The daughter of Minos and Pasifae, Arianna fell in love with Theseus the minute he landed on Crete. She gave him a ball of thread that would unwind and lead him safely out of the labyrinth after killing the Minotaur. Theseus eloped with Arianna but then abandoned her on the island of Naxos, where Dionysus found her and married her.

Around wine there gradually developed a form of conviviality that included dining. The term symposion indicates "drinking together", a kind of private drinking party. From the 5th century B.C. on, the whole group of activities centred around eating and drinking assumed a symbolic value, allusive to a condition of celestial beatitude.