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[322] Minosis here called ὀλοόφρων, ‘evil-hearted,’ perhaps in remembrance of the cruel tribute he had laid upon Athens. In this form of the story Theseus ‘was carrying Ariadne off from Crete to the soil of sacred Athens, but he did not have his joy of her; for, ere that, Artemis slew her in sea-girt Dia, on the information of Dionysus.’ The Dia mentioned here is the little island, now Standia, just off Heracleion, on the north coast of Crete. Theseus would pass the island in sailing for Athens. This is different from the common account, which represents Ariadne as deserted by Theseus in Dia (Naxos), and taken to wife by Dionysus. What are the μαρτυρίαι? Some suppose that Dionysus informed Artemis that Theseus had lain with Ariadne in her sacred grove in Dia: or that Ariadne had been promised to Dionysus, but had surrendered herself to a mortal lover.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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