The story of Ariadne

Ariadne, in Greek mythology, is the daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the sun god. The hero Theseus came to Crete from Athens with a band of 14 young men to slay the Minotaur, a monster, half bull, half human, that was confined in the mazes of the Labyrinth.

When Ariadne saw Theseus, she fell in love with him and offered to help him if he would promise to take her back to Athens and marry her. She then gave him a ball of thread, which she had obtained from Daedalus, the inventor and designer of the labyrinth. Fastening one end to the door and unwinding the thread as he went along, Theseus was able to find and kill the Minotaur and then to escape from the maze by rewinding the thread.

Taking Ariadne with them, Theseus and his companions fled over the seas toward Athens. On the way they stopped at the island of Naxos. According to one legend, Theseus deserted Ariadne, sailing without her while she was asleep on the island; the god Dionysus found her and comforted her.

According to another legend, Theseus set Ariadne ashore to recover from seasickness while he returned to the ship to do some necessary work. A strong wind then carried him out to sea. When he was finally able to return, he found that Ariadne had died.

("Ariadne," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.)

The slalom competition management system is called after Ariadne, because the system traces the path of the competitor in the labyrinth of the slalom course.