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The Crane Dance in East and West

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Edward A. Armstrong
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Extract

In a well-known passage Plutarch (quoting Dikairchos) tells us that when Theseus landed in Delos with Ariadne, daughter of Nlinos, on his return from Crete, he and his young companions danced a dance which was called ‘The Crane’. This dance, as I hope to show, was an integral part of a cultural pattern of sacrificial and funerary ritual which was widespread throughout Europe and Asia and extended in modified form at least as far as Malekula in the New Hebrides. Unquestionably it was associated with the Labyrinth. Its winding figures represented the hero's wanderings in the Labyrinth on Crete.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 17 , Issue 66 , June 1943 , pp. 71 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1943

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References

Dance, Crane. Plutarch, Theseus, XXI; Pollux, Julius, IV, 101; Lucian, De salt, 34, 49; Callimachus, Hymn IV (to Delos) 307–15; Victorinus, Marius, Ars Grammatica, I, XVI, 12–14; S. Gregory of Nazianzen, Oration Theologica, II, 25; Tryphiodorus, Taking of Ilios, 352–57; Hesychius, Lexicon, s.v. γέραvoς and s.v. γεραvoνλκός (I am indebted to Mr R. W. Cruttwell for some of these references).Google Scholar
Migration of Cranes. II, III, 3; Hesiod, Op. 776; Aristophanes, Aves, 711; Jer, VIII, 7.Google Scholar
The Labyrinth (modern authorities). Cook, A. B., Zeus (1914–40), 1, 472 ff.; III, II, 1086–7; Sir Evans, A. J., The Palace of Minos at Knossos, in; Sir Frazer, J., G.B., III-IV, 70–8; Hooke, S. H., ed. The Labyrinth; Jackson Knight, W. F., Cumaean Gates; Layard, J., ‘Maze dances and the ritual of the labyrinth in Malekula’. Folklore, XLVII, 123–70 and Stone Men of Malekula, Vao; Matthews, W. H., Mazes and Labyrinths; Oesterley, W. O. E., The Sacred Dance.Google Scholar
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