Myth & LegendGreek → English
Ariadne
/ˌæriˈædni/proper noun
A woman's name, in myth the Cretan princess whose thread led Theseus out of the labyrinth.
The Greek roots
ἀρι-
ari-
very, exceedingly
ἁδνός
hadnós
holy, pure (Cretan)
Literally: “the utterly holy one”
The story of the word
She gave Theseus the thread, he killed the Minotaur and then left her asleep on Naxos, where Dionysus found her and married her. The name is usually read as the intensive ἀρι- with the Cretan form of ἁγνός, holy, which suits a figure some scholars take for an older Minoan goddess absorbed into Greek myth rather than invented by it. Her thread reached English by a side door: the ball of yarn was a clew, and because you unwound one to find your way back out, clew became clue.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
In a sentence
Titian painted the moment Ariadne turns and sees Dionysus leaping from his chariot.