Project proposal for the M2M (Monument to Mankind).

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Summary:

The project proposal refers to the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. 

According to the myth, the Athenians were bound to offer each year seven young men and seven young women to the king of Crete Minos, as the result of their defeat. The young men and women were offered to a monster called Minotaur (half man - half bull) to feed him. Minotaur was the son of Zeus and Pasephae (Minos's wife) and was living in the Labyrinth (a very complex building with so many corridors and hidden spaces, constructed by Daedalus).  

Theseus, son of Aegeas the king of Athens, decides to fight the Minotaur and save his country from the disaster. He voluntarily participates as one of the next victims that will be offered to the monster.

Theseus fights the Minotaur in the Labyrinth and wins, but to survive he must also exit the Labyrinth and avoid to get lost. There comes the help of Minos's daughter, Ariadne, who wants to marry him and helps him. Ariadne's clue is a yarn offered to Theseus before entering the Labyrinth, which finally helps him to exit by showing him the way out.

Outside the labyrinth Theseus kidnapped Ariadne and Phaedra (Ariadne's sister, Minos's daughters both) and run away. Later on, he abandoned Ariadne at the island of Naxos and then he got married Phaedra, who made a son to Theseus named Hippoletos.

Returning to Athens, Theseus should decorate his ship with white canvases as a sign for his victory, and change the black ones he has used at his departure. When Aegeas saw Theseus's ship decorated with black canvases again, he suicides by jumping from the Sounio rocks to the sea. (The location that the Monument To Mankind will take place). 

The myth is not the real story of ancient Greece but its characters are symbolic. In this project I have tried to translate in depth the meaning of this myth, via symbols and drawings that will be carved on the limestone, and also, may become a contemporary reflection of this myth. I have used as a reference the book of Paul Diel: "LE SYMBOLISME DANS LA MYTHOLOGIE GRECQUE" (title in English: Symbolism in Greek Mythology).

Side 1 (up side): This side represents Theseus. The Labyrinth is not a real building but the subconscious of the hero. It is the situation that hero must survive by making the right choices and making the right decisions. The hero's mind suggests him a lot of things to do of how to behave in Crete, which are either right or wrong. 

The technique I will use to carve the hero will not be the same as the ones used in ancient Greece, as what interests me more, is to make a reference of this ancient myth to a contemporary society. This is the reason that my hero will look as an ordinary man of the current time period. 

Side 2: This side represents Minotaur. Minotaur is nobody else but the same person, together with his weaknesses and passions. That is the enemy that the hero must fight. His own self. He must not become the victim of his passions and weaknesses, and he must find the courage to face the animal side of himself, find his way out of this labyrinth, and finally become a virtuous man.

I will carve Minotaur by using exactly the same model as the one I'll use on side 1. The reason I do this is because I want to emphasize that there is no other monster that exists, apart from the evil side of ourselves.  

Side 5: This side represents Ariadne's clue. Ariadne has shown the way out to Theseus by advising him during his walk in the labyrinth. Ariadne wants to get married Theseus and supplies his mind with positive thoughts and solutions to his problems. 

I represent Ariadne's clue with a 4 week embryo. That is the way that Ariadne wants Theseus and this is what she advises the hero to do, in order to stay on the right way and find his way out. Ariadne wants to create a family with her husband, and in this case she wants a child from Theseus, she wants to spend the rest of her life with him.  

Sides 3, 4: Normally Theseus should go married Ariadne, the woman who saved him by showing him the way out of the Labyrinth. Theseus follows his passions and goes with Phaedra. He crosses Ariadne and goes with another woman (even worst, he goes with her sister!) and acts absolutely as the victim of his passions.

On those sides I will carve the female's universal symbol with each woman's name on it. (ARIADNE, PHAEDRA, written in Greek). It doesn't matter how each woman looked like, or who was more beautiful than the other, but what they symbolize. In this case they symbolize a man's choice for his mate. It is the wrong or the right choices that somebody does when he chooses his second half.  While Ariadne symbolizes the correct choice because of her pureness and purpose to create a family, Phaedra symbolizes the wrong choice, made influenced by the hero's weaknesses and passions.