Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete and Pasiphaë in Greek mythology. She aided Theseus, the son of King Aegeus of Athens but was later rejected and abandoned by him on the island of Naxos. While there, she was rescued by Dionysus, God of wine, whom she later wed
Minotaur[]
The Minotaur was the most unfortunate of beasts. Long ago the god Poseidon had given Minos a bull to be sacrificed to Poseidon himself. The bull was magnificent, and Minos couldn’t bear to kill it, so he kept it. Angered, Poseidon made Minos’ wife, Pasiphaë, fall in love with it. From their union came the Minotaur, a man with a bull head. Like the hybrid centaurs, the Minotaur was flesh-hungry. The 14 young Athenians were to be his meal. Theseus arrived in Athens just days before the next group of 14 young people were to be carried off to Crete in a ship with the black sails of misery. He offered to go in place of one of the youths. As the boat took off, Theseus told his father he would kill the Minotaur and come home with white sails of joy.
Ariadne's string[]
The Minotaur lived in the Labyrinth, a structure built especially for him, with paths that led in circles, so that no one could ever escape. As the Athenian youths were paraded through the streets on their way to this most terrifying doom, the people of Crete watched in a mix of horror and gratitude that the children of others were being sacrificed instead of their own. The king’s daughter, Ariadne, spied Theseus from her balcony and fell in love. She had him brought to her and said she’d tell him the way to escape, if he’d then marry her. Theseus agreed, and Ariadne gave him a ball of thread. He was to tie one end to the entrance door of the Labyrinth, then unwind as he walked. That way he could retrace his steps. She had learned this trick from Daedalus, the architect of the Labyrinth.
Theseus's betrayal[]
Theseus followed the thread trail back to the Labyrinth door, leading the other Athenian youths. He found Ariadne and they all got in the ship and headed back toward Athens, stopping at Naxos, an island sacred to the god Dionysus. There Theseus had one of the least fine moments of his life. He looked at Ariadne, asleep on the beach, and realized he didn’t want a wife right now, or, at least not this wife. So he set sail, abandoning her there in her sleep. Fortunately for the girl, she and Dionysus got along well, and they married.