Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and RomansPlutarch
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
Plutarch
Greece -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
But the more famous of the legendary stories everybody (as I may say)
has in his mouth. In Paeon, however, the Amathusian, there is a story
given, differing from the rest. For he writes that Theseus, being
driven by a storm upon the isle of Cyprus, and having aboard with him
Ariadne, big with child, and extremely discomposed with the rolling of
the sea, set her on shore, and left her there alone, to return himself
and help the ship, when, on a sudden, a violent wind carried him again
out to sea. That the women of the island received Ariadne very kindly,
and did all they could to console and alleviate her distress at being
left behind. That they counterfeited kind letters, and delivered them
to her, as sent from Theseus, and, when she fell in labor, were diligent
in performing to her every needful service; but that she died before she
could be delivered, and was honorably interred. That soon after Theseus
returned, and was greatly afflicted for her loss, and at his departure
left a sum of money among the people of the island, ordering them to do
sacrifice to Ariadne; and caused two little images to be made and
dedicated to her, one of silver and the other of brass. Moreover, that
on the second day of Gorpiaeus, which is sacred to
Ariadne, they have this ceremony among their sacrifices, to have a youth
lie down and with his voice and gesture represent the pains of a woman
in travail; and that the Amathusians call the grove in which they show
her tomb, the grove of Venus Ariadne.
Differing yet from this account, some of the Naxians write that there
were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to
Bacchus, in the isle of Naxos, and bore the children Staphylus and his
brother; but that the other, of a later age, was carried off by Theseus,
and, being afterwards deserted by him, retired to Naxos with her nurse
Corcyna, whose grave they yet show. That this Ariadne also died there,
and was worshiped by the island, but in a different manner from the
former; for her day is celebrated with general joy and revelling, but
all the sacrifices performed to the latter are attended
with mourning and gloom.
Now Theseus, in his return from Crete, put in at Delos, and, having
sacrificed to the god of the island, dedicated to the temple the image
of Venus which Ariadne had given him, and danced with the young
Athenians a dance that, in memory of him, they say is still preserved
among the inhabitants of Delos, consisting in certain measured turnings
and returnings, imitative of the windings and twistings of the
labyrinth. And this dance, as Dicaearchus writes, is called among the
Delians, the Crane. This he danced round the Ceratonian Altar, so
called from its consisting of horns taken from the left side of the
head. They say also that he instituted games in Delos where he was the
first that began the custom of giving a palm to the victors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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