Ariadne

Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete and his wife Pasiphae, in Greek mythology. By her mother she was a granddaughter of the sun god Helios. She is best known for helping Theseus to escape from the Labyrinth after he killed the Minotaur, and for her later marriage to Dionysus, who in the usual tradition made her his wife and set her crown among the stars.

Parents and Family

Apollodorus names Ariadne among the daughters of Minos, together with Acalle, Xenodice and Phaedra; her brothers were Catreus, Deucalion, Glaucus and Androgeus (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.2). Her mother Pasiphae was a daughter of the Sun (Library 3.1.2). Homer calls her “the daughter of Minos of baneful mind” (Odyssey 11.321–322) and says that Daedalus once made a dancing floor in broad Cnossus for “fair-haired Ariadne” (Iliad 18.590–592).

The Minotaur

The Minotaur was the offspring of Pasiphae and the bull that Poseidon had sent to Minos; Daedalus built the Labyrinth to hold it (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.3–4, 3.15.8). Minos’ son Androgeus came to Athens for the Panathenaic games and defeated all competitors; he was killed, by the bull of Marathon or by treachery according to different accounts (Library 3.15.7). Minos made war on Athens, and when the city was struck by drought and famine (famine and pestilence in Apollodorus), an oracle told the Athenians to give Minos whatever satisfaction he asked. He demanded seven youths and seven maidens to be given to the Minotaur (Diodorus 4.61.1–3; Apollodorus, Library 3.15.8). Diodorus and Plutarch say this tribute was sent every nine years (Diodorus 4.61.3; Plutarch, Theseus 15.1); Apollodorus says every year (Library 3.15.8).

Theseus

When the third tribute was due, Theseus, the son of Aegeus, was numbered among those to be sent, or, as some said, offered himself (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.7). Aegeus told the captain that if Theseus came back alive, the ship should sail with white sails instead of black (Diodorus 4.61.4).

Ariadne helps Theseus

When Theseus came to Crete, Ariadne fell in love with him and offered to help him if he would take her to Athens and make her his wife. When Theseus swore that he would, she asked Daedalus to show her the way out of the Labyrinth, and on his advice she gave Theseus a clue, a thread; he tied it to the door and drew it after him as he went in (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.8–9). Theseus killed the Minotaur with his fists, followed the thread out and sailed away at night with Ariadne and the rescued young people (Epitome 1.9; compare Plutarch, Theseus 19.1; Hyginus, Fabulae 42). In another version told by Plutarch, Theseus won Minos’ favour by defeating Minos’ general Taurus in a wrestling match at funeral games, with Ariadne watching, and Minos then gave back the youths and released Athens from the tribute (Plutarch, Theseus 19.2–3).

Ariadne marries Dionysus

The sources do not agree about what happened to Ariadne after she left Crete.

Abandoned and taken by Dionysus

In the best-known version, Theseus put in at the island of Naxos (called Dia in other accounts), and there Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.9). Hyginus says Theseus, held there by a storm and thinking that taking Ariadne home would bring him shame, left her sleeping on Dia; Liber (Dionysus) loved her and took her as his wife (Hyginus, Fabulae 43). Diodorus says Dionysus appeared on the island, took the girl from Theseus because of her beauty and kept her as his lawful wife (Diodorus 4.61.5). In his account of Naxos, Diodorus gives another reason: Theseus saw Dionysus in a dream threatening him if he did not give Ariadne up to the god, and in fear he left her behind and sailed away (Diodorus 5.51.4). Plutarch records still other stories: that Theseus abandoned her because he loved another woman, Aegle, daughter of Panopeus, and that she was taken to Naxos by sailors and lived with Oenarus, a priest of Dionysus (Plutarch, Theseus 20.1). Pausanias saw the story in a painting on the Acropolis of Athens: Ariadne asleep, Theseus putting out to sea, and Dionysus arriving to carry her off (Pausanias 1.20.3). Hesiod says that golden-haired Dionysus made fair-haired Ariadne his wife, and that Zeus made her immortal and ageless (Hesiod, Theogony 947–949).

Homer’s version

In the Odyssey, Theseus took Ariadne from Crete toward Athens but “had no joy of her”, for Artemis killed her on sea-girt Dia, because of the testimony of Dionysus (Odyssey 11.321–325).

Children

Apollodorus says Dionysus brought Ariadne to Lemnos and there had by her Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion and Peparethus (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.9). Plutarch reports a Naxian tradition that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, and that the one married to Dionysus bore him Staphylus and his brother (Plutarch, Theseus 20.5). Others said that Oenopion and Staphylus were sons of Ariadne by Theseus, and Plutarch quotes the poet Ion of Chios calling Oenopion, the founder of Chios, “Theseus’s son” (Plutarch, Theseus 20.2). Diodorus too calls Oenopion of Chios the son of Minos’ daughter Ariadne, while noting that some writers made him a son of Dionysus (Diodorus 5.79.1).

Her death and burial

Several different endings are recorded. Plutarch notes that some said she hanged herself when Theseus abandoned her (Plutarch, Theseus 20.1). In Diodorus’ Naxian account, Dionysus led her away by night to the mountain called Drius, where first the god and then Ariadne vanished from sight (Diodorus 5.51.4). In Nonnus’ epic, Ariadne fought on the side of Dionysus when he made war on Argos, and Perseus turned her to stone with the head of Medusa (Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47; compare 25). According to Pausanias, when Ariadne died, Dionysus buried her at Argos in the precinct of the Cretan Dionysus, and an earthenware coffin found there was said to be hers (Pausanias 2.23.7–8). Plutarch gives a Cypriot account: Theseus, driven to Cyprus by a storm with Ariadne pregnant and sick, left her ashore; she died there in childbirth and was buried by the women of the island, and Theseus came back and left money for her sacrifices (Plutarch, Theseus 20.3–4). He also reports that at Naxos the festival of the Ariadne who was married to Dionysus was held with mirth and revels, and that of the other, abandoned Ariadne with sorrow and mourning (Plutarch, Theseus 20.5).

The Crown of Ariadne

Diodorus says Dionysus held Ariadne worthy of immortal honours after her death and placed the “Crown of Ariadne” among the stars (Diodorus 4.61.5). In Ovid, Bacchus took the crown from her head and sent it into the sky, where its jewels became fires between the Serpent-holder and the Kneeler (Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.174–182; Fasti 3.459–516). Hyginus says the crown was thought to have been Ariadne’s, a gift at her wedding from Venus and the Hours or from Dionysus himself, and that others held it was the crown of Theseus (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.5).

Theseus and the Black Sail

Theseus, in grief at losing Ariadne, forgot to spread white sails on his ship when he came to port. Aegeus, seeing the black sail from the Acropolis, thought his son was dead and threw himself down to his death (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.10; Pausanias 1.22.5). Theseus later married Ariadne’s sister Phaedra (Hyginus, Fabulae 43; Diodorus 4.62.1).

Ariadne Sources

Homer, Iliad 18.590–592 and Odyssey 11.321–325; Hesiod, Theogony 947–949; Apollodorus, Library 3.1.2–4, 3.15.7–8 and Epitome 1.7–10; Diodorus Siculus 4.61–62, 5.51.4, 5.79.1; Plutarch, Theseus 15, 19, 20; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 25, 47; Pausanias 1.20.3, 1.22.5, 2.23.7–8; Hyginus, Fabulae 42–43 and Astronomica 2.5; Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.174–182 and Fasti 3.459–516.

See Also: Minos, Pasiphae, Minotaur, Theseus, Aegeus, Dionysus, Daedalus, Phaedra