Ariadne
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Ariadne. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
ar-i-ad'ne, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Minos, king of Crete. The story runs that she fell in love with Theseus who had come from Athens to destroy the Minotaur. Ariadne gave Theseus a sword with which to slay the Minotaur, and a silken thread as a clue to guide him out of the labyrinth when the monster should be killed. Theseus was successful in his undertaking, and the two fled from Crete. Theseus, however, was warned by Minerva that Ariadne was not to be his wife. He therefore abandoned her while sleeping on the island of Naxos. Ariadne awoke to find herself deserted. While bewailing her sorry fate, she was found by the god Bacchus, who straightway made her his wife. He gave her a crown studded with gems as a wedding gift. On her death, the god threw this crown into the sky, where the gems still shine in a constellation known as the Northern Crown. Ariadne sleeping on the isle of Naxos furnishes the subject for one of the finest pieces of sculpture in Italy. It is spoken of as the Ariadne of the Vatican. The scene where Ariadne holds the thread to guide Theseus out of the labyrinth appears on a very early vase preserved in the British Museum .
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
Daughter of Minos , second king of Crete , and Pasiphae, fell in love with Theseus , who was shut up in the labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur. She gave Theseus a clew of thread by which he extricated himself from the windings of the labyrinth. After he had conquered the Minotaur he married her, but after a time he forsook her. On this, according to some authorities, she hanged herself. According to other writers, after being abandoned by Theseus, Bacchus loved her, and gave her a crown of seven stars, which were made a constellation.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a daughter of Minos, King of Crete, who, falling in love with Theseus, then shut up by her father in the labyrinth, gave him a clue by lab which he threaded his way out. Afterward she was the wife of Bacchus, who gave her a crown, which ultimately bename. came a constellation called by Also an asteroid, the 43d found; discovered by Pogson, on April 15, 1857.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The myth itself stands as the three accounts tell it, down to the thread, the desertion on Naxos and the crown set among the stars as Corona Borealis; the variant that she hanged herself, which 1000 Classical Characters notes, is still one of the ancient alternatives. What has changed is the ground beneath the story: Arthur Evans began excavating the palace at Knossos in 1900, and its sprawling plan gave the labyrinth a physical setting these writers could barely have imagined. When the Linear B script was deciphered in 1952, a Knossos tablet turned out to name a "mistress of the labyrinth" receiving offerings, evidence that the labyrinth idea was current in Bronze Age Crete itself. Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, first staged in 1912, arrived between Aiton's entry and Collier's; the asteroid Collier's mentions is still numbered 43 Ariadne.
Written for this edition, 2026.