January 13, Sunday

Ariadne's Thread was motivated by the story of a princess. But her story starts with her parents, so let me begin at the beginning.

There was Greek king, thousands of years ago, who had a lovely wife. But he left her alone and lonely as he went off to war. The lovely wife, the queen, feel in love with a beautiful white bull. (in those days that sort of thing was possible, I guess) She gave birth to a half-human, half-bull child. The king came home and was so shocked and so angry that he ordered a labyrinth to be built, the first one so legend has it, and placed the off-spring in the center of the labyrinth. Now, the labyrinth was so complicated that it was hoped that the bull would not find his way out! Occasionally, young people were sent into the labyrinth and never came back; they were assumed to have been eaten by the bull.

That was the situation for many years as Ariadne grew up in her parents' palace. She was, after all, a princess.

One day a young man, an adventurer, named Theseus came by and saw Ariadne and fell in love. He asked her father, the king, for her hand in marriage. The king said he would grant that IF, and only IF, Theseus was able to enter the labyrinth and kill the bull.

Ariadne had also seen Theseus and fallen in love with him. She knew what the young man had to do to win her hand. She also knew that no one had ever come back out of the labyrinth. She, however, was a smart young woman and motivated by love. She had an idea! She would give Theseus the end of a twine and the ball of twine would be outside the labyrinth. He could enter the labyrinth, kill the bull, and find his way out of the labyrinth, back to her and they would, she believed, live happily ever after together.

And that is what happened. He took the end of the twine, went into the labyrinth, killed the bull, and was able to find his way back to Ariadne, thanks to her cunning. The king was pleased that the bull was dead so he allowed Theseus to take Ariadne and they left on a grand adventure.

Unfortunately, a few years later another lovely woman entered Theseus life, and he left Ariadne on an island somewhere in the Aegean Sea. She might, just might, still be there.