In
Greek mythology,
Thoas was a son of the god
Dionysus and
Ariadne, the daughter of Cretan king
Minos. Some, however, consider him to be
Theseus’s son, together with his brother
Oenopion.
Rhadamanthus, Ariadne's uncle, bequeathed Thoas the island of
Lemnos, over which he reigned until his daughter
Hypsipyle, unable to kill her own father to avenge the offenses against the Lemnian women, tied him secretly in an oarless boat and sent him adrift into the
Aegean Sea. He was carried to the island of Oinoie, where he consorted with the
nymph of the island, also called Oinoie, and had by her a son Sicinus, who later had the island renamed after himself. Thoas eventually arrived at
Tauris, in the
Crimea, where he was made king and where
Artemis installed
Agamemnon's daughter
Iphigeneia as her temple's priestess.