I will give you a sword,
and with that perhaps you may slay the beast; and a clue of thread,
and by that, perhaps, you may find your way out again. Only
promise me that if you escape safe you will take me home with you
to Greece; for my father will surely kill me, if he knows what I
have done.'
Then Theseus laughed, and said, 'Am I not safe enough now?' And he
hid the sword in his bosom, and rolled up the clue in his hand; and
then he swore to Ariadne, and fell down before her, and kissed her
hands and her feet; and she wept over him a long while, and then
went away; and Theseus lay down and slept sweetly.
And when the evening came, the guards came in and led him away to
the labyrinth.
And he went down into that doleful gulf, through winding paths
among the rocks, under caverns, and arches, and galleries, and over
heaps of fallen stone. And he turned on the left hand, and on the
right hand, and went up and down, till his head was dizzy; but all
the while he held his clue. For when he went in he had fastened it
to a stone, and left it to unroll out of his hand as he went on;
and it lasted him till he met the Minotaur, in a narrow chasm
between black cliffs.
And when he saw him he stopped awhile, for he had never seen so
strange a beast. His body was a man's: but his head was the head
of a bull; and his teeth were the teeth of a lion, and with them he
tore his prey.
Pages:
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185