Naxos is remembered in the book as the place where Ariadne’s story turns from abandonment toward new love. In the account of her myth, Theseus cruelly leaves her there, but Bacchus falls in love with her and makes her his queen. The island thus marks not only a loss but also the beginning of a different life.

Ariadne’s refuge and renewal

Ariadne’s arrival on Naxos follows her abandonment by Theseus. Rather than ending in isolation, her story changes course when Bacchus finds her and makes her queen. Naxos becomes the setting for this reversal: a place associated with the mending of a broken heart and the possibility of love after loss.

Myth, memory, and immortality

The account links Ariadne’s fate on Naxos to the book’s recurring attention to mortality and immortality. Bacchus immortalises her by casting her crown into the sky, where it becomes the constellation Corona. The island’s significance therefore reaches beyond the events of Ariadne’s story: it anchors a myth in which personal grief gives way to renewed attachment, while the crown preserves the beloved in a form that outlasts mortal life.