ARIADNE (in

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• GREEK
• GREEK, ETRUSCAN AND

Greek

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• MYTHOLOGY

mythology)  , was the daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and Pasiphae, the daughter of Helios the Sun-god . When Theseus landed on the island to slay the Minotaur (q.v.), Ariadne fell in love with him, and gave him a clue of thread to guide him through the mazes of the labyrinth . After he had slain the monster, Theseus carried her off, but, according to Homer (Odyssey, xi . 322) she was slain by Artemis at the request of Dionysus in the island of Dia near Cnossus, before she could reach Athens with Theseus . In the later legend, she was abandoned, while asleep on the island of Naxos, by Theseus, who had fallen a victim to the charms of Aegle (Plutarch, Theseus, 20; Diodorus, iv . 6o, 61) . Her abandonment and awakening are celebrated in the beautiful Epithalamium of Catullus . On Naxos she is discovered by Dionysus on his return from India, who is enchanted with her beauty, and marries her when she awakes . She receives a crown as a bridal gift, which is placed amongst the stars, while she herself is honoured as a goddess (Ovid, Metam. viii . 152, Fasti, 459) . The name probably means " very holy " = apt-ayvri; another (Cretan) form 'AptbitXa ( 4avepa ) indicates the return to a " bright " season of nature . Ariadne is the personification of spring .

In keeping with this, her festivals at Naxos

present a double character; the one, full of mourning and sadness, represents her death or abandonment by Theseus, the other, full of joy and revelry, celebrates her awakening from sleep and marriage with Dionysus . Thus nature sleeps and dies during winter, to awake in springtime to a life of renewed luxuriance . With this may be compared the festivals of Adonis and Osiris and the myth of Persephone . Theseus himself was said to have founded a festival at Athens in honour of Ariadne and Dionysus after his return from Crete . The story of Dionysus and Ariadne was a favourite subject for reliefs and wall-paintings . Most commonly Ariadne is represented asleep on the shore at Naxos, while Dionysus, attended by satyrs and bacchanals, gazes admiringly upon her; sometimes they are seated side by side under a spreading vine . The scene where she is holding the clue to Theseus occurs on a very early vase in the British Museum . There is a statue of the sleeping Ariadne in the Vatican Museum . Kanter, De Ariadne (1879); Pallat, De Fabula Ariadnea (1891) .