A four letter word 

I just learned a new word. When I saw how my crossword puzzle blanks turned into a four letter word I did not know, I started to look for mistakes. The word clew had automatically appeared vertically as I made horizontal entries. The clue for 54 down was, "ball of yarn." Since I had never heard the word before, I was convinced that my across words were wrong. Nope. So, I reached for the dictionary that sits on an antique highchair in our farmhouse kitchen. There was the word in our ancient 1966 college edition of Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, "clew....noun...1. a ball of thread or yarn in Greek legend, a ball of thread was used by Theseus as a guide out of the labyrinth." Had I ever read about Theseus? My reading retention is abominable, but my curiosity is alive and well, so I went online to check him out.

I found Theseus at: http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/theseus.html. Here are two paragraphs from the story you can read at this site.

It was not long after he arrived in Crete that the hero encountered Princess Ariadne, daughter of King Minos. She fell in love with him at first sight. It was Ariadne who gave Theseus a clew which she had obtained from Daedalus. In some versions of the myth it was an ordinary clew, a simple ball of thread. It was to prove invaluable in his quest to survive the terrors of the Labyrinth.

When Theseus first entered the maze he tied off one end of the ball of thread which Ariadne had given him, and he played out the thread as he advanced deeper and deeper into the labyrinthine passages. Many artists have depicted Theseus killing the Minotaur with his sword or club, but it is hard to see how he could have concealed such bulky weapons in his clothing. More probable are the versions of the tale which have him coming upon the Minotaur as it slept and then, in properly heroic fashion, beating it to death with his bare fists. Then he followed the thread back to the entrance. Otherwise he would have died of starvation before making his escape.

This all led to:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariadne's_thread_(logic). Then I remembered the horrendous knot I made yesterday while working with a skein of yarn I had dyed. The words Gordian knot popped into my head, so I had to look that up. What I found did not apply to my particular knot, but it was fascinating and thought provoking. Take a look and see where it leads you. http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_9_01.html.  

I'm not even going to mention Arachne, or the Greek Moirai (the Fates).

Where will your next clew lead you?

GOOD STITCHES.