The
cleverest kind of time travel story is one in which the past seems to
have been changed but then turns out not to have been. Poul Anderson's The Dancer From Atlantis
(London, 1977) is one such. Erissa remembers that, before the
catastrophe, she and Duncan were together on Crete where he became the
father of her first child.
However, the catastrophe
occurs while Duncan is still en route to Crete. So why does Erissa
remember events that cannot have occurred and who was the father? By the
time Duncan arrives, Theseus has raped the teenage Erissa but the adult
Erissa, accompanying Duncan, hypnotises her younger self with spurious
memories. Thus, the causal circle is completed.
When
the older Erissa and Duncan meet - the second time for her but the first
for him - they resume a physical relationship that they had not in fact
had when she was younger. Parting from the hypnotised younger Erissa,
Duncan says, " 'Know that in the end I'll call you back to me.' " (p.
166)
We last see Theseus swaggering away - not a usual
last scene for the villain of an action-adventure novel. However, by
rescuing young Erissa, Duncan and the mature Erissa prevent Theseus from
using her to consolidate his power through the Goddess religion. To
that extent, they thwart his plans.
The high priestess
called "the Ariadne," conspiring with the invader Theseus, had ordered
that a thread of lamps be lit to guide his men through the main halls of
the Minos' palace, called "the Labyrinth." Thus, very understatedly,
Anderson presents a possible origin for the myth of Minos' daughter
Ariadne helping Theseus to escape from the Labyrinth that had housed the
Minotaur.
Duncan and Oleg, stranded in 1400 BC but
knowing that futurian time travelers will probably observe the imminent
Atlantean eruption, build anachronistic ships to sail nearby in the hope
that the futurians, seeing the ships, will deduce the presence of
stranded time travelers and rescue them. It works:
"A shining shape descended from the clouds."(p. 167)
- while the anachronisms burned in battle.
Erissa's
Cretans celebrate the death and resurrection of the god, Asterion.
While it is true that Paganism included such myths, I wonder if Anderson
had to invent some of the details for novelistic purposes? Lastly, I
would like to read a time travel story in which the hero is told of a
happy summer that he spent in Crete and ends the story by beginning that
summer exactly as it had been related to him!
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