When Athens owed Minos a tribute of youths for the Minotaur, Theseus sailed on the black-sailed ship, won Ariadne's love and Daedalus' secret of the labyrinth, killed the beast with his fists, and fled Crete — but left the princess on Naxos and forgot the white sail, so Aegeus cast himself into the sea.1
The tribute to Minos
Androgeus, son of Minos, had been killed at Athens — some say by the Marathonian bull, others by jealous competitors — and the Cretan king imposed a tribute: every nine years seven youths and seven maidens sent to the labyrinth for the Minotaur. Theseus offered himself among the third company, or was chosen by lot; Aegeus gave him a black sail and charged him to hoist white canvas if he returned alive.2
The Cyclades answer Minos
Before the tribute sailed, Minos mustered the Cyclades against Athens. Ovid names the allies who agreed to aid: level Myconos, the chalky fields of Kimolos, Syros covered with wild thyme, level Seriphos, Paros of marble cliffs, and Siphnos — the place Arne the impious Siphnian had betrayed for gold and was changed into a black-foot daw. When tidings of Androgeus' death reached Minos as he sacrificed to the Graces in Paros, he threw away his garland and stopped the flute-music, though he finished the rite — hence, Apollodorus says, the island long sacrificed to the Graces without flutes or garlands.3
The clew of thread
At Knossos, Ariadne, daughter of Minos, fell in love with the Athenian and promised help if he would take her away. Daedalus — the artificer who built the maze — gave her the plan: let the hero unwind a clew of thread as he went in, so he could find the way back. Theseus entered the labyrinth, met the Minotaur, and killed it with his bare hands; he drew the thread after him and came out with the youths and maidens of Athens.4
Naxos and the black sail⚖
They sailed by night and put in at Naxos — Homer's sea-girt Dia — where Dionysus carried Ariadne off. Grieving, Theseus forgot to spread the white sail. Aegeus, watching from the acropolis, saw only black canvas and cast himself into the sea; the hero returned king of a fatherless city. The poets tell Ariadne's end apart: Homer says Artemis slew her on Dionysus' testimony; Hesiod makes her Dionysus' immortal wife; Apollodorus has the god wedded her on Naxos after Theseus abandoned her.5
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How the centuries saw it
Theseus Slaying the Minotaur (tondo of the Aison Kylix)
Aison, c. 435–415 BC
Attic red-figure tondo: Theseus drags the slain Minotaur from the labyrinth while Athena stands by — Athens' founding exploit in a single charged cup.
Theseus Victorious over the Minotaur
Unknown (Roman wall-painter, Fourth Pompeian Style), 1st century AD
Pompeian fresco: Theseus stands over the crumpled bull-man as the freed Athenian youths crowd forward — the labyrinth's end painted for a Campanian house.
Bacchus and Ariadne
Titian, 1522–1523
On Naxos Ariadne turns as Bacchus leaps from his chariot — Theseus' ship already a pale sail, the crown of stars waiting above her head.
Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus
Angelica Kauffmann, 1774
Kauffmann isolates the morning after the thread: Ariadne alone on the shore, the hero's sail gone — Catullus' abandoned heroine for a neoclassical audience.
Theseus Slaying the Minotaur
Antoine-Louis Barye, 1843
Barye's bronze coils the hero and the bull-headed beast in one struggle — the labyrinth fight cast as Romantic animal force.
In play
Minotaur
The labyrinth's bull-man — Theseus' thread and Ariadne's gift still define how the West imagines the maze.
Ariadne
The princess who arms the hero against her brother — then waits on Naxos for a god instead of a king.
Theseus
Athens' founder-hero whose Cretan deed — killing the Minotaur — remains his most retold exploit.