The Story of Ariadne

Ariadne, princess and daughter of King Minos of Crete, fell in love with the Athenian hero Theseus. He came to Crete to slay the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster that resided in a labyrinth. To help Theseus navigate the maze, Ariadne gave him a ball of thread, known as a "clew," which he unraveled to find his way out after defeating the Minotaur.

After Theseus killed the Minotaur, he and Ariadne sailed away together. However, he abandoned her on the island of Naxos while she slept. When Ariadne awoke alone on a beach, she realized she had been left behind and fell into despair. At that moment, Bacchus arrived and was captivated by her beauty. They fell in love and were married. In the left scene, we see their triumph—Theseus's ship sailing away in the distance, while Ariadne leans against her new love, Bacchus, who holds a thyrsus (a staff tipped with a pine cone and circled with ivy, an early Greek fertility symbol). To honor her, Bacchus took her crown and placed it in the sky, creating the constellation Corona Borealis, the "Northern Crown."

The Story of Erigone

On the right-hand side of the tapestry, in a lesser-known myth, we see a young woman named Erigone and her ladies. Sometimes described as a princess, sometimes as a nymph, she is being offered a basket of grapes in which the god Bacchus has disguised himself as a bunch of grapes in order to seduce Erigone.