Ariadne (poem) "and both story and verse have a breath-taking rapidity that is wholly admirable." He regretted, however, that Lucas had not used language in the modernist way, with obliqueness and ambiguity. "The Listener" did not share this regret: "While preserving the great metrical tradition," its reviewer wrote, ""Ariadne" is a continuous refreshment of it, and is free at once of archaic pedantries and modernist affectations." More recently, Simon Tidworth in "The Quest for Theseus" (1970) believed that making the Minotaur Minos in a bull-mask was "a real stroke of originality", but, comparing the two works, preferred Nikos Kazantzakis' drama "Κούρος, ή
Ariadne (poem) in the former, The poem's emphasis on 'true love', on shared values of courage and loyalty, may be seen as its primary theme. The realistic, psychological interpretation of the Minotaur story reflects Lucas's interest in the discoveries of modern psychology. The contrast between light-loving Athens and benighted Minoan Crete, hag-ridden with religion, reflects another authorial preference. (The epigraph, from Bacchylides, is "δίζησθαι δὲ φιλαγλάους Ἀθάνας", 'Set out for Athens, land that loves the light'.) Extracts from the poem were read on the BBC Home Service in 1934. "Ariadne" was reprinted by the Cambridge University Press in May 2014. "Ariadne" was,