Ariadne

Ariadne was a princess born in Knossos, the capital of the island of Crete. Her father was King Minos and her mother was Pasiphaë. Because of a curse placed upon her by Poseidon, Pasiphaë gave birth to the Minotaur: a terrifying creature with a human body but the fur, tail, hooves, and head of a bull. Minos imprisoned the Minotaur in the Labyrinth of Knossos. The monster fed on human flesh, and every year seven young men and seven young women were sent from Athens to Crete as a sacrifice. One day, however, a young Athenian arrived in Crete, determined to kill the Minotaur. His name was Theseus.

From this point onward, the myth of Ariadne branches into several different versions. The best-known and most widespread version (the one we followed in creating our audio guide) tells that Ariadne fell in love with Theseus at first sight and helped him accomplish his task, giving him a sword coated with poison and a ball of thread to unwind as he entered the labyrinth, allowing him to find his way back out.

The princess then fled with the young Athenian, who had emerged victorious from the labyrinth. Shortly after their departure, however, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos while she was asleep. The princess was rescued by Dionysus, whom she later married, and lived happily with him. After Ariadne's death, Dionysus placed the crown he had given her on their wedding day among the stars, thus creating the "Crown of Ariadne" constellation.

Let us now look at some other versions of this myth.

1.  Let us begin with Theseus' abandonment of Ariadne: why did it happen? 
   • According to the best-known version, it happened simply because the prince of Athens was something of a womanizer and wanted to rid himself of Ariadne in order to pursue other love affairs. 
   • According to another version, however, Theseus was forced to abandon Ariadne by the god Dionysus himself, who had fallen in love with her and, appearing to the young prince in a dream, ordered him to leave her so that she would belong only to him. 
2.  According to another tradition, there was no abandonment at all. Deeply in love with Ariadne, Theseus made her pregnant on their first night together. Since she was suffering from seasickness and the discomforts of pregnancy, he landed her on the island of Cyprus while waiting for her to give birth. Ariadne died in childbirth, leaving Theseus devastated by grief. 
3.  There are also conflicting accounts concerning the island of Naxos, where Ariadne is traditionally said to have been abandoned: 
   • some claim that the abandonment actually took place on an island called Dia, meaning "the Shining One," located only a few kilometers from Knossos; 
   • furthermore, even if Naxos is accepted as the correct location, it is often described as a desolate and almost uninhabited place, symbolizing Ariadne's despair at the moment of her abandonment. Historical sources, however, describe it as a flourishing and civilized island. 

The existence of so many versions of the same myth is the result of the oral tradition through which these stories were passed down for centuries before being written down and preserved in a stable form for future generations.

An interesting curiosity concerns the name of the island itself: since Ariadne was supposedly abandoned on Naxos, it is widely believed that the Italian expression "piantare in asso" ("to abandon someone") originated from this story.