Her dawning horror makes her turn to her stepson Hippolytus, whose rejection drives her to madness, and suicide, while he meets his death via deus ex Poseidon. Nor can we blame her sister (one of Salt’s few additions to the story), Phaedra, also seduced and carried away by Theseus, who slowly begins to learn what her husband has done during his adventuring.

But in Saint’s hands, one can hardly blame the girl as she rages devastated in his wake, abandoned. The usual drama happens – she sacrifices her brother in the name of the true love seems to lie in wait for her. In some versions of the telling, Ariadne is looked upon with pity by Dionysus, who takes her to the isle of Naxos and makes her his wife, eventually raising her to demigodhood after her death at the hands of Perseus, his mortal half-brother.Īsterion is the minotaur’s name in this Ariadne, and Ariadne is devoted to her brother, faithfully demanding his yearly blood sacrifice – until she falls for Theseus. Theseus promises to take her away from Crete with him to become his bride, but instead sails on without her. In equipping him and allowing him into the labyrinth, where he slays the Minotaur in the process, she betrays her people. The story goes that Ariadne was charmed by Theseus, Prince of Athens, who has been captured and brought to sacrifice to the Minotaur. The story of Ariadne – daughter of King Minos, gatekeeper of the labyrinth, doomed to be locked up on the isle of Crete to care for her brother, the Minotaur – is famous to many a Greek mythology fan, and Jennifer Salt does not deviate far from the main body of the legend.

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