29 Jan. A.S. XXIX (2005 CE)
Barony of Three Rivers (St. Louis, MO)
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| Queen's Prize XII 29 Jan. A.S. XXIX (2005 CE) Barony of Three Rivers (St. Louis, MO) |
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| My entry in Queen's Prize XII was a wooden toy called Ariadne's Block. It is named for Ariadne of ancient Cretan myth. According to the myth, King Minos (who is believed to have been a real king of Crete around 3000BCE) had a half-man half-bull monster called Minotaur imprisoned in a great underground palace with halls that turned back upon themselves. The palace of course was called Labyrinth. After sacking Athens, Minos demanded a septennial tribute of seven young Athenian men and seven young Athenian women to feed to Minotaur. When a young Athenian named Theseus sailed to Crete with designs to kill Minotaur, Minos' daughter Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and resolved to help him by giving him a magic sword to kill Minotaur and a ball of string to retrace his path back out of Labyrinth. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| The toy consists of a wooden block all bored through with tunnels at odd angles, a "magic sword" to lead the way, and a string to retrace your path. To begin, the way is unknown, so all turns are possible, but once the end is reached, the only way back out is to follow the string back. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Everything starts with a block of wood. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| I'm thinking about reworking it for next year's Queen's Prize, this time using a brace and spoon bit instead of a modern powered parabolic bit. If nothing else, it will be an educational process. I'll post any updates on this web site, so stay tuned... | ||||||||||||||||||||
| All photos © 2005 by Darren W. Mize. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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