The war with Minos and the origin of the tribute to the Minotaur

Aigeus himself returned to Athens, where he celebrated the games of the Panathenaia. During these games, Androgeos, the son of Minos, defeated all others, and Aigeus sent him to confront the bull of Marathon,* which killed him. According to some accounts, however, as he was travelling to Thebes to take part in the games held in honour of Laios, he was ambushed by his fellow competitors, and murdered out of jealousy. Minos received the news of his death as hi was sacrificing to the Graces in Paros. He cast the garland from his head and silenced the flutes, but completed the sacrifice none the less; that is why, even to this day, they sacrifice to the Graces in Paros without flutes and garlands. ⁸Not long afterwards, being master of the sea, Minos attacked Athens with a fleet; and he captured Megara, which was then under the rule of Nisos, a son of Pandion, and killed Megareus,* son of Hippomenes, who had come from Onchestos to the aid of Nisos. Nisos met his death also, through the treachery of his daughter. For he had a purple hair on the middle of his head, and an oracle had declared that if it were pulled out, he would die; and his daughter Scylla, who had fallen in love with Minos, pulled the hair out. But when Minos had gained control of Megara, he tied the girl by her feet to the prow of a ship and drowned her.*

When the war dragged on and he was unable to capture Athens, Minos prayed to Zeus to grant him vengeance on the Athenians. The city was then afflicted by a famine and a plague. First, obeying an ancient oracle, the Athenians slaughtered the daughters of Hyacinthos, Antheis, Aigleis, Lytaia, and Orthaia, on the grave of Geraistos the Cyclops. (Their father, Hyacinthos,* had come from Lacedaimon to settle in Athens.) But when this had no effect, they asked the oracle how they could be rid of their troubles, and the god replied that they should offer Minos whatever satisfaction he chose. So they sent a deputation to Minos, and allowed him to claim a penalty at his own discretion; and Minos ordered them to send seven boys and seven girls, all unarmed, to serve as food for the Minotaur. Now the Minotaur was confined in a labyrinth,* and anyone who entered it found it impossible to escape, for its maze of winding ways ensured that the way out remained undiscoverable. It was constructed by Daidalos, son of Eupalamos, son of Metion and Alcippe. ⁹For Daidalos was an excellent architect and the first man to invent statues, and he had fled from Athens because he had hurled Talos, the son of his sister Perdix, from the Acropolis. This Talos was his pupil, and he was so gifted that Daidalos was afraid that he would be outshone by him, since Talos, using a snake’s jawbone* that he had found, had managed to saw through a thin piece of wood. After the corpse was discovered, Daidalos was tried in the Areiopagos, and when he was found guilty, went into exile at the court of Minos, †

The labours of Theseus, and his arrival at Athens

^lAithra bore to Aigeus a son, Theseus.* When he was fully

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grown, he pushed back the rock, recovered the sandals and the sword,* and hurried on foot to Athens; and he cleared the road,* which was beset by evildoers. First, in Epidauros he killed Periphetes, son of Hephaistos and Anticleia, who was referred to as Corynetes* [or the Club-Man] because of the club that he carried; for being weak on his feet, he carried an iron club, and used it to kill passers-by. Theseus seized the club from Periphetes and carried it himself ever after. ²Secondly, he killed Sinis, son of Polypemon and Sylea, daughter of Corinthos. Sinis was referred to as Pityocamptes [or the Pine-Bender]; for living on the Isthmus of Corinth, he forced passers-by to bend pine trees to the ground and hold them down, and when they were too weak to do so, they were hurled into the air* by the trees to meet with a miserable death. Theseus killed him in that very manner.

EPITOME

¹Thirdly, he killed at Crommyon the sow known as Phaia,

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which was named after the old woman who had reared it; some say that it was the offspring of Echidna and Typhon. ²Fourthly he killed Sceiron the Corinthian, a son of Pelops, or, according to some, of Poseidon. Sceiron occupied the rocks in the Megarid which are named the Sceironian Rocks because of him, and forced passers-by to wash his feet; and as they did so, he would kick them into the deep to become the prey of a giant turtle. ³But Theseus grasped Sceiron by the feet and flung him [into the sea]. Fifthly, in Eleusis, he killed Cercyon, son of Branchos and a nymph, Argiope. Cercyon forced passers-by to wrestle with him, and killed them during the fight. Theseus raised him into the air and dashed him to the ground. ⁴Sixthly, he killed Damastes, whom some call Polypemon.* He had a house by the roadside and made up two beds, one small and the other large. Offering hospitality to passers-by, he would place short men on the large bed and beat them out with hammers to make them the same length as the bed, but tall men he would place on the small bed, and saw off the parts of their bodies that projected beyond it.

So in this way, Theseus cleared the road, and arrived in Athens. ⁵But Medea, who was married to Aigeus at the time, schemed against him* and persuaded Aigeus to beware of him, alleging that he was a conspirator. Aigeus, failing to recognize him as his son, was afraid, and sent him out against the bull of Marathon* in the expectation that he would be destroyed by it. ⁶When Theseus had killed the beast, Aigeus offered him some poison that he had received from Medea that very day. But as Theseus was about to drink the potion, he presented the sword to his father, and when Aigeus recognized it, he knocked the cup out of his hands. After he had been recognized by his father and informed of the plot, Theseus drove Medea from the land.

Theseus, Ariadne, and the killing of the Minotaur

⁷When the third tribute was sent to the Minotaur,* he was included on the list, or, according to some, he offered himself as a volunteer. As the ship had a black sail, Aigeus ordered his son to raise white sails on it if he came back alive. ⁸When Theseus arrived in Crete, Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with him and promised to assist him if he would agree to take her away to Athens and have her as his wife. When Theseus agreed on oath to do so, she asked Daidalos to reveal how it was possible to escape from the Labyrinth. ⁹On his advice, she gave Theseus a thread as he entered. He attached it to the door and played it out as he went in; and discovering the Minotaur in the innermost part of the Labyrinth, he killed it with blows from his fists, and then made his way out again by pulling back on the thread. [On the journey back,] he arrived at Naxos by night with Ariadne and the children.* There Dionysos fell in love with Ariadne* and carried her off; and taking her to Lemnos, he had intercourse with her, fathering Thoas, Staphylos, Oinopion, and Peparethos.

¹⁰In his grief for Ariadne, Theseus forgot to spread white sails on his ship as he put into port. And when Aigeus saw from the Acropolis that the ship had a black sail, he thought that Theseus had died, and threw himself down to his death. ¹¹Theseus then succeeded him as king of Athens, and killed the sons of Pallas,* who were fifty in number; and in the same way, all who tried to rebel were killed by him, and he held sole power.