So Theseus was
led away by the guards, and put into the Labyrinth to meet his
fate; and he went on, with the clue which he had fastened to his
arm unwinding itself as he passed through passage after passage,
until at last he met the dreadful monster; and there, in the depths
of the Labyrinth, the Minotaur, who had slain so many, was himself
slain. Then Theseus and his companions escaped, taking Ariadne
with them, and fled to their black ship, and set sail for Attica
again; and landing for awhile in the island of Naxos, Ariadne there
became the hero's wife. But she never came to Athens with Theseus,
but was either deserted by him in Naxos, or, as some say, was taken
from him there by force. So, without her, Theseus sailed again
for Athens. But in their excitement at the hope of seeing once
more the home they had thought to have looked their last upon, he
and his companions forgot to hoist the white sail; and old AEgeus,
straining his eyes on Sunium day after day for the returning ship,
saw her at last come back black-winged as he had feared; and in
his grief he fell, or cast himself, into the sea, and so died, and
thus the sea is called the AEgean to this day. Another tradition,
recorded by the poet Bacchylides, tells how Theseus, at the challenge
of Minos, descended to the palace of Amphitrite below the sea, and
brought back with him the ring, 'the splendour of gold,' which
the King had thrown into the deep.
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