Everything about Ariadne totally explained
Ariadne, in
Greek mythology, was daughter of
King Minos of
Crete and his queen,
Pasiphaë, daughter of
Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided
Theseus in overcoming the
Minotaur and later became the consort of the god
Dionysus.
Minos and Theseus
Since ancient Greek legends were passed down through oral tradition, many variations of this and other myths exist. According to one version of the legend, Minos attacked
Athens after his son was killed there. The Athenians asked for terms, and were required to sacrifice seven young men and seven maidens every nine years to the
Minotaur. One year, the sacrificial party included
Theseus, a young man who volunteered to come and kill the Minotaur. Ariadne fell in love at the first sight of him, and helped him by giving him a sword and a ball of the red fleece thread she was spinning, so that he could find his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth.
She ran away with Theseus after he achieved his goal, and according to Homer "but he'd no joy of her, for ere that Artemis slew her in sea-girt Dia because of the witness of Dionysus" (
Odyssey XI, 321-5
). Homer doesn't enlarge on the nature of Dionysus' accusation: but the
Oxford Classical Dictionary theorizes that she was already married to Dionysus when Theseus ran away with her.
Naxos
In
Hesiod and most other accounts, Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on
Naxos, and
Dionysus rediscovered and wedded her.
With Dionysus, she was the mother of
Thoas and of the twins
Oenopion, the personification of wine, and
Staphylus (or
Staphylos). Her wedding
diadem was set in the heavens as the
constellation Corona.
She remained faithful to Dionysus, but was later killed by
Perseus at
Argos. In other myths Ariadne hanged herself from a tree, like
Erigone and the hanging
Artemis — a Mesopotamian theme. Some scholars think, due to her thread and winding associations, that she was a
weaving goddess such as
Arachne, and they support the assertion with the
mytheme of the Hanged Nymph (
see weaving in mythology).
Dionysus however descended into Hades and brought her and his mother
Semele back. They then joined the gods in Olympus.
Ariadne as a possible goddess figure
Karl Kerenyi (and
Robert Graves) theorize that Ariadne (which they derive from a Cretan-Greek form for
arihagne, "utterly pure" ) was a fertility
goddess of
Crete, "the first divine personage of Greek mythology to be immediately recognized in Crete" (Kerenyi 1976, p 89), once archaeology had begun. Kerenyi claims that her name is merely an
epithet and that she was originally the "Mistress of the
Labyrinth", both a prison with the dreaded
Minotaur at its centre and a winding dance-ground. Professor
Barry B. Powell has suggested she was Crete's
Snake Goddess.
Plutarch, in his
vita of Theseus that treats him as a historical individual, reports that in the Naxos of his day, an earthly Ariadne was separate from a celestial one:
» "Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysos in Naxos and bore him Staphylos and his brother, and the other, of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Korkyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there."
In a
kylix by the painter Aison (c. 425–c. 410 BC;
National Archaeological Museum of Spain,
Madrid; see ), Theseus drags the Minotaur from a temple-like labyrinth, but the goddess who attends him, in this Attic representation, is
Athena.
An ancient cult of
Aphrodite-Ariadne was observed at
Amathus, Cyprus, according to the obscure
Hellenistic mythographer Paeon of Amathus; Paeon's works are lost, but his narrative is among the sources cited by
Plutarch in his
vita of Theseus (20.3-.5). According to the myth that was current at Amathus, the second most important Cypriote cult centre of Aphrodite, Theseus' ship was swept off-course and the pregnant and suffering Ariadne put ashore in the storm. Theseus, attempting to secure the ship, was inadvertently swept out to sea. The Cypriote women cared for Ariadne, who died in childbirth and was memorialized in a shrine. Theseus, returning, overcome with grief, left money for sacrifices to Ariadne and ordered two
cult images, one of silver and one of bronze, set up. At the observation in her honour on the second day of the month Gorpiaeus, one of the young men lay on the ground vicariously experiencing the throes of labour. The
sacred grove in which the shrine was located was called the grove of Aphrodite Ariadne.
In reading the account, the primitive aspect of the cult at Amathus would appear to be much older than the Athenian-sanctioned shrine of Aphrodite, who has assumed
Ariadne (
hagne, "sacred") as an
epithet at Amathus.
Reference in post-classical culture
Non-musical works
Musical works
Richard Strauss's standard repertory opera Ariadne auf Naxos was preceded by a L'Arianna each by Claudio Monteverdi and Carlo Agostino Badia, by non-operatic Ariadne auf Naxos works including a cantata based on the Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg poem and Jiri Antonin Benda's melodrama, and by Joseph Haydn's cantata Arianna a Naxos.
Carl Orffs "Klage der Ariadne" is an adaption of Claudio Monteverdis Lamento d'Arianna.
"Ariadne" is the title of a Rock 'N' Roll song written in 1959 by Eddie Love and Stu Shermeroff and recorded by Eddie Love and the Lovers.
"Ariadne" is a song in The Frogs, a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Burt Shevelove, revisions by Nathan Lane. In this song, Dionysus reflects on his marriage to Ariadne.
"Ariadne's Thread" is a song by the screamo band Saetia and is featured on their 1997 self-titled album as well as their end of career collection, "A Retrospective."
"Ariadne" is a song by The Crüxshadows on their 2007 album DreamCypher
"Thread" is a ballet with music by Paul Drescher and Choreography by Margeret Jenkins. It was premiered by San Francisco Ballet in April 2008
"Ariadne" is a song by Dead Can Dance on their 1993 album Into the Labyrinth
"Ariadne" appears on Apurimac III by Cusco
"Ariadne Sleeping" is an instrumental piece by The Clientele on their Ariadne EP.Further Information
Get more info on 'Ariadne'.
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