Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae. When Theseus arrived on Crete and set to do battle with the Minotaur, Ariadne fell in love with him.

The Minotaur was the son of Queen Pasiphae and the Great Bull of Naxos which was born with the body of a man and the head of a bull, and was confined in the Labyrinth, a great palace maze of rooms and corridors constructed by Daedalus.

Every year Minos fed the Minotaur seven young women and seven young men who were the tribute exacted from Athens.

Theseus offered himself as a sacrifice, and Ariadne gave him a ball of thread to unwind to show his way out of the Labyrinth again. After Theseus killed the beast, she fled with him to escape the wrath of Minos. But on the shore of Naxos, Theseus abandoned her while she slept. When she awoke in the morning, Ariadne saw the sails of his ship vanishing over the horizon, but Bacchus (Dionysus) soon appeared and was overwhelmed by her youthful beauty.