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Ariadne

(Redirected fromEuanthes)
For other uses, seeAriadne (disambiguation).
"Ariadne's thread" redirects here. For the class of algorithm, seeAriadne's thread (logic).

InGreek mythology,Ariadne(/ˌæriˈædni/;Greek:Ἀριάδνη;Latin:Ariadne) was a Cretan princess, the daughter ofKing MinosofCrete.There are different variations of Ariadne's myth, but she is known for helpingTheseusescape from theMinotaurand being abandoned by him on the island ofNaxos.There,Dionysussaw Ariadne sleeping, fell in love with her, and later married her. Many versions of the myth recount Dionysus throwing Ariadne's jeweled crown into the sky to create a constellation, theCorona Borealis.[1][2]

Ariadne
Ariadne asleep atHypnos's side. Detail of ancient fresco inPompeii
AbodeCrete,laterMount Olympus
SymbolString/Thread,Serpent,Bull
Genealogy
ParentsMinosandPasiphaë(orCrete,daughter ofAsterius)
SiblingsAcacallis,Phaedra,Catreus,Deucalion,Glaucus,Androgeus,Xenodice;theMinotaur
ConsortDionysus,Theseus
ChildrenStaphylus,Oenopion,Thoas,Peparethus,Phanus,Eurymedon,Phliasus,Ceramus,Maron,Evanthes,Latramys, Tauropolis,Enyeusand Eunous
Equivalents
Roman equivalentArianna, Libera

Ariadne is associated withmazesandlabyrinthsbecause of her involvement in the myths of Theseus and the Minotaur.

There are also festivals held in Cyprus and Naxos in Ariadne's honor.[3][4]

Etymology

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Bacchus and AriadnebyTitian:Dionysus discovers Ariadne on the shore ofNaxos.The painting also depicts theconstellation named after Ariadne.[5]

Greeklexicographersin theHellenistic periodclaimed thatAriadneis derived from theancient Cretan dialecticalelementsari(ἀρι-) "most" (which is an intensive prefix) andadnós(ἀδνός) "holy".[6]Conversely,Stylianos Alexiouhas argued that despite the belief being that Ariadne's name is ofIndo-Europeanorigin, it is actuallypre-Greek.[7]

LinguistRobert S. P. Beekeshas also supported Ariadne having a pre-Greek origin; specifically beingMinoanfrom Crete because her name includes the sequencedn(δν), rare in Indo-European languages and an indication that it is a Minoanloanword.[8]

Family

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Ariadne was the daughter ofMinos,the King ofCrete[9]and son ofZeus,and ofPasiphaë,Minos' queen and daughter ofHelios.[10]Others denominated her motherCrete,daughter ofAsterius,the husband and King ofEuropa.

Ariadne was the sister ofAcacallis,Androgeus,Deucalion,Phaedra,Glaucus,Xenodice,andCatreus.[11]Through her mother, Pasiphaë, she was also the half-sister of theMinotaur(who was known in Crete as Asterion).[12]

Ariadne marriedDionysusand became the mother ofOenopion,the personification of wine,Staphylus,who was associated with grapes,Thoas,Peparethus,Phanus,Eurymedon,Phliasus,Ceramus,Maron,Euanthes,Latramys,Tauropolis,[13][14][a]

Ariadne's family
Relation Names Sources
Homer Hesiod Apollon. Diod. Ovid Apollod. Plutarch Hyginus Pausa Quin. Theophilus
Ody. Sch. Ili. Ehoiai Arg. Sch. Her. Met. Theseus Fabulae Autolycus
Parentage Minos ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Minos & Pasiphae ✓ ✓ ✓
Consort Dionysus ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ or ✓ ✓
Theseus ✓
Children Enyeus ✓
Thoas ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Oenopion ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Staphylus ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Latromis ✓
Euanthes ✓
Tauropolis ✓
Peparethus ✓
Phanus ✓
Phliasus ✓
Eurymedon ✓
Ceramus ✓
Maron ✓
Eunous ✓

Mythology

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Bacchus and Ariadne,Guido Reni,c. 1620

Minos put Ariadne in charge of thelabyrinthwhere sacrifices were made as part of reparations either toPoseidonorAthena,depending on the version of the myth; later, she helpedTheseusconquer theMinotaurand save the children from sacrifice. In other narrations she was the bride ofDionysus,her status as mortal or divine varying in those accounts.[18][19]

Minos and Theseus

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Becauseancient Greekmyths were orally transmitted, like other myths, that of Ariadne has many variations. According to an Athenian version,MinosattackedAthensafter his son,Androgeus,was killed there. The Athenians asked for terms and were required to sacrifice7 young men and 7 maidensto theMinotaurevery 1, 7 or 9 years (depending on the source).[20]One year, the sacrificial party includedTheseus,the son of KingAegeus,who volunteered in order to kill theMinotaur.[21]At first sight, Ariadne fell in love with him and provided him a sword and ball of thread (ο Μίτος της Αριάδνης, "Ariadne's string" ) so that he could retrace his way out of the labyrinth of the Minotaur.[12]

The abandoned Ariadne, ancient fresco fromPompeii,National Archaeological Museum, Naples

Ariadne betrayed her father and her country for her lover Theseus. She eloped withTheseusafter he killed theMinotaur,yet according toHomerin theOdyssey"he had no joy of her, for ere that,Artemisslew her in seagirt Dia because of the witness ofDionysus".The phrase" seagirt Dia "refers to the uninhabited island of Dia, which lies off the northern coast of the Greek island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. Dia may have referred to the island ofNaxos.

Most accounts claim that Theseus abandoned Ariadne onNaxos,and in some versionsPerseusmortally wounds her. According to some,Dionysusclaimed Ariadne as wife, therefore causing Theseus to abandon her.[22]Homer does not elaborate on the nature of Dionysus' accusation, yet theOxford Classical Dictionaryspeculated that she was already married to him when she eloped with Theseus. According to Plutarch, Paion the Amathusian recounted Theseus accidentally abandoned Ariadne only to come back when it was too late.[12]

Naxos

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A Greek Epigrams Pompeii Plate by Geremia Discanno depicting Ariadne abandoned on the island Naxos

InHesiodand in most other versions,Theseusabandoned Ariadne sleeping onNaxos,andDionysusrediscovered and wedded her. In a few versions of the myth,[23]Dionysusappeared toTheseusas they sailed fromCrete,saying that he had chosen Ariadne as his wife and demanding that Theseus leave her onNaxosfor him; this had the effect of absolving the Athenian cultural hero of desertion.[22]The vase painters ofAthensoften depictedAthenaleading Theseus from the sleeping Ariadne to his ship.[citation needed]

Ariadne boreDionysusfamous children, including Oenopion, Staphylus, andThoas.Dionysus set her weddingdiademin the heavens as the constellationCorona Borealis.Ariadne was faithful to Dionysus. In one version of her myth,Perseuskilled her atArgosby turning her to stone with the head ofMedusaduring Perseus' war with Dionysus.[24]TheOdysseyrelates that Theseus took Ariadne away from Crete only forArtemisto kill her in Dia (usually identified with Naxos) on Dionysus' witness.[25]A ancient scholiast wrote that Ariadne and Theseus had sex on a sacred grove, and an angry Dionysus revealed that to Artemis, who proceeded to punish Ariadne with death.[26]

According toPlutarch,one version of the myth tells that Ariadne hanged herself after being abandoned by Theseus.[27]Dionysus then went to Hades, and brought her and his motherSemeletoMount Olympus,where they were deified.[28]

Some scholars have posited, because of Ariadne's associations with thread-spinning and winding, that she was aweaving goddess,[29] likeArachne,and support this theory with themythemeof the Hanged Nymph[30][31] (seeweaving in mythology).[citation needed]

As a goddess

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Ariadne ofLas Incantadasfrom the agora ofThessalonica,2nd century,Louvre.

Karl KerenyiandRobert Gravestheorized that Ariadne, whose name they thought derived fromHesychius' enumeration of "Άδνον", a Cretan-Greek form of "arihagne"(" utterly pure "), was aGreat GoddessofCrete,"the first divine personage of Greek mythology to be immediately recognized in Crete",[32]once archaeological investigation began. Kerenyi observed that her name was merely anepithetand claimed that she was originally the "Mistress of theLabyrinth",both a winding dancing ground and, in the Greek opinion, a prison with the dreadedMinotaurin its centre. Kerenyi explained that aLinear Binscription fromKnossos"to all the gods, honey… [,] to the mistress of the labyrinth honey" in equal amounts, implied to him that the Mistress of the Labyrinth was a Great Goddess in her own right.[33]Professor Barry Powell suggested that she was theSnake Goddessof Minoan Crete.[34]

Ariadne as theconsortofDionysus:bronze appliqué fromChalki,Rhodes,late fourth century BCE, in theBritish Museum.

Plutarch,in his Life ofTheseus,which treats him as a historical person, reported that in contemporaryNaxoswas an earthly Ariadne, who was distinct from a divine one:

Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysos in Naxos and bore him Staphylos and his brother, and the other, of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Korkyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there.[35]

In akylixby the painter Aison (c. 425– c. 410 BC)[b]Theseusdrags theMinotaurfrom a temple-like labyrinth, yet the goddess who attends him in this Attic representation isAthena.

TheVaticanSleeping Ariadne,long erroneously identified asCleopatra,a Roman marble in late Hellenistic style

An ancient cult ofAphrodite-Ariadne was observed atAmathus,Cyprus,according to the obscureHellenisticmythographerPaeon of Amathus;his works are lost, but his narrative is among the sources thatPlutarchcited in hisvitaofTheseus(20.3–5). According to the myth that was current at Amathus, the second most important Cypriot cult centre of Aphrodite, Theseus' ship was swept off course and the pregnant and suffering Ariadne put ashore in the storm. Theseus, attempting to secure the ship, was inadvertently swept out to sea, thus being absolved of abandoning Ariadne. The Cypriot women cared for Ariadne, who died in childbirth and was memorialized in a shrine. Theseus, overcome with grief upon his return, left money for sacrifices to Ariadne and ordered twocult images,one of silver and one of bronze, erected.

At the observation in her honour on the second day of the monthGorpiaeus,a young man lay on the ground and vicariously experienced the throes of labour. Thesacred grovein which the shrine was located was denominated the "Grove of Aphrodite-Ariadne".[36]According to Cypriot legend, Ariadne's tomb was located within thetemenosof the sanctuary of Aphrodite-Ariadne.[37]The primitive nature of the cult at Amathus in this narrative appears to be much older than the Athenian sanctioned shrine of Aphrodite, who at Amathus received "Ariadne" (derived from "hagne","sacred ") as anepithet.[citation needed]

Libera

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TheRomanauthorHyginusidentified Ariadne as the RomanLibera,bride toLiber.[38][39]

Festivals

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Ariadne on theDerveni krater.

Ariadneia (ἀριάδνεια) festivals honored Ariadne and were held inNaxosandCyprus.According toPlutarch,some Naxians believed there were two Ariadnes, one of which died on the island of Naxos after being abandoned by Theseus. The Ariadneia festival honors Naxos as the place of her death with sacrifices and mourning.[3][40]Paeon,as stated by Plutarch, attributes the Ariadneia festival in Cyprus to Theseus, who left money to the island so sacrifices could be made to commemorate Ariadne. Sacrifices were held in the grove of Ariadne Aphrodite, where Ariadne's tomb resided. During these sacrifices, a young man shall lie down and mimic a woman in labour by crying out and gesturing on the second day of the month,Gorpiaeus.One silver and one bronze statuette were also constructed in her honor.

In Etruscan culture

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Ariadne, inEtruscanAreatha,is paired withDionysus,in Etruscan "Fufluns",on Etruscan engravedbronze mirrorbacks, where the Athenian cultural heroTheseusis absent, andSemele,in Etruscan "Semla",as mother of Dionysus, may accompany the pair,[41]lending an especially Etruscan air[42]of familial authority.

Reference in post-classical culture

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Non-musical works

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Musical works

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Notes

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  1. ^Euanthes, Latramys, and Tauropolis are only mentioned inscholiaonApollonius Rhodius[15]Enyeus,scholia onHomer[16]andEunous.[17]
  2. ^The kylix is conserved at theNational Archaeological Museum of Spain,Madrid; seeimage.

References

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  1. ^Hall, James (4 May 2018).Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art.Routledge.ISBN978-0-429-97358-1.
  2. ^"Corona Borealis | constellation".britannica.com.Retrieved6 June2023.
  3. ^abPlutarch."Life of Theseus".penelope.uchicago.edu.Retrieved11 May2023.
  4. ^"LacusCurtius • Greek Festivals — Ariadneia".Smith's Dictionary.1875.Retrieved11 May2023– via penelope.uchicago.edu.
  5. ^Lucas, Arthur; Plesters, Joyce (1978)."Titian's 'Bacchus and Ariadne'".National Gallery Technical Bulletin.2:25–47.ISSN0140-7430.JSTOR42616250.
  6. ^Hanks & Hodges 1997,p. 15.
  7. ^Alexiou 1969,p. 72.
  8. ^Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010).Etymological Dictionary of Greek.Volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2010. p. 130.ISBN978-90-04-17420-7.
  9. ^Homer,Odyssey,11.320; Hesiod,Theogony,947; and later authors.
  10. ^Pasiphaë is mentioned as mother of Ariadne inApollodorus,3.1.2 (Pasiphaë, daughter of the Sun); Apollonius,Argonautica,3.997; and Hyginus,Fabulae,224.
  11. ^Apollodorus,3.1.2.
  12. ^abc"Rewriting Ariadne: What Is Her Myth?".TheCollector.com.2 August 2021.Retrieved20 May2023.
  13. ^"Ariadne".theoi.com.TheoiProject.
  14. ^"Dionysus Family".theoi.com.TheoiProject.
  15. ^Argonautica,3. 997
  16. ^Iliad,9.668
  17. ^Theophilus of Antioch,To Autolycus7
  18. ^In creating a "biography" for a historicized Ariadne, Theseus' having abandoned her on Naxos explains her presence there; in assembling a set of biographical narrative episodes, this would have had to be placedafterher abduction from Knossos. In keeping with the office of Minos as King of Crete, Ariadne came to bear the late title of "Princess". The culmination of this rationalization is the realistic historicizing fiction ofMary Renault,The Bull from the Sea(1962).
  19. ^Fiana Sidhe,"Goddess Ariadne in the Spotlight"Archived10 September 2017 at theWayback Machine,MatriFocus,2002.
  20. ^"Minotaur | Definition, Story, Labyrinth, & Facts | Britannica".www.britannica.com.Retrieved10 May2023.
  21. ^Carter, Tim (1999)."Lamenting Ariadne?".Early Music.27(3): 395–405.doi:10.1093/earlyj/XXVII.3.395.ISSN0306-1078.JSTOR3128655.
  22. ^ab"LacusCurtius • Diodorus Siculus — Book V Chapters 47‑84".penelope.uchicago.edu.Retrieved20 May2023.
  23. ^Diodorus Siculus,4.61 and 5.51;Pausanias,1.20, § 2, 9.40, § 2, and 10.29, § 2.
  24. ^Nonnus,Dionysiaca,47.665
  25. ^Homer,Odyssey11.321–25
  26. ^Scholia on theOdyssey11.325
  27. ^Plutarch,Theseus,20.1
  28. ^Ariadne, greekmythology.com."greekmythology.com".greekmythology.com.
  29. ^ Berg, Nicole M. (2020). "Inserting Sources inSpartacus".Discovering Kubrick's Symbolism: The Secrets of the Films.Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 207.ISBN9781476680491.Retrieved12 February2023.In the movie, Bacchus himself is reclining in the arms of Ariadne (the weaving goddess) [...].
  30. ^ Wedeck, Harry E.,ed. (1963). "Tibullus".Classics of Roman Literature.Translated byElton, C. A.Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 121–122.ISBN9781442233812.Retrieved12 February2023.
    Know, father Bacchus hates the mournful lay.
    So thou, O Cretan maid! didst once deplore
    A perjured tongue, left lonely on the shore,
    As skill'd Catullus tells, who paints in song
    The ingrate Theseus, Ariadne's wrong.
    Take warning, Youths! oh blest! whoe'er shall know
    The art to profit by another's woe.
    Let not the hanging nymph's embrace deceive,
    Nor protestations of base tongues believe [...].

    Compare an alternative translation of the equivalent passage from Tibullus' Sixth Elegy byTheodore Chickering Williams:

    "Delightful Bacchus at his mystery
    Forbids these words of woe.

    Once, by the wave, lone Ariadne pale,
    Abandoned of false Theseus, weeping stood:—
    Our wise Catullus tells the doleful tale
    Of love's ingratitude.

    Take warning friends! How fortunate is he,
    Who learns of others' loss his own to shun!
    Trust not caressing arms and sighs, nor be
    By flatteries undone! "

    (The Elegies of Tibullus)
  31. ^ Larson, Jennifer Lynn (1995). "The Wrongful Death of the Heroine".Greek Heroine Cults.Wisconsin studies in classics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 141.ISBN9780299143701.Retrieved12 February2023.The motif of the hanged goddess or heroine is quite widespread. [...] the thread running through most of these stories is that they involve heroines who die a wrongful death. The sameaetionis used all over the Greek world to explain hanging or swinging rituals. Hanging is a particularly feminine form of death in the Greek mind [...].
  32. ^Kerenyi (1976),Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life,p. 89.
  33. ^Kerenyi 1976,p. 90f.
  34. ^Barry B. Powell,Classical Myth,2nd ed., with new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe, Upper Saddle River,NJ,USA, Prentice-Hall, 1998, p. 368.
  35. ^Plutarch,Life of Theseus,xx.5
  36. ^Edmund P. Cueva, "Plutarch's Ariadne in Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe",American Journal of Philology,117.3 (Autumn 1996), pp. 473–84.
  37. ^Breitenberger, Barbara (2007).Aphrodite and Eros: The Development of Greek Erotic Mythology.New York, NY: Routledge. p. 32.
  38. ^Wiseman, T. P. (1988)."Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica".Journal of Roman Studies.78:7 n54.doi:10.2307/301447.ISSN0075-4358.JSTOR301447.S2CID161849654.
  39. ^Hyginus.Fabulae(in Latin). 224.Qui facti sunt ex mortalibus immortales... Ariadnen Liber pater Liberam appellavit, Minois et Pasiphaes filiam;
  40. ^"LacusCurtius • Greek Festivals — Ariadneia (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)".penelope.uchicago.edu.Retrieved11 May2023.
  41. ^For example on the mirror engraving reproduced in Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling,Etruscan Myths,The Legendary Pastseries, University of Texas/British Museum, 2006, fig. 25, p. 41.
  42. ^"The married couple is ubiquitous in Etruscan art. It is appropriate to the social situation of the Etruscan aristocracy, in which the wife's family played as important a role in the family's genealogy as that of the husband." (Bonfante and Swaddling, 2006, 51f.).
  43. ^Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1825)."Moore's Life of Sheridan".The New Monthly Magazine.Ideal Likenesses: Henry Colburn: 485.
  44. ^Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1838)."Subjects for Pictures"(poem).The New Monthly Magazine.52.Henry Colburn: 79.
  45. ^"Ariadne | English literature 1830–1900".Cambridge.org.Cambridge University Press.Retrieved15 December2020.
  46. ^Herbert, William N."Ariadne on Broughty Ferry Beach".Scottish Poetry Library.
  47. ^Tyler, Adrienne (14 July 2022)."Inception: Ariadne's Name Has A Cool Hidden Meaning".Screen Rant.
  48. ^"Ariadne Abandoned".composers.com.2 January 1938.

Bibliography

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