Ariadne

, daughter of Minos  II. king of Crete by Pasiphae, fell in love with These us, who was shut up in the labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur, and gave him a clue of thread, by which he extricated himself from the difficult windings of his confinement. After he had conquered the Minotaur, he carried her away according to the promise he had made, and married her; but when he arrived at the island of Naxos he forsook her, though she was already pregnant, and repaid his love with the most endearing tenderne . Ariadne was so disconsolate upon being abandoned by These us, that she hung herself, according to some; but Plutarch says that she lived many years after, and had some children by Onarus the priest of Bacchus. According to some writers, Bacchus loved her after These us had forsaken her, and he gave her a crown of seven stars, which, after her death, was made a constellation. The Argives showed Ariadne’s tomb, and when one of their temples was repaired, her ashes were found in an earthen urn. Homer , Ody ey , bk. 11 , li. 320 , says that Diana detained Ariadne at Naxos. Plutarch , These us .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 8 , fable 2; Heroides , poem 10; De Ars Am at or i a , bk. 2 ; Fasti , bk. 3 , li. 462 .— Catullus , Marriage of Peleus and Thetis ; poem 61.— Hyginus , fables 14, 43, 270.— Apollo dor us , bk. 3 , ch. 1 .