In his sorrow and
righteous anger, Minos, who had already conquered Megara by the
treachery of Scylla, raised a great fleet, and levied war upon
Athens; and, having wasted Attica with fire and sword, he at length
reduced the land to such straits that King AEgeus and his Athenians
were glad to submit to the hard terms which were asked of them.
The demand of Minos was that every ninth year Athens should send
him as tribute seven youths and seven maidens. These were selected
by lot, or, according to another version of the legend, chosen by
Minos himself, and on their arrival in Crete were cast into the
Labyrinth, to become the prey of the monstrous Minotaur.
The first and second instalments of this ghastly tribute had already
been paid; but when the time of the third tribute was drawing nigh,
the predestined deliverer of Athens appeared in the person of the
hero Theseus. Theseus was the unacknowledged son of King AEgeus
and the Princess Aithra of Troezen. He had been brought up by his
mother at Troezen, and on arriving at early manhood had set out
to make his way to the Court of AEgeus and secure acknowledgment
as the rightful son of the Athenian King. The legend tells how on
his way to Athens he cleared the lands through which he journeyed
of the pests which had infested them. Sinnis, the pine-bender,
who tied his miserable victims to the tops of two pine-trees bent
towards one another and then allowed the trees to spring back,
the young hero dealt with as he had dealt with others; Kerkuon,
the wrestler, was slain by him in a wrestling bout; Procrustes,
who enticed travellers to his house and made them fit his bed,
stretching the short upon the rack and lopping the limbs of the
over-tall, had his own measure meted to him; and various other
plagues of society were abated by the young hero.
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