THE GREEK HEROES 119 untarily went with, these victims. On his arrival in Crete, Minos's daughter Ariadne fell in love with him and gave him a ball of yarn, with the advice to fasten the end of it at the entrance of the labyrinth when he went in, that by following the thread he might retrace his way out of the countless interlacing paths. The plan was successful ; and after slaying the Minotaur he sailed away with his companions, whom he had rescued. With them he secretly took Ariadne herself, and landed with them all either on the neighboring island of Dia, or on. Naxos. Here Ariadne was left behind, and according to one form of the legend, probably the older one, was killed by Artemis, because she had been already previously united in wedlock with Dionysus, and had preferred a mortal to him. According to the version that prevailed later, it was here that, after Theseus had secretly aban- doned her, she was wedded to Dionysus, whose worship was prominent on Naxos. 154. On his departure from Athens Theseus had prom- ised his father that in case the undertaking against the Minotaur was successful he would substitute for the black mourning sail of his vessel a white one. But he forgot his promise, and Aegeus on the approach of the ship cast himself down either from a cliff of the Acropo- lis, or into the sea, which derived its name ' Aegean 7 from him. In later times he was reverenced in Athens as a hero. Theseus, to commemorate his prosperous return, estab- lished the autumn festival of Pyanepsia (' bean festival '), and that of the grape gathering, Oschophoria ('carrying around of vine branches'). As ruler he consolidated twelve individual communities into the united state of
