Note 225 — TEMPLE SCIENCE.

It contained a description of some notable achievements in the first ages; and a particular account of the Apotheosis of Ariadne, who is described, whatever may be the meaning of it, as carried by Bacchus to heaven. The story is said to have been painted on a robe, or coverlet; because it was delineated upon a Pharos: that word being equivocal, and to be taken in either sense. And here I cannot but take notice of the inconsistency of the Greeks, who make Theseus a partaker in this history; and suppose him to have been acquainted with Ariadne. If we may credit Plutarch[225], Theseus, as soon as he was advanced towards manhood, went, by the advice of his mother Æthra, from Trœzen, in quest of his father Ægeus at Athens. This was some years after the Argonautic expedition; when Medea had left Jason, and put herself under the protection of this same Ægeus. After having been acknowledged by his father, Theseus went upon his expedition to Crete; where he is said to have first seen Ariadne, and to have carried her away. All this, I say, was done after Jason had married Medea, and had children by her; and after she had left him and was come to Athens. But the story of Ariadne, in the above specimen, is mentioned as a fact of far older date. It was prior to the arrival of Medea in Greece, and even to the Argonautic expedition. It is spoken of as a circumstance of the highest antiquity: consequently, [226]Theseus could not any ways be concerned in it.