian maidens to be sacrificed to the bull.
Theseus, son of the king of Athens offered to be one of the Athenian men – and being a hero, would kill the Minotaur.
When the party arrived on Crete, Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, fell in love with Theseus. She gave him a ball of thread so that he could unravel it and find his way out of the labyrinth after he had killed the Minotaur.
The pair leave the island to return to Athens only for Theseus to abandon Ariadne on Naxos.
The novel opens with the Cretans waiting for the human sacrifices as if they were preparing for a cocktail party in the 1930s – with the narrative full of the ‘incongruous materials’ quoted on the cover.
Cocktails will be offered by a new young footman
‘White lady? Dry Martini? Passion-fruit?’ (P43).
Turkish cigarettes and sausages on sticks are also part of the party fare.
The author uses a 20th Century convention of the young people giving each other nicknames with Phaedra sister of Ariadne known as Feedy, Ariadne known as Radny and Bacchus as Baccy. I found this extremely irritating but presumably, the author wanted it to be part of the New Fantasia on and Ancient theme
The young people spend their last night on earth at a beach party and there are veiled references to sex in the story.
Their hands met.He closed hers between his two and it did not stir. He drew it to his lips and she came with it.
‘Your hand is smoother than the magnolia flower. Your breath is sweeter and your breath is whiter. Phaedra let me smell your white magnolia’ (p72)
In the meantime, Pasiphae is making one of her regular visits to her son, the Minotaur. I have found no reference to such visits in Greek mythology.
At this point in the novel, the descriptions take on what appears to the 21st Century reader, an racist and offensive tone.
The bull is described as being black:
‘Coal black. The brute bull-neck, biceps and shoulders were coal-black too. The human torso was black, and the flanks and the calves and the feet. He was a monstrosity carved out of ebony.’ 9(p74)
The above in itself is not offensive until one reads it with the rest of the chapter. Farjeon
infantilises the bull in a way that some 18th Century writers spoke about enslaved people. She diminishes his intelligence.
‘His brain was the brain of an animal but his heart was human.’
He has killed a bird and is at first in despair about it, but later launches into a song in the African American spiritual style.
Farjeon uses what could be described as patois, but which I found offensive as I read it.
I’ve gwine ter rise on de pinions on on a bird
Ober de silent Lethe
I’ve twine to listen To the singin of the word
Way beyond the Lethe
O dem Wilber daisies
O dem golden grasses
Growing in de meadows of Elysium
I’m gwine ter munch among dem flowery masses
W’en Ise com\
Yas Lawd I’se comin
To Elysium
And so on for 5 more verses. (p78)
I think the purpose of the scenes with Pasiphae and the bull are a way for the author to present a different and more sympathetic picture of the Minotaur than is normally portrayed. He is portrayed as someone’s son who is misunderstood rather than as an evil monster. The picture on the front cover reflects this.
As the story progresses. Farjeon uses her experience as a poet to intersperse the narrative with poems. She also includes scenes from plays. The final scene is a dramatised trial of the Minotaur. The Bull is in court being tried for his crimes and defended by Pasiphae. The defence is that the Bull is not inherently evil – he has been made evil by those who locked him in the labyrinth.
The book finishes with the Minotaur still alive, being worshipped by the people of Crete. Possibly this is a allegory for the Resurrection.
In summary, I think Farjeon has definitely provided us with a ‘New Fantasia on an Ancient theme’. It was interesting to reimagine the bull as someone’s son, but I do not think that the anachronistic use of cocktail parties and nicknames works.
Also I am not sure that the links to Christianity puts gives the book the ‘all Disney’ treatment described on the cover.
I cannot find any contemporary reviews of the book, so I don’t not know how it was received at the time of publication (1945) but I’m pretty sure that it would not be viewed favourably if it were published now.