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pleasanter and their lives 5

       easier they allowed him to live; and yet they drove him

       out of Athens and bade him never return.

      There was a ship in the harbor just ready to start on a

       voyage across the sea, and in it Dædalus embarked with

       all his precious tools and his young son Icarus (ĭk´à-rŭs). 10

       Day after day the little vessel sailed slowly southward,

       keeping the shore of the mainland always upon the right.

       It passed Trœzen and the rocky coast of Argos and then

       struck boldly out across the sea.

      At last the famous Island of Crete was reached, and 15

       there Dædalus landed and made himself known; and the

       King of Crete, who had already heard of his wondrous

       skill, welcomed him to his kingdom, and gave him a home

       in his palace, and promised that he should be rewarded

       with great riches and honor if he would but stay and practice 20

       his craft there as he had done in Athens.

      Now the name of the King of Crete was Minos. His

       grandfather, whose name was also Minos, was the son of

       Europa, a young princess whom a white bull, it was said,

       had brought on his back across the sea from distant Asia.25

       This elder Minos had been accounted the wisest of men—so

       wise, indeed, that Jupiter chose him to be one of the

       judges of the Lower World. The younger Minos was

       almost as wise as his grandfather; and he was brave and

       farseeing and skilled as a ruler of men. He had made all 30

       the islands subject to his kingdom, and his ships sailed

       into every part of the world and brought back to Crete

       the riches of foreign lands. So it was not hard for him to

       persuade Dædalus to make his home with him and be the

       chief of his artisans.

      And Dædalus built for King Minos a most wonderful

       palace with floors of marble and pillars of granite; and 5

       in the palace he set up golden statues which had tongues

       and could talk; and for splendor and beauty there was

       no other building in all the wide earth that could be compared

       with it.

      There lived in those days among the hills of Crete a 10

       terrible monster called the Minotaur (mĭn´ō-tôr), the like

       of which has never been seen from that time until now.

       This creature, it was said, had the body of a man but the

       face and head of a wild bull and the fierce nature of a

       mountain lion. The people of Crete would not have killed 15

       him if they could; for they thought that the Mighty Folk

       who lived with Jupiter on the mountain top had sent him

       among them and that these beings would be angry if anyone

       should take his life. He was the pest and terror of

       all the land. Where he was least expected, there he was 20

       sure to be; and almost every day some man, woman, or

       child was caught and devoured by him.

      "You have done so many wonderful things," said the

       king to Dædalus, "can you not do something to rid the

       land of this Minotaur?" 25

      "Shall I kill him?" asked Dædalus.

      "Ah, no!" said the king. "That would only bring

       greater misfortune upon us."

      "I will build a house for him then," said Dædalus, "and

       you can keep him in it as a prisoner." 30

      "But he may pine away and die if he is penned up in

       prison," said the king.

      "He shall have plenty of room to roam about," said

       Dædalus; "and if you will only now and then feed one of

       your enemies to him, I promise you that he shall live and

       thrive."

      So the wonderful artisan brought together his workmen, 5

       and they built a marvelous house with so many rooms in

       it and so many winding ways that no one who went far

       into it could ever find his way out again; and Dædalus

       called it the Labyrinth and cunningly persuaded the

       Minotaur to go inside it. The monster soon lost his way 10

       among the winding passages, but the sound of his terrible

       bellowings could be heard day and night as he wandered

       back and forth vainly trying to find some place to escape.

      Not long after this it happened that Dædalus was guilty

       of a deed which angered the king very greatly; and had 15

       not Minos wished him to build other buildings for him, he

       would have put him to death and served him right.

      "Hitherto," said the king, "I have honored you for your

       skill and rewarded you for your labor. But now you shall

       be my slave and shall serve me without hire and without 20

       any word of praise."

      Then he gave orders to the guards at the city gates that

       they should not let Dædalus pass out at any time, and he

       set soldiers to watch the ships that were in port so that

       he could not escape by sea. But although the wonderful 25

       artisan was thus held as a prisoner, he did not build any

       more buildings for King Minos; he spent his time in planning

       how he might regain his freedom.

      "All my inventions," he said to his son Icarus, "have

       hitherto been made to please other people; now I will 30

       invent something to please myself."

      So through all the day he pretended to be planning some

       great work for the king, but every night he locked himself

       up in his chamber and wrought secretly by candlelight.

       By and by he had made for himself a pair of strong wings,

       and for Icarus another pair of smaller ones; and then, 5

       one midnight, when everybody was asleep, the two went

       out to see if they could fly. They fastened the wings

       to their shoulders with wax, and then sprang up into the

       air. They could not fly very far at first, but they did so

       well that they felt sure of doing much better in time. 10

      The next night Dædalus made some changes in the wings.

       He put on an extra strap or two; he took out a feather

       from one wing and put a new feather into another; and

      

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