death of manolette

manolette was, apparently, a great spanish bullfighter. his death, therefore, as sung about in the 10000 maniacs song "death of manolette," signaled the end of a tradition of masculine "immortality." the lyrics go: "the old men with their traditions challenged refrained from tears on the day manolette died."

they say that to be a great bullfighter (actually, i'm the one saying something, someone who has no experience in bullfighting, but who does shovel a lot of bull), you need to be both brave and skilled at misdirection (a great liar). i am not particularly good at either; in fact, i would say i am a great coward, and although i haven't precisely the moral backbone to be an "honest man," i have this inability to tell a good lie under any degree of scrutiny (funny, isn't it, how lying requires a kind of "immoral backbone...").

have you ever read the myth of the minotaur? it's actually somewhat fascinating. the greeks were trying to say something, via "pairings" and lineages, i think: the minotaur was supposedly the offspring of queen pasiphae (king minos's wife), who was so enamored of a bull that she had daedalus invent a costume for her so that she could attract its "attentions." this bestial union formed the monster known as the minotaur... and yet, king minos himself was supposedly the son of a union between europa and zeus, who seduced europa by taking on the form of a white bull. it has even been interpreted that the bull that seduces europa, and the bull that seduces pasiphae are ONE AND THE SAME.

it gets weirder. apparently, pasiphae was the daughter of helios, god of the sun. the image is that even one so high born and glorious as she could be debased and seduced by "taurian lust." note the interconnections between daedalus (fashioner of the cow hide disguise) and his son, icarus, who was seduced by, and slain by, the sun...

there are even further interconnections. theseus slays the minotaur, largely through the help of ariadne, king minos's daughter. ariadne is a weaving figure in greek mythology, not unlike arachne. (in fact, the image of the weaver is central to greek mythology, and, in fact, other mythology systems: women have as their iconic role the weaving of social bonds, for example...) it is no accident that i tie the icarus-daedalus myth to the image of silkworms. theseus's journey through the labyrinth is assisted by ariadne's spool of "red thread."

"red"--> the color used by bullfighters. "red"--> the color of the red thread of ariadne. "red"--> the color of the thread in Japanese folklore that ties lovers together via their pinky fingers. "red"--> the color of Marsilani...

i sometimes get heady and lost in the interconnections... mythology is so ambiguous and rich. a plenitude of interpretations are possible.