Ariadne

**Ariadne**, also called **Libera**, is the Goddess of Labyrinths from Greco-Roman mythology, though she may be originated from ancient Minoan religion. She is the immortal wife of Dionysus and leader of his maenads.

## Overview

**Ariadne** was a Cretan princess in Greek mythology. She was mostly associated with mazes and labyrinths because of her involvement in the myths of the Minotaur and Theseus. She is best known for having helped Theseus escape the Minotaur but being abandoned by him on the island of Naxos; subsequently, she became the wife of Dionysusv.

The ancient Roman author Hyginus identified her as Libera/Proserpina at approximately the same time as Libera was officially identified with Proserpina in 205 BC, these two names becoming synonymous for the same goddess.

Hyginus equated Libera/Proserpina with Ariadne as bride to Liber whose Greek equivalent was Dionysus, the husband of Ariadne.

## Appearance

Ariadne appears as a mysterious and alluring woman in her early 20s, with dark skin and snake-like green eyes. She has her dreadlocks in a half-up, half-down bun, with a star-shaped mark on her forehead.

Despite being in the modern era, she first appeared in a traditional Minoan outfit and spoke in "an exotic accent", implying to be the spoken form of the lost Minoan language.

## Personality

Ariadne is described as a kind and caring person who doesn't let one's appearance or reputation affect her opinion of them. She is talented at reading someone's true nature and can easily figure out one's true motives after exchanging a couple of words, which helps her with navigating through the politics of Mount Olympus to support Dionysus with his divine duties.

She is a very faithful person who would stick by Dionysus' side through thick and thin, evident by the fact she was among the only gods to speak up against Dionysus' temporary exile to Camp Half-Blood.

In addition, while their marriage is an open one and they both have extramarital relationships, they still only have romantic feelings for each other and will always come to the other's aid when needed.

## History

### Early Years

Ariadne was born the second princess of Crete, daughter of King Minos and Pasiphaë, and the sister of Acacallis, Androgeus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Glaucus, Xenodice, and Catreus. When she was young, her mother gave birth to her half-brother Asterios, a deformed half-human and half-bull monster, as punishment from Poseidon for failing to appease him with offerings.

Despite this, however, she didn't shun him like other members of her family and became the only one to treat him not as a terrifying monster or an inhuman beast but as a person. She would make regular visits to the cage where he was kept as a child, sneaking him fruits and wine, and singing to him to sooth his anger.

On one occasion, due to her own carelessness, she accidentally angered him and caused him to bite her on her shoulders, though Pasiphaë was able to heal her with Healing Magic immediately after. This led to the labyrinth to be built, as King Minos saw it as evidence that Asterios couldn't be tamed and had to be sealed away for the sake of others, much to her protests.

### Meeting Theseus

As she grew up, Ariadne was chosen to become the high priestess of the Earth Mother Goddess due to her divine lineage, and eventually became known across Crete and even in other cities such as Athens or Mycenae as a goddess in her own rights, though only through the epithet "Mistress of the Labyrinth".

One year, when the Athenian fleets came with the 14 *pharmakoi* to be used as sacrifices for Asterios, known infamously went by the title **Minotauros**, she met and fell in love with the Athenian prince Theseus. Because of his seductions, she was tricked into lending him an enchanted ball of strings that helped him navigate through the labyrinth, thus allowing him to slain her half-brother and freed the remaining Athenians.

### Abandoned on Naxos

Ashamed and guilt-stricken, Ariadne fled with Theseus out of Crete in fear of her father's wrath. On the journey, Theseus swore to marry her when they returned to Athens to honor her for having saved him from certain death. However, as time went on, due to their differences in culture and belief, Theseus grew bored of Ariadne and began to resent her for making him take her away as his wife.

When they stopped at the island Naxos to gather supply, Theseus decided that he would simply leave her and go home to Athens without her. The night when they were sleeping, Theseus woke up the crew but didn't wake Ariadne and he let her sleep on the beach while he and the others set sail without her.

As she woke up alone, she became angry and heart broken, and cursed Theseus and pleaded to the gods to make him forget to change the sails from black to white, thus leading to Theseus' mortal father Aegeus to believe that his son was dead and threw himself into the sea and drowned.

### Marriage with Dionysus

After being abandoned, Ariadne began to wander through the island in search of help, and after a time, she found it in the form of Dionysus and his group of maenads. As he comforted her and soothed her sorrows with divine wine, the two began to trade stories of their life, and over time, the two fell in love and got married with Hera's blessing, much to the surprise of *everyone*.

Since then, Ariadne would follow Dionysus and his cult as his wife and as queen of the maenads, and they would have many children together, all of which were demigods by their father and scions by her. After Ariadne died, Dionysus descended into the Underworld and brought her and his mother Semele back to life. Dionysus then brought Ariadne up to Mount Olympus, where Zeus made her a goddess at his son's request. Her wedding diadem was set in the heavens as the constellation Corona Borealis.

## Trivia

* Her name means "most high" or "utterly pure".
* Her attributes include strings, threads, serpents, and bulls.
* She is believed to be the same snake goddess the Minoan bronze figures were based on.
* It is unknown what made Theseus "dump" her, or if it was just a misunderstanding or an accident as there are many different versions of the myth. Considering the way Dionysus tells the story, however, it is most likely that Theseus simply abandoned her on the island, though a deity's word can be misleading.
	+ Some say that Theseus was told by Dionysus himself that Ariadne was to be left on Naxos and be his wife. In this version, Theseus was so grief-stricken at losing Ariadne that he forgot to raise the white sails.
	+ Others state that Theseus abandoned her because she was already wedded to Dionysus.
* Due to her associations with thread spinning and winding, she is considered a weaving goddess much like Athena or Arachne.
	+ In one of the myths about her death, she was said to have hanged herself from a tree, like Erigone and Artemis Apanchomene, a Mesopotamian theme.
* As a Cretan goddess, she was regarded as one of the most important deities within their pantheon before being absorbed into the Greek pantheon.
* "Ariadne's thread", a problem solving method by multiple means - such as a physical maze, a logic puzzle, or an ethical dilemma - through an exhaustive application of logic to all available routes, is named after her legend.
* The word "clue" was originally a form of *clew*, meaning "skein of thread," with the sense evolution being a reference to Ariadne's thread.
* Her Roman counterpart is Arianna or even Libera, a minor goddess of wine and chthonic attributes.