Ariadne was the first of two daughters of King Minos of Crete whom Theseus of Athens wished to espouse; the other was Ariadne’s sister Phaidra. To his woe, he lost Ariadne before he was able to marry her; her sister Phaidra he later succeeded in marrying, but with even more unhappy results. Apollodoros tells the story of Ariadne, Theseus, and the god Dionysos:
And he [Theseus] was numbered among those who were to be sent as the third tribute to the Minotaur; or, as some affirm, he offered himself voluntarily. And as the ship had a black sail, Aegeus charged his son, if he returned alive, to spread white sails on the ship. And when he came to Crete, Ariadne, daughter of Minos, being amorously disposed to him, offered to help him if he would agree to carry her away to Athens and have her to wife. Theseus having agreed on oath to do so, she besought Daedalus [who was its architect] to disclose the way out of the labyrinth. And at his suggestion she gave Theseus a clue when he went in; Theseus fastened it to the door, and, drawing it after him, entered in. And having found the Minotaur in the last part of the labyrinth, he killed him by smiting him with his fists; and drawing the clue after him made his way out again. And by night he arrived with Ariadne and the children [the Athenian youths whom he had rescued from the Minotaur] at Naxos. There Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off; and having brought her to Lemnos he enjoyed her, and begat Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus.