Donusa

Donusa or DONYSA (Δόνυσα; whence come the corrupt forms Δονουσία, Steph. B. sub voce Eustath. ad Dionys. Per. 530; Dionysia, Mel. 2.7), a small island near Naxos, said by Stephanus to have been the island to which Dionysus carried Ariadne from Naxos, when pursued by her father Minos. This tale, however, appears to have arisen from confounding Donusa, the name of the island, with Dionysus, the name of the god. Stephanus also states, though we know not on what authority, that the island belonged to Rhodes. Virgil (Aen. 3.125) gives to Donusa the epithet of viridis, which Servius explains by the colour of its marble; but this statement is probably only invented to explain the epithet. Donusa was used as a place of banishment under the Roman empire. (Tac. Ann. 4.30.)