Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/256

 224 HISTORY OF GREECE. part in the festivals of the Oschophoria, the Pyanepsia, or the Kybernesia, the name of this great hero was familiar, and the motives for offering to him solemn worship at his own special festival of the Theseia, became evident and impressive. The same Athenian legends which ennobled and decorated the character of Theseus, painted in repulsive colors the attributes of Minos; and the traits of the old Homeric comrade of Zeus were buried under those of the conqueror and oppressor of Athens. His history like that of the other legendary personages of Greece, consists almost entirely of a string of family romances and tragedies. His son Katreus, father of Aerope, wife of Atreus, was apprized by an oracle that he would perish by the hand of one of his own children : he accordingly sent them out of the island, and Althgemenes, his son, established himself in Rhodes. Katreus having become old, and fancying that he had outlived the warning of the oracle, went over to Rhodes to see Althae- menes. In an accidental dispute which arose between his atten- dants and the islanders, Althcemenes inadvertently took part and slew his father without knowing him. Glaukus, the youngest son of Minos, pursuing a mouse, fell into a reservoir of honey and was drowned. No one knew what had become of him, and his father was inconsolable ; at length the Argeian Polyeidus, a prophet wonderfully endowed by the gods, both discovered the boy and restored him to life, to the exceeding joy of Minos. 1 The latter at last found his death in an eager attempt to over- take and punish Daedalus. This great artist, the eponymous hero of the Attic gens or deme called the Daedalidoe, and the descendant of Erechtheus through Metion, had been tried at the tribunal of Areiopagus and banished for killing his nephew Talos, whose rapidly improving skill excited his envy. 2 He took refuge in Krete, where he acquired the confidence of Minos, and was employed (as has been already mentioned) in constructing the labyrinth; subsequently however he fell under the displeasure of Minos, and was confined as a close prisoner in the inextricable windings of his own edifice. His unrivalled skill and rescxirce however did not forsake him. He manufactured wings both for 1 Apollodor. iii. cap. 2-3.
 * Pherekyd. Fragm. 105 ; Hellanik. Fragm. 82 (Diclot) ; Pausan. vii. 4,5