Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Sailing from Crete, Theseus put in at the island of Naxos (also called Dia in older poetry). There he left Ariadne asleep on the shore and sailed on. Apollodorus gives the divine cause: Dionysus fell in love with her and carried her off, and Theseus left her under the god’s claim—or, in the simpler human motive also traditional, Theseus forgot her, or abandoned her because he loved another (Aegle in some notices), or because the sailors urged speed. Dionysus found Ariadne, made her his wife, and set her bridal crown among the stars as the Corona Borealis; Hesiod already knows her as the god’s immortal consort. Strong alternate classical strands exist and should not be collapsed into one. Homer’s *Odyssey* has Artemis kill Ariadne on Dia at Dionysus’s instance—implying a different offense and no happy bridal. Plutarch catalogues local variants: Cypriot and Naxian cult stories in which Ariadne dies in childbed or is honored with two festivals (one mourning, one joyful); a version in which Theseus and Ariadne land on Cyprus; and the claim that Dionysus appeared to Theseus in a dream and demanded the girl. The catalogue’s main Apollodorean line remains the Naxos abandonment followed by Dionysus’s marriage; Homeric death and local cult doubles are marked as alternatives, not fused.