Daily Deities #3: Ariadne

My little brother drew and colored a picture of what he thought Ariadne looked like. :)

     Basically, Zeus had a son with the mortal princess Europa named Minos, Europa married Asterion, the current king of Crete at the time. Asterion raised Minos as his son, and Minos became the king after Asterion died. Because of him, even in real life, the civilization on Crete, which is the oldest civilization in Greece, was called "Minoan". Minos married Pasiphae, the sorceress daughter of Helios, the sun god. Ariadne was their daughter. One day, Minos prayed to Poseidon, the god of the ocean, to send him a bull that he promises to sacrifice to the gods. So, Poseidon sent a huge bull from the sea. It became known as the Cretan Bull. But, Minos only did this to prove to his brothers that the gods wanted him to be the king of Crete. He became the king, but then he kept the bull for himself and sacrificed a different bull. Poseidon was angry at this and so got Aphrodite to make Pasiphae fall in love with the bull (EWW!). Pasiphae asked Daedalus to make her a bull costume so she can get near the bull. It works and soon enough, she is pregnant with the bull's son (EWW!). She soon gave birth to the Minotaur, who was half-man and half-bull. But, he also ate humans, and so Minos had a labyrinth built under Crete, where the Minotaur was kept. Ariadne was the Mistress of the Labyrinth

    Soon, Minos would win in a battle against the city of Athens as revenge for the death of his son, and Minos decreed that every 9 years, Athens would have to send 7 boys and 7 girls to Crete to be sent in the Labyrinth to be eaten by the Minotaur. If this sounds a lot like the Hunger Games, well it should, because this story was a partial inspiration for the Hunger Games. Theseus, an Athenian demigod, soon came to Crete to kill the Minotaur. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and agreed to help him on the condition that he would make her his wife when he returned to Athens. She then gave him an ball of string to unwind as he enters the labyrinth so that he wouldn't get lost. Theseus ended up killing the Minotaur and sailed away from Crete with Ariadne and her sister Phaedra, who had also fallen in love with Theseus. But when sailing past Naxos, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos while she was sleeping and only married Phaedra. Athenians retconned this story to say that a god, either Athena or Dionysus told Theseus to abandon Ariadne, because they didn't want to believe that their hero Theseus would abandon his wife like that.

    Ariadne was sad at first, but then Dionysus came to her and she married Dionysus instead. They lived happily on Naxos had had many children. Dionysus also gave her a special crown on their wedding, and when she died, Dionysus was very sad, but he placed her crown in the sky as a constellation. He then went into the underworld to get her and his mortal mother Semele up to Olympus to live with him forever.

    One interesting thing I just learned about Ariadne is how she could have been worshipped on Crete as one of the oldest ancient Greek goddesses. We know that the Minoan civilization is the oldest civilization in Greece and scholars have theorized that due to her many connections with thread, string, and weaving, that she may have been a goddess of weaving. Some even think that she might be the person represented by snake goddess statues that archaeologists have found in Crete. The theory that she might have been a very important Minoan goddess is strengthened by the fact that the Minoan women had very prominent roles in Minoan Crete and due to the fact that Ariadne's epithet "Mistress of the Labyrinth", seems very much like a epithet given to a great goddess of the Minoan civilization. And in an early version of the story from the Iliad, it's said that Daedalus made the Labyrinth for Ariadne, before the Minotaur, as a dancing path.

    I was researching Dionysus earlier and decided to learn more about Ariadne out of curiosity, and the fact that she may have been a Minoan mother goddess is so rad and cool, and so I wanted to share what I learned to you.

    Did YOU know that the Hunger Games were partially based off the story of Theseus? Do you think Theseus abandoned Ariadne on his own, or by the instructions of a god? Do you think Ariadne might have been Minoan Goddess? Should I make more posts about these subjects? Please comment down bellow and tell me! And, don't be afraid to ask questions, because I love answering people's questions. Your questions let me know what people are interested in knowing and learning about.