Ariadne

in 'Ariadne's Thread'

To the king's daughter Ariadne in Greek mythology.

"Ariadne's thread" is a means of emerging unhindered from great difficulties; the means to find the way in a maze.
Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and his wife Pasiphae. One day Minos asked the gods to raise a bull from the sea. He promised to sacrifice him to a god, but did not keep his word.

In vengeance the gods instilled in Pasiphaë an abominable love for the beast, the fruit of which was the Minotaur, half bull, half man. Minos had the monster locked up in the labyrinth that the inventor Daedalus had built for him.

However, Aegeus, king of Athens, had killed a son of Minos. As punishment, the city of Athens had to feed the Minotaur to seven boys and seven girls every eight or nine years. Prince Theseus, the son of the Athenian king, wanted to free Athens from the monster.

He voluntarily embarked with the victims and landed in Crete.

Princess Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with him. On the advice of Daedalus, the designer of the labyrinth, she gave Theseus a tangle, according to other sources a red thread, with which he could enter the abode of the Minotaur and, above all, leave safely.

Ariadne thus betrayed her father and lent support to the nemesis. After killing the monster, Theseus fled from Crete with Ariadne.