Ariadne
Drinking scene with Dionysus and Ariadne on his lap. Greco-Buddhist art from Gandhara, 3rd century CE
Abode	Mount Olympus
Consort	Dionysus
Parents	King Minos, and Queen Pasiphaë of Crete
Siblings	Phaedra, Catreus, Deucalion, Glaucus and Androgeus
Children	Staphylus, Oenopion

Ariadne ( /æriˈædniː/; Ἀριάδνη; Latin: Ariadna; "most holy", Cretan Greek αρι [ari] "most" and αδνος [adnos] "holy"), in Greek mythology, was the daughter of Minos king of Crete,^[1] and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan.^[2] She is mostly associated with mazes and labyrinths, due to her involvement in the myths of the Minotaur and Theseus. Her father put her in charge of the labyrinth where sacrifices were made as part of reparations (either to Poseidon or to Athens, depending on the version of the myth); however, she would later help Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and saving the would-be sacrificial victims. In other stories, she became the bride of the god Dionysus, with the question of her background as being either a mortal or a goddess varying in those accounts.^[3][4]

Minos and Theseus[link]

Since ancient Greek myths were passed down through oral tradition, many variations of this and other myths exist.^[5] According to an Athenian version of the legend, Minos attacked Athens after his son was killed there. The Athenians asked for terms, and were required to sacrifice seven young men and seven maidens every seven or nine years to the Minotaur. One year, the sacrificial party included Theseus, the son of King Aegeus, who volunteered to come and kill the Minotaur. Ariadne fell in love at first sight, and helped him by giving him a sword and a ball of thread, so that he could find his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth.

She eloped with Theseus after he achieved his goal, but according to Homer "he had no joy of her, for ere that, Artemis slew her in seagirt Dia because of the witness of Dionysus" (Odyssey XI, 321-5). Homer does not expand on the nature of Dionysus' accusation, but the Oxford Classical Dictionary speculates that she was already married to Dionysus when Theseus ran away with her.

Naxos[link]

Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian: Dionysus discovers Ariadne on the shore of Naxos. The painting also depicts the constellation named after Ariadne

In Hesiod and most other accounts, Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, and Dionysus rediscovered and wedded her.

In a few versions of the myth,^[6] Dionysus appeared to Theseus as they sailed away from Crete, saying that he had chosen Ariadne as his wife, and demanded that Theseus leave her on Naxos for him; this has the effect of absolving the Athenian culture-hero of desertion. The vase-painters of Athens often showed Athena leading Theseus from the sleeping Ariadne to his ship.

With Dionysus, she was the mother of Oenopion, the personification of wine, Staphylus (related to grapes), Thoas, Peparethus, Phanus, Eurymedon, Enyeus, Ceramus, Maron, Euanthes, Latramys and Tauropolis.^[7] Her wedding diadem was set in the heavens as the constellation Corona.

She remained faithful to Dionysus, but was later killed by Perseus at Argos. In other myths Ariadne hanged herself from a tree, like Erigone and the hanging Artemis, a Mesopotamian theme. Some scholars think, due to her thread-spinning and winding associations, that she was a weaving goddess such as Arachne, and they support the assertion with the mytheme of the Hanged Nymph (see weaving in mythology).

Dionysus however descended into Hades and brought her and his mother Semele back. They then joined the gods in Olympus.

Ariadne as a goddess[link]

Ariadne as the consort of Dionysos: bronze appliqué from Chalki, Rhodes, late fourth century BCE, (Louvre)

Karl Kerenyi (and Robert Graves) theorizes that Ariadne (whose name they derive from Hesychius' listing of Άδνον, a Cretan-Greek form for arihagne, "utterly pure") was a Great Goddess of Crete, "the first divine personage of Greek mythology to be immediately recognized in Crete",^[8] once archaeology had begun. Kerenyi observes that her name is merely an epithet and claims that she was originally the "Mistress of the Labyrinth", both a winding dance-ground and in the Greek view a prison with the dreaded Minotaur at its centre. Kerenyi notes a Linear B inscription from Knossos, "to all the gods, honey... to the mistress of the labyrinth honey" in equal amounts, suggesting to him that the Mistress of the Labyrinth was a Great Goddess in her own right.^[9] Professor Barry Powell has suggested she was Minoan Crete's Snake Goddess.^[10]

Plutarch, in his vita of Theseus, which treats him as a historical individual, reports that in the Naxos of his day, an earthly Ariadne was separate from a celestial one:

"Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysos in Naxos and bore him Staphylos and his brother, and the other, of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Korkyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there."

In a kylix by the painter Aison (c. 425–c. 410 BCE)^[11] Theseus drags the Minotaur from a temple-like labyrinth, but the goddess who attends him, in this Attic representation, is Athena.

The Vatican Sleeping Ariadne, long called Cleopatra, a Roman marble in late Hellenistic taste

An ancient cult of Aphrodite-Ariadne was observed at Amathus, Cyprus, according to the obscure Hellenistic mythographer Paeon of Amathus; Paeon's works are lost, but his narrative is among the sources cited by Plutarch in his vita of Theseus (20.3-.5). According to the myth that was current at Amathus, the second most important Cypriote cult centre of Aphrodite, Theseus' ship was swept off-course and the pregnant and suffering Ariadne put ashore in the storm. Theseus, attempting to secure the ship, was inadvertently swept out to sea, thus being absolved of abandonment. The Cypriote women cared for Ariadne, who died in childbirth and was memorialized in a shrine. Theseus, returning, overcome with grief, left money for sacrifices to Ariadne and ordered two cult images, one of silver and one of bronze, set up. At the observation in her honour on the second day of the month Gorpiaeus, one of the young men lay on the ground vicariously experiencing the throes of labour. The sacred grove in which the shrine was located was called the grove of Aphrodite Ariadne.^[12]

In reading the account, the primitive aspect of the cult at Amathus would appear to be much older than the Athenian-sanctioned shrine of Aphrodite, who has assumed Ariadne (hagne, "sacred") as an epithet at Amathus.

Ariadne in Etruscan culture[link]

Ariadne (Etruscan Areatha) is paired with Dionysus (Etruscan Fufluns) on engraved bronze Etruscan bronze mirrorbacks, where the Athenian culture-hero Theseus is absent, and Semele (Etruscan Semla), as mother of Dionysus, may accompany the pair,^[13] lending a particularly Etruscan air^[14] of family authority.

Reference in post-classical culture[link]

Non-musical works[link]

• "Ariadne auf Naxos" is a poem by Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg.
• "Ariadne" is a story by Anton Chekhov.
• "Klage der Ariadne" is a poem by Friedrich Nietzsche.
• Metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico painted eight works with a classical statue of Ariadne as a prop.
• Ariadne was a 1924 play by A. A. Milne.
• The Quest for Theseus, ed. Anne Price (London, 1970), examines the Theseus-Minotaur-Ariadne myth and its historical basis, and later treatments and adaptations of it in Western culture.
• "Arianna sírása" is a poem by Miklós Zrínyi.
• The HMS Ariadne is the name of a ship in Alistair MacLean's 1986 novel Santorini.
• Claudia Crawford, To Nietzsche: Dionysus, I love you! Ariadne was published by State University of New York Press, Albany in 1995.
• John Dempsey's 1996 Ariadne's Brother is a novel on the fall of Bronze Age Crete.
• Ariadne is an important character in Sara Douglass's historical fantasy series The Troy Game, published by HarperCollins 2002-2006.
• "Ariadne" is the protagonist of Montreal writer Tess Fragoulis's 2001 novel, Ariadne's Dream.
• The Algerian-French writer, Hélène Cixous, calls^{[citation needed]} Ariadne the anti-Ulysses.
• A planet called Ariadne is mentioned in the backstory of the 2002-2006 game series Xenosaga.
• The Minotaur myth is referenced repeatedly as a metaphor over the course of the trilogy The Golden Age, culminating at the end with a newly "born" machine-mind adopting Ariadne as her name.
• "Ariadne Oliver", a friend of the detective Hercule Poirot in many of his detective mysteries written by Agatha Christie.
• A main character in the Korean Manhwa Ares is named Ariadne.
• Referenced in Frank Wedekind's play "Springs Awakening" in Act II Scene 7 by the character Ilse
• A character in the book, "Mystic Rose - Celtic Fire" by Toney Brooks.
• A character in the film Inception, played by Ellen Page, who is the architect of a labyrinth-like dream construct and accompanies the protagonist to the underworld/unconscious here called Limbo.
• Ariadne is mentioned in a dream sequence in Kathleen McGowan's The Book of Love.
• Ariadne is mentioned in the book The Battle of the Labyrinth which is the fourth part of the series Percy Jackson & the Olympians. Ariadne's String also plays a role in the plot of the book where it is a magical artifact and will show anyone who holds it the way through the Labyrinth.
• Ariadne is the Persona for Labrys in the upcoming fighting game Persona 4: Arena

The Labyrinth of Ariadne (2002), oil on canvas by Davide Tonato.

Musical works[link]

• Richard Strauss's standard repertory opera Ariadne auf Naxos was preceded by a L'Arianna each by Claudio Monteverdi and Carlo Agostino Badia, by an opera Ariadne (1691) by German composer Johann Georg Conradi, and by non-operatic Ariadne auf Naxos works including a cantata based on the Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg poem and Jiri Antonin Benda's melodrama Ariadne auf Naxos (Benda), and by Joseph Haydn's cantata Arianna a Naxos.
• Albert Roussel's ballet score Bacchus and Ariadne
• Carl Orffs "Klage der Ariadne" is an adaption of Claudio Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna.
• Pietro Locatelli "Concerto Grosso in Eb Op 7/6, Il Pianto d'Arianne".

• "Ariadne" is the title of a Rock 'N' Roll song written in 1959 by Eddie Love and Stu Shermeroff and recorded by Eddie Love and the Lovers.
• "Ariadne" is a song in The Frogs, a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Burt Shevelove, revisions by Nathan Lane. In this song, Dionysus reflects on his marriage to Ariadne.
• "Ariadne's Thread" is a song by the screamo band Saetia and is featured on their 1997 self-titled album as well as their end of career collection, "A Retrospective."
• "Ariadne" is a song by The Crüxshadows on their 2007 album DreamCypher
• "Thread" is a ballet with music by Paul Drescher and Choreography by Margeret Jenkins. It was premiered by San Francisco Ballet in April 2008
• "Ariadne's Thread" is a musical composition for harp and six instruments from 1985 by American composer Wayne Peterson. Winner of the American Society of Harpists 1985 composition contest.
• "Ariadne" is a song by Dead Can Dance on their 1993 album Into the Labyrinth
• "Ariadne" is a song on the album Inner Journeys by Cusco
• "Ariadne Sleeping" is an instrumental piece by The Clientele on their Ariadne EP.
• "All My Love" is a song by Led Zeppelin which mentions Ariadne under the French-derived name Arianne, with references to the labyrinth story.
• "El beso de Ariadna" ("Ariadne's Kiss") is the name of a musical comedy act by Argentinian comedy-musical group Les Luthiers. In this act, the singer, as Theseus, asks the Gods to fulfil his only wish: to be kissed by Ariadne.
• Ariadne is a principal character in the monumental series of music dramas conceived by the Canadian composer and writer R. Murray Schafer, in his "Patria Cycle", including "The Princess of the Stars," "Requiems for the Party Girl"
• Ariadne (The Dividing Sea) lyrics and vocals by Joanna Stevens on Sleepthief's 2009 CD Labyrinthine Heart.
• Minotaur - The Island by David Young and Margaret Cameron, is an opera that reimagines the 1608 lost opera by Monteverdi L'Adrianna. Exploring the mythological and visual symbolism of the Minotaur, Ariadne and the labyrinthine structure of the maze, Minotaur - The Island echoes the story of Ariadne, Mistress of the Labyrinth, abandoned on the island of Naxos by Theseus. Minotaur - The Island will premiere as part of Ten Days on the Island in Tasmania, Australia in 2011.

Nerina Pallot recorded an unreleased song, titled 'Ariadne's Afternoon'.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Kerenyi, Karl. Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, part I.iii "The Cretan core of the Dionysos myth" Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976.
• Peck, Harry Thurston. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898).
• Ruck, Carl A. P. and Danny Staples. The World of Classical Myth. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1994.
• Barthes, Roland, "Camera Lucida". Barthes quotes Nietzsche, "A labyrinthine man never seeks the truth, but only his Ariadne," using Ariadne in reference to his mother, who had recently died.

Further reading[link]

• Ariadne, King Minos and the Minotaur appear in In the Grip of the Minotaur by Farnham Bishop and Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, a novel which was serialized in Adventure magazine in 1916. Set around 1400 B.C., it tells the story of a group of Northmen who visit the ancient Mediterranean on a trading mission and become embroiled in intrigues between the rising power of Troy and the mistress of the Mediterranean, Crete. Brodeur was a professor at Berkeley who translated the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson and was a well-known Beowulf scholar. The novel was printed in book form for the first time in 2010 by Black Dog Books (ISBN 978-1-928619-98-7).

• Ariadne's string is a plot device in The Battle of the Labyrinth, the fourth book of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan.

External links[link]

• Theoi Project - Ariadne Assembles Greek and Latin quotations concerning Ariadne, in translation.

Ellen Page
Ellen Page at the premiere for Inception, July 2010
Born	Ellen Philpotts-Page (1987-02-21) February 21, 1987 (age 25) Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1997–present

Ellen Philpotts-Page (born February 21, 1987), known professionally as Ellen Page, is a Canadian actress. Page received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her role as the title character in the film Juno. She won back-to-back Austin Film Critics Association Awards for Best Actress for her roles in Juno and Hard Candy.

She is also known for her starring roles in Inception, Super, Smart People, Whip It, and as Katherine "Kitty" Pryde in X-Men: The Last Stand. In addition, Page received attention in Canada for award-winning roles in Pit Pony and Marion Bridge, as well as television shows Trailer Park Boys and ReGenesis.

In 2008, Page was nominated for Time's 100 Most Influential People list^[1] and placed #86 on FHM's Sexiest Women in the World list,^[2] and moved up to #70 for 2010.^[3] In June 2008, Page was named on Entertainment Weekly's future A-List stars list.^[4]

Early life[link]

Page was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, the daughter of Martha Philpotts, a teacher, and Dennis Page, a graphic designer.^[5] She attended the Halifax Grammar School until grade 10, spent some time at Queen Elizabeth High School, and graduated from the Shambhala School in 2005. She also spent two years in Toronto, Ontario studying in the Interact Program at Vaughan Road Academy, along with close friend and fellow Canadian actor Mark Rendall.^[6][7] Growing up, Page enjoyed playing with action figures and climbing trees.^[8]

Career[link]

Page in 2007

Page began acting at age 4, appearing in numerous school plays. She first acted in front of the camera in 1997 at age 10 in the CBC television movie Pit Pony, which later spun off into a television series. This led to more roles in a number of small Canadian films and television series, notably playing Treena Lahey in Season 2 of Trailer Park Boys. At 16, she was cast in Mouth to Mouth, an independent film shot in Europe. Page starred in the 2005 movie Hard Candy and gained praise for "one of the most complex, disturbing and haunting performances of the year".^[9] She also appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand as Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), a girl who can walk through walls. In the previous X-Men movies, the part had been used in brief cameos played by other actresses, but never as a main character. As the title character in Juno, Page garnered substantial praise; A. O. Scott of the New York Times noted her as being "frighteningly talented"^[10] and Roger Ebert said, "Has there been a better performance this year than Ellen Page's creation of Juno? I do not think so".^[11] Page was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Juno, but lost to Marion Cotillard in La Vie En Rose. The role, however, did win her several other awards, including a Canadian Comedy Award, Independent Spirit Award, and Satellite Award. Page also has starred in Smart People, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Although released after Juno, Smart People was shot earlier.^[12] Her other film credits include An American Crime, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival; The Tracey Fragments, which was released in November 2007 in Canada and May 2008 in the U.S.; and The Stone Angel.

In 2007, she was attached to play the title character in an adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre^[13][14] and had planned to work on an as-yet unmade film entitled Jack and Diane opposite Olivia Thirlby, with whom she co-starred in Juno^[15] but it was announced in August 2009 that her role in Jack and Diane would now be played by the actress Alison Pill. Before his death in January 2008, Heath Ledger had discussed with Page the idea of starring in his directorial debut, The Queen's Gambit.^[16]

Page hosted Saturday Night Live on March 1, 2008^[17] and on May 3, 2009, she guest starred in the episode "Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh" of the animated series The Simpsons as a character named Alaska Nebraska, a parody of Hannah Montana.^[18] She also starred in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It, alongside Juliette Lewis, Marcia Gay Harden, Drew Barrymore and Kristen Wiig.^[19] The film premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and had its wide release on October 2, 2009.^[20]

She features in Michael Lander's film Peacock, opposite Cillian Murphy, Susan Sarandon, Bill Pullman and Josh Lucas, which was released in 2010 despite an original release date of 2009.^[21][22][23] In August 2009, Page began shooting the thriller Inception, a film directed by Christopher Nolan and co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ken Watanabe.^[24] The film was released on July 16, 2010.

She has starred in the film Super,^[25] and will reportedly play Stacie Andree in an upcoming film about Laurel Hester.^[26]

As of 2010^[update], she serves as a spokesperson for Cisco Systems in a series of ads appearing in three commercials set in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. On May 26, 2010 it was reported in a column on "Deadline Hollywood" and by Entertainment Weekly that Page will star in the new HBO series Tilda alongside Diane Keaton, who plays the title role. Tilda is based on the life of Nikki Finke, the founder of the influential Hollywood blog, DeadlineHollywood.com.^[27] Tilda was reportedly dropped by HBO due to friction between the creators.^[28] She is also the narrator of the documentary on colony collapse disorder, Vanishing of the Bees.

In April 2011 it was announced that Page would co-star in the Woody Allen film To Rome with Love alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Penélope Cruz, and Alec Baldwin.^[29]

Personal life[link]

Page resides in her hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia and has two dogs named Julie and Sprout.^[30][31] She is prone to walking and talking in her sleep.^[32] In 2008, Page was one of 30 celebrities who participated in an online ad series for U.S. Campaign for Burma, calling for an end to the military dictatorship in Myanmar.^[33] She describes herself as a pro-choice feminist.^[34]

In 2008, Page spent a month living in an eco-village, studying permaculture at the Lost Valley Educational Center outside Eugene, Oregon.^{[35][36][37][38]}

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

• BAFTA
  • Nominated for the 2008 Orange Rising Star Award^[48][49]
• Academy Awards
  • Nominated for the 2008 Oscar, Category: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Juno (2007)^[50]
• Scream Awards
  • Nominated for the 2010 Best Science Fiction Actress

See also[link]

Canada portal

• List of former child actors from Canada

References[link]