Triptolemus: the First Wheelchair User - TRAILER

- A tale involving kidnapping,air travel and agriculture.

This text is part of an ongoing project and will periodically be updated.

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The first wheelchair user?

James Frazer tells us in 'The Golden Bough' that the myths of Demeter are substantially identical with stories of Aphrodite and Adonis, Cybele and Attis, and the Egyptian tales of Isis and Osiris. Frazer adds that

'... it was Demeter who first revealed to the Athenians the secret of the corn and diffused the beneficent discovery far and wide through the agency of Triptolemus, whom she sent forth as an itinerant missionary to communicate the boon to all mankind. On monuments of art, especially in vase-paintings, he is constantly represented along with Demeter in this capacity, holding corn-stalks in his hand and sitting in his car, which is sometimes winged and sometimes drawn by dragons, and from which he is said to have sowed the seed down on the whole world as he sped through the air.'

Timothy Gantz writing in his 'Early Greek Myth: A guide to literary and Artistic Sources'states that:

'Sophokles wrote a "Triptolemos" play at the very beginning of his career, and we know that in it Demeter described the places to which the hero would travel ..., but we cannot tell if this was the core of the drama or only a small part of it.'

Representations of Triptolemus can be found in the British Museum, London, the Louvre, Paris, and museums in Greece, Germany and many other countries.

Sources

Ovid's 'Fasti' and 'Tristia'
Ovid wrote a slightly different version in his 'Metamorphoses'.

Apollodorus, 'Bibliotheca'

Athanassakis, Apostolos N., (1976), The Homeric Hymns, Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press.

Frazer , James George, (1922), The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, London and Basingstoke,

Gantz, Timothy, (1993 ) Early Greek Myth: A guide to literary and Artistic Sources, Vol.1, (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press)

The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 33, Parts 1 and 2. (1943).

Kamenetz, Herman L., (1969) 'The Wheelchair Book: Mobility for the Disabled' Charles C Thomas Pub Ltd.

1. By: RUhuman
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4. Added :23-May-08
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