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Minos was challenged as king and prayed to Poseidon for help. Poseidon sent a giant white bull out of the sea. Minos planned on sacrificing the bull to Poseidon, but then decided not to. He substituted a different bull. In rage, Poseidon cursed Pasiphaë, Minos' wife, with zoophilia. Daedalus built her a wooden cow, which she hid inside. The bull mated with the wooden cow and Pasiphaë was impregnated by the bull, giving birth to a horrible monster, the Minotaur (half man half bull). Daedalus then built a complicated maze called the Labyrinth and Minos put the Minotaur in it. To make sure no one would ever know the secret of who the Minotaur was and how to get out of the Labyrinth (Daedalus knew both of these things), Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son, Icarus, along with the monster. Fortunately, both Daedalus and Icarus escaped the Labyrinth and the Minotaur's clutches, but they were marooned on Crete.

Daedalus and Icarus flew away on wings Daedalus invented, but Icarus' wings melted because he flew too close to the sun. Icarus fell in the sea and drowned.

Some time later, Minos' son, Androgeus, won every game in a contest to Aegeas of Athens. Alternatively, the other contestants were jealous of Androgeus and killed him. Minos was angry and declared war on Athens. He offered the Athenians peace if they sent Minos seven young men and seven virgin maidens to feed the Minotaur every nine years (which corresponded directly to the Minoans' meticulous records of lunar alignments - a full moon falls on the equinoxes once every eight years).

On the third occasion, Theseus volunteered to slay the monster. He took the place of one of the youths and set off with a black sail, promising to his father, Aegeus, that if successful he would return with a white sail. King Minos' daughter Ariadne, out of love for Theseus, gave him a sword and a ball of string to find his way back through the maze.

Theseus was successful and managed to escape with all of the children and Ariadne. On the return journey Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos. The next day Ariadne realized that Theseus had only used her and she cursed him to forget to change the black sail to white. In other versions of the story, the god Dionysus appeared to Theseus and told him that he had already chosen Ariadne for his bride, and to abandon her on Naxos, a favorite island. In Theseus' grief, he forgot to change the sails.

Seeing the black sail, Aegeus committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea (hence named Aegean). Theseus and the other Athenian youths returned safely.

In that time Dionysus rediscovered and wedded Ariadne.

With Dionysus, she was the mother of Thoas and of the twins Oenopion, the personification of wine, and Staphylus (or Staphylos). Her wedding diadem was set in the heavens as the constellation Corona.

She remained faithful to Dionysus, but was later killed by Perseus at Argos. In other myths Ariadne hanged herself from a tree, like Erigone and the hanging Artemis — a Mesopotamian theme. Some scholars think, due to her thread and winding associations, that she was a weaving goddess such as Arachne, and they support the assertion with the mytheme of the Hanged Nymph.

Dionysus however descended into Hades and brought her and his mother Semele back. They then joined the gods in Olympus.