Ariadne
The threid that reeled him in
has brocht me oot –
oot o the nairra mask
o thirled weys
tae the clear licht o day.
I spied him wi the lassies,
dandlin them on his knee,
mou-mapplin thir breists
like the great bairn he is.
Braw suitor for the King’s dochter!
But heroes hae thir yuises.
I ticed him atween
cauld stane wa’s, doon
an doon tae the centre
o my black dreid.
Derkness like midden reek,
beast swite an bluid –
ae stroke o the bricht blade,
ae skirl tae split the wa’s.
The beast wis deid.
Noo I sit here on Naxos,
mangst myrtle an hinnied thyme,
an watch his black sail slide
awa doon the sun’s track
tae the warld’s end.
Barefit I’ll gang my ain gait.
The hairst is come.
Frae maumie vines
wild music springs –
an I wid learn a new daunce.
About this poem
This poem was included in the Best of the Best Scottish Poems, published in 2019. To mark the fifteenth anniversary of our annual online anthology Best Scottish Poems, the Library invited broadcaster, journalist and author James Naughtie to edit a ‘Best of the Best’ drawn from each of the annual editions of Best Scottish Poems.
Editor’s comment:
Why does Scots seem so suited to this re-told classical myth? It just does. Ariadne spins her thread to help Theseus out of the maze, and she springs from the poem as a fully-formed woman, ‘mangst myrtle and hinnied thyme’ on Naxos. I love the way Eunice Buchanan sketches her in with delicate brush-strokes – ‘Barefit I’ll gang my ain gait./The hairst is come.’ Poetry to wallow in.
This poem was included in Best Scottish Poems 2012. Best Scottish Poems is an online publication, consisting of 20 poems chosen by a different editor each year, with comments by the editor and poets. It provides a personal overview of a year of Scottish poetry. The editors in 2012 were Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh.
Editors’ comment:
Lovely language – we can taste that ‘derkness like a midden reek’ – and a sharply observant voice. This Scots Ariadne spies what’s really afoot and we’re with her all the way, ‘mangst myrtle an hinnied thyme’, cheering her on as she learns ‘a new daunce’.
Author’s note:
Without Ariadne, Theseus, a typical Greek hero, being expert at seducing ladies and killing things, would have been clueless when it came to being able to find his way back out of the maze, after killing the Minotaur. However, help was at hand. Ariadne handed him the end of thread and pointed the way, making sure that he had first attached the other end to the door-post.
Theseus then abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos.
Society in Knossos mirrored that of Victorian England, where strict codes of behaviour rule on the surface, while other unattractive things are going on underneath.
The hearing of ‘wild music’ was said to be a sign that the god, Dionysus, was near.
Dionysus can personify, along with his alter ego, Bacchus, the excesses of drugs and alcohol, but also freedom from the disabling ways of over-restrictive societies. He can personify inspiration for different ways of thinking, for poetry, music and dance.
What I find interesting is that when I was writing the poem I had no conscious memory of anything about ‘dance’ or ‘wild music’ in connection with Dionysus. He must have been around while I was writing it.
