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ARIADNE (in Greek mythology)

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 490 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARIADNE (in See also:Greek See also:mythology) , was the daughter of See also:Minos, See also:king of See also:Crete, and Pasiphae, the daughter of Helios the See also:Sun-See also:god. When See also:Theseus landed on the See also:island to slay the See also:Minotaur (q.v.), Ariadne See also:fell in love with him, and gave him a See also:clue of See also:thread to See also:guide him through the mazes of the See also:labyrinth. After he had slain the See also:monster, Theseus carried her off, but, according to See also:Homer (Odyssey, xi. 322) she was slain by See also:Artemis at the See also:request of See also:Dionysus in the island of Dia near See also:Cnossus, before she could reach See also:Athens with Theseus. In the later See also:legend, she was abandoned, while asleep on the island of See also:Naxos, by Theseus, who had fallen a victim to the charms of Aegle (See also:Plutarch, Theseus, 20; Diodorus, iv. 6o, 61). Her See also:abandonment and awakening are celebrated in the beautiful See also:Epithalamium of See also:Catullus. On Naxos she is discovered by Dionysus on his return from See also:India, who is enchanted with her beauty, and marries her when she awakes. She receives a See also:crown as a bridal See also:gift, which is placed amongst the stars, while she herself is honoured as a goddess (See also:Ovid, Metam. viii. 152, See also:Fasti, 459). The name probably means " very See also:holy " = See also:apt-ayvri; another (Cretan) See also:form 'AptbitXa ( 4avepa ) indicates the return to a " See also:bright " See also:season of nature. Ariadne is the personification of See also:spring.

In keeping with this, her festivals at Naxos See also:

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

End of Article: ARIADNE (in Greek mythology)

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