Rhadamanthus (mythology)

In Greek myths, Rhadamanthus (also transliterated as Rhadamanthys or Rhadamanthos) was a wise king, the son of Zeus and Europa. Later accounts even make him out to be one of judges of the dead. His brothers were Minos, king of Crete, and Sarpedon. He was raised by Asterion. He had two sons, Gortys and Erythrus.

In Greek and Roman accounts

According to one account, Rhadamanthus ruled Crete before Minos, and gave the island an excellent code of laws, which the Spartans were believed to have copied.

Driven out of Crete by his brother, Minos, who was jealous of his popularity, he fled to Boeotia, where he wedded Alcmene. Homer represents him as dwelling in the Elysian Fields (Odyssey, iv. 564), the paradise for the immortal sons of Zeus.

According to later legends (c. 400 BC), on account of his inflexible integrity he was made one of the judges of the dead in the lower world, together with Aeacus and Minos. He was supposed to judge the souls of Asians, Aeacus those of Europeans, while Minos had the casting vote (Plato, Gorgias, 424A).

Virgil makes Rhadamanthus one of the judges and punishers of the damned in the Underworld (Tartarus) section of The Aeneid. "Rhadamanthine" has since come to describe any just but inflexible judgment. (The Aeneid, vi. 566)

In another version, Minos, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthus quarreled over a beautiful boy they were all in love with, by the name of Miletus, son of Apollo and Areia. The youth however preferred Sarpedon, so Minos in revenge went to war and conquered the whole island. Sarpedon and his beloved escaped to Lycia, where Miletus founded the city that bore his name. Other mythographers claimed that the beloved youth's name was Atymnios, and that he was the son of Zeus and Cassiopeia. (Apollodorus III.1.2)

Bernard Sergent claims that the story is a late invention in that the theme of competition for a beloved youth is not in keeping with the Cretan pederastic tradition, and there is no record of this Miletus prior to the second century BCE.

Exile from Crete

Driven out of Crete by Minos, who was jealous of his popularity, he fled to Boeotia, where he wedded Alcmene, widow of Amphitryon and mother of Heracles. Also, according to some traditions, he was a tutor to Heracles. This is also mentioned by Tzetzes, a medieval historian.

In general, the particular sphere of activity of Rhadamanthus tends to be the Aegean islands, apart from Crete itself, where Minos was active. He is also often connected by ancient authors with central Greece.

Homer represents him as dwelling in the Elysian Fields (Odyssey iv. 564), the paradise for the immortal sons of Zeus.

According to later legends (c. 400 BC), on account of his inflexible integrity he was made one of the judges of the dead in the lower world, together with Aeacus and Minos. He was supposed to judge the souls of easterners, Aeacus those of westerners, while Minos had the casting vote (Plato, Gorgias 524A).

He is portrayed in Books 4 and 7 of Homer's Odyssey.

Virgil (69–18 BC) makes Rhadamanthus one of the judges and punishers of the unworthy in the Underworld (Tartarus) section of the Aeneid.

Pindar says that he is the right-hand man of Cronus (now ruling Elysium) and was the sole judge of the dead.

Lucian depicts Rhadamanthus as presiding over the company of heroes on the Isles of the Blest in True History.

References in literature

• In John Milton's Areopagitica (1644), Milton criticizes censorship in which a book must undergo "the judgment of Radamanth and his colleagues, ere it can pass the ferry backward into light".

• In the fourth book of John Keats' "Endymion" (1818), the title character swears by, among other things, "old Rhadamanthus' tongue of doom..."

• In George Eliot's Mill on the Floss (1860) the derivative adjective Rhadamanthine is used.

• In Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) Elfide is described as looking "a very Rhadamanthus" when she makes a smart chess move.(p. 191)

• In James Stephens's The Demi-Gods (1914), in "The Threepenny Piece", Rhadamanthus (portrayed as an immense and terrifying judge of the dead), condemns a man to Hell. But the man, once in Hell, accuses Rhadamanthus of having stolen his threepenny coin. This becomes an immense cause célèbre in Hell, forcing Rhadamanthus to reconsider his verdict.

• In the E.A. Robinson poem "The Voice of Age" (1916) Rhadamanthus is mentioned in the first line, comparing him to the woman in the poem.

• In Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (1924) Herr Settembrini refers to the Director Behrens of the sanatorium as Rhadamanthus.

• In the poem "The Delphic Oracle Upon Plotinus" (1931) by William Butler Yeats, "Bland Rhadamanthus" is depicted as beckoning to Plotinus.

• In Till We Have Faces (1956) by CS Lewis, a character is talking to a judge of the dead, "Minos, or Rhadamanthus, or Persephone, or by..."(295).

• He is mentioned briefly in Harlan Ellison's short story "Goodbye to All That," published in McSweeney's Mammoth Treasure of Thrilling Tales. (2002)

• In John Wright's Golden Age trilogy (2002-2003), the protagonist, Phaeton (see Phaëton), belongs to Rhadamanthus Mansion of the Silver-Gray Manorial Schola. Rhadamanthus is also the name of the resident artificial intelligence, advisor and servant to its house members.

• In the Doctor Who novel Fallen Gods (2003) by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman, Rhadamanthus (spelled Rhadamanthys) plays a central role as the King of Kaménai.

• In Dan Simmons' Endymion, the ultimate antagonist, a time-wielding agent sent by the AI TechnoCore to kill the deuteragonist, is a woman named Rhadamanth Nemes.