Then they fled to their ship together, and leapt on board, and
hoisted up the sail; and the night lay dark around them, so that
they passed through Minos' ships, and escaped all safe to Naxos;
and there Ariadne became Theseus' wife.
PART IV--HOW THESEUS FELL BY HIS PRIDE
But that fair Ariadne never came to Athens with her husband. Some
say that Theseus left her sleeping on Naxos among the Cyclades; and
that Dionusos the wine-king found her, and took her up into the
sky, as you shall see some day in a painting of old Titian's--one
of the most glorious pictures upon earth. And some say that
Dionusos drove away Theseus, and took Ariadne from him by force:
but however that may be, in his haste or in his grief, Theseus
forgot to put up the white sail. Now AEgeus his father sat and
watched on Sunium day after day, and strained his old eyes across
the sea to see the ship afar. And when he saw the black sail, and
not the white one, he gave up Theseus for dead, and in his grief he
fell into the sea, and died; so it is called the AEgean to this
day.
And now Theseus was king of Athens, and he guarded it and ruled it
well.
For he killed the bull of Marathon, which had killed Androgeos,
Minos' son; and he drove back the famous Amazons, the warlike women
of the East, when they came from Asia, and conquered all Hellas,
and broke into Athens itself.
Pages:
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187