All day long in mournful snatches
Rose the plaint of Ariadne,
Watching, weary and forsaken.”
—Thomas Davidson.
STORY.
THE DESERTED PRINCESS.
Minos, the king of Crete, in revenge for the death of his son, slain by the Athenians, exacted a yearly tribute from them of youths and maidens. Theseus, a valiant youth of Athens, offered himself as one of the victims of this tribute, with the intention of slaying the Minotaur, a hideous monster to whom Minos was in the habit of feeding his captives. The cave in which the Minotaur was confined was a labyrinth so constructed that no man who entered could find means to escape before he was met and devoured.
The king’s fair daughter saw and fell in love with Theseus. She gave him a sword and a clue of thread so that he was enabled to slay the Minotaur and find his way out of the labyrinth.
“And the slender clue
Prepared in secret by the enamoured maid,
Through the curved labyrinth his steps conveyed.”