Ἀριάδνη -- Ariadne -- 'Goddess of Snakes' from Indo-European 'aryo', 'Lord, ruler' and 'angwhi', 'Snake, eel'. This derivation of the meaning of the name using Indo-European derivations seems quite consistent with what we know about the Minoan Culture. But the name does not seem to be from the Minoan language. Rather it is an ancient Greek derivation from what the ancient Greeks knew about Minoan culture. The translation of the name 'Ariadne' as 'most holy' comes from finding in the Greek dictionary that 'ἀρῐ-' is a prefix that means 'goodness' and 'ἀγνός' means 'holy'. Lidel and Scott points out that the Cretans used a 'δ' for the 'γ' in this latter word. There is no doubt that for more than a thousand years this latter definition was accepted as there is art that seems to depend upon it. But the former definition seems more meaningful in the ancient context.
Apollodorus says that Ariadne was one of the many daughters of Minos, King of Ancient Crete in the years before the Trojan war.
Hesiod says:(ll. 947-949) "And golden-haired Dionysus made brown-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife: and the son of Cronos made her deathless and unageing for him."
Plutarch says about Theseus 20: "There are many tales.... about Ariadne...., how that she was deserted by Theseus for love of another woman: `For strong love for Aegle the daughter of Panopeus overpowered him.' For Hereas of Megara says that Peisistratus removed this verse from the works of Hesiod."
Homer, in the Iliad makes a reference to Ariadne when he describes the Shield of Achilles (Book XVIII): "Furthermore he wrought a green, like that which Daedalus once made in Cnossus for lovely Ariadne. Hereon there danced youths and maidens whom all would woo, with their hands on one another's wrists. The maidens wore robes of light linen, and the youths well woven shirts that were slightly oiled. The girls were crowned with garlands, while the young men had daggers of gold that hung by silver baldrics; sometimes they would dance deftly in a ring with merry twinkling feet, as it were a potter sitting at his work and making trial of his wheel to see whether it will run, and sometimes they would go all in line with one another, and much people was gathered joyously about the green. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune."
Homer, in the Odyssey includes Ariadne in his catalog of mortal women when Odysseus visits Hades in Book XI:
Then I saw Phaidra, Prokris; and Ariadne, daughter of Minos, the grim king. Theseus took her aboard with him from Krete for the terraced land of ancient Athens; but he had no joy of her. Artemis killed her on the Isle of Dia at a word from Dionysos. It was Ariadne that fell in love with Theseus and provided him with a way out of the Labyrinth after he killed the Minotaur. Often associated with this story is a ball of string which Ariadne provided to Theseus. This gave him a way out of the Labyrinth.
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