ariadne and theseus

ariadne was the princess daugther of pasiphae, whom i may do a short blog on soon, and minos, the king of crete. the most famous story that ariadne was in was the myth of theseus and the minotaur. 

every year, crete demanded from athens that 14 youths were sent to the island to be put inside the labyrinth, a giant maze created by the great inventor daedalus to imprison the monsterous minotaur.

one year, one of those youths was the athenian prince, theseus. ariadne became infatuated with theseus, and decided to help him finally defeat the minotaur. she aided him with a weapon to defeat the monster with, and a ball of string so the prince wouldnt get lost. 

just before entering the labyrinth, theseus made plans with ariadne to escape from the island of crete once he succeeded, and she agreed to meet him.

after theseus killed the minotaur, he escaped with ariadne to the island of naxos, where they stayed for the night as a happy couple. however, theseus abandones her in her sleep, and travels back to athens on his own, leaving her stranded.

there are a few theories as to why exactly theseus left ariadne. some speculate that eloping with ariadne was just to gain advantage and win glory, while some think that he recieved a nightmare from dionysus, the god of wine, to leave her on the island so that the god could have her. some even say ariadne was already married to dionysus. due to the stretched out history, there will always be some differing ideas.

im supposed to be doing hw rn so ill do the second part of ariadne's life later