Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 1 (Greek and Roman).djvu/200

62 the labyrinth which Daidalos had constructed for him, this building consisting of so intricate a tangle of passages that it was impossible for one to find his way out of it. There the Minotaur remained feeding on the prey brought to him from all parts of Crete until the day when he was killed by Theseus of Athens. This story, however, is best told in connexion with the career of Theseus.

Androgeos.—The experiences of the sons of Minos were a medley of tragedy and miracle. Androgeos heard that the sea-born bull which Herakles had taken to Argolis had escaped from that territory and was ravaging the lands about Marathon. Apparently thinking that a Cretan arm was more skilled to do battle with a Cretan beast, he took ship and sailed to Attike in the hope of killing the bull. As it happened the animal killed him, but from this incident developed the circumstances which led, later on, to Theseus's voyage to Crete.

Glaukos.—The legend of Glaukos relates that, when a small child, he was once pursuing a mouse and fell into a jar of honey in which he was smothered to death. Minos sought for the child everywhere, but without success, and at last he appealed to the soothsayers, who answered him in the form of a riddle: "In thy fields grazeth a calf whose body changeth hue thrice in the space of each day. It is first white, then red, and at the last black. He who can unravel the meaning of this riddle will restore thy child to thee alive." After Polyidos the seer had divined that the enigma alluded to the mulberry, he found the body of Glaukos in the honey-jar, and Minos enclosed him in a chamber with the corpse, bidding him bring it back to life. While wondering what to do, Polyidos chanced to see a snake crawl across the floor to the child's body, and he killed it with a stone. Soon afterward he observed a second serpent come near to the body of the first, and, covering it with grass, revive it. Inspired by this example, the seer did the same thing to the body of Glaukos, and to his unbounded delight beheld it slowly come to life. Minos gladly received his son back from