<P> Since ancient Greek myths are passed down through oral tradition, many variations of this and other myths exist . According to an Athenian version of the legend, Minos attacked Athens after his son was killed there . The Athenians asked for terms, and were required to sacrifice seven young men and seven maidens to the Minotaur every seven or nine years . One year, the sacrificial party included Theseus, the son of King Aegeus, who volunteered to come and kill the Minotaur . Ariadne fell in love at first sight, and helped him by giving him a sword and a ball of thread, so that he could find his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth . </P> <P> She eloped with Theseus after he achieved his goal, but according to Homer "he had no joy of her, for ere that, Artemis slew her in seagirt Dia because of the witness of Dionysus" (Odyssey XI, 321 - 5). Homer does not expand on the nature of Dionysus's accusation, but the Oxford Classical Dictionary speculates that she was already married to Dionysus when she ran away with Theseus . </P> <P> In Hesiod and most other accounts, Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, and Dionysus rediscovered and wedded her . In a few versions of the myth, Dionysus appeared to Theseus as they sailed away from Crete, saying that he had chosen Ariadne as his wife and demanding that Theseus leave her on Naxos for him; this has the effect of absolving the Athenian culture - hero of desertion . The vase - painters of Athens often showed Athena leading Theseus from the sleeping Ariadne to his ship . </P> <P> With Dionysus, she was the mother of Oenopion, the personification of wine, Staphylus (related to grapes), Thoas, Peparethus, Phanus, Eurymedon, Enyeus, Ceramus, Maron, Euanthes, Latramys and Tauropolis . Her wedding diadem was set in the heavens as the constellation Corona Borealis . </P>

Who did dionysus rescue from the island of naxos