Ariadne

by Jennifer Saint

she had sacrificed everything she knew for a love as ephemeral and transient as the rainbows that glimmered through the sea spray.

Gods might enjoy mortal skill in hunting or music or weaving, but they were always alert to hubris—and woe betide a human whose skills came close to those of the divine.

Who highlighted this? To ask them to explain the meaning of those words to me... Habís? Woe betide ?!?!

“What if they take my hair and leave me bald and ugly?”

You only care about beauty?!

If the gods were offended by him and struck down his wife, then why not his daughter?

She bas a point.

What I did not know was that I had hit upon a truth of womanhood: however blameless a life we led, the passions and the greed of men could bring us to ruin, and there was nothing we could do.

The stories of Perseus did not allow for a Medusa with a story of her own.

“I thought it was time that you knew something different,” she answered.

I would be Medusa, if it came to it, I resolved. If the gods held me accountable one day for the sins of someone else, if they came for me to punish a man’s actions, I would not hide away like Pasiphae. I would wear that coronet of snakes, and the world would shrink from me instead.

my sister Phaedra—

Sister? Ok there's many names here.

my already absented mother never truly returned to me from that journey into flame and suffering.

Good way to say she died while giving birth

The infant was a monster and the mother a hollowed-out shell,

She didn't die, she just lost her soul or sanity.

Asterion. A distant light in an infinity of darkness. A raging fire if you came too close. A guide that would lead my family on the path to immortality.

He was not yet the Minotaur. He was just a baby. He was my brother.

Our fear. That was how the gods grew great.

no more would the sinners among them be sacrificed to the Minotaur’s appetite, for Athens had been brought to Minos’ heel and forced to yield up fourteen of its children each year to be fed to my youngest brother in payment for the life of my eldest.

So, sacrifices every year?

I would not think. I danced instead.

Very me coded.

I was lucky that my father kept me as a prize he had yet to bestow,

But that was all about to change.

I didn't read this part completely, sorry

She was thirteen years old and considered herself quite the expert in anything and everything, most of which she mocked.

Kinda like I was or that's just how everyone feels

“Yorgos, if you beat a donkey, it would not grow stronger. It would not be able to bear greater loads; in fact, you would weaken it. It would cringe away from you in fright when you came to feed it and would grow thin and trembling. When you came to load it with your goods to take to market, it would collapse beneath the weight it used to carry with ease. It would become useless to you.”

Good point.

None of his wife’s heartfelt appeals to his sympathy and compassion had moved him in the slightest, but the words of Rhadamanthus had caught his attention.

Shit..... So he needed to listen to a man, this is so.... Old timed behavior.

“I only hope that wherever we might go, as far away from here as it can be, that we go there together.” She plaited her slender fingers with mine where they rested on her arm. “I cannot imagine it if you left me here.

perhaps the hostages should feel honored that they would have the privilege of not only seeing but actually treading its intricate pathways.

Why?

Mother, please, please tell me that we do not have to rob fourteen more mothers of their children to satisfy Minos’ greed for power!”

My mother couldn’t help me. But I knew who could.

Who? The old man we talked about chapters ago?

“You wish to save the hostages,” he murmured. “You wish to save Theseus.”

You're that obvious?!?! Girl !!!

It was the key to this door that Daedalus had smuggled to me

So just HIS ....

“My mother always told me that I was born of greatness, though she concealed my father’s identity from me. As a boy, I dreamed that he was a hero, away on grueling and arduous labors, and I expected he would take comfort in the thought of his son growing up to follow in his footsteps and conquer the world. I wanted to fight monsters, rescue princesses, and punish wrongdoers, as I imagined he was doing.

I admired him so very much, it could not be described as a meeting of equals,

Sex gay?!!!

I knew that a hero should be brave and righteous and noble and honorable. I had never thought I would lay eyes upon such a one myself, even if I searched the world over.

“You will be glad,” he continued, “to have your sister dance at our wedding.”

SAY WHAT?!?!?!!

I was a fitting wife for a legendary hero and I would prove it.

Hera’s revenges were the subject of endless stories.

Mythologie.. Oh so long

This lonely start to the morning was just a sign of how thoughtful, how considerate my husband was to let me rest.