The
mere fact of such a tradition as that of the galley is at least
presumptive evidence that some historic ground lay behind a belief
so persistent, however the story may have been added to and adorned
with supernatural details by later imagination; and it is difficult
to see how Grote, on the very threshold of recounting the Athenians'
conviction about the ship, and their solemn sacrificial use of
her, should pause to reaffirm his unbelief in the existence of any
historic ground for the main feature of the legend--the tribute
of human victims paid by Athens to Crete.
[Illustration III: WALL OF SIXTH CITY, TROY (_p_. 41)]
Later Athenian writers of a rationalizing turn endeavoured to bring
down the noble old legend to the level of the commonplace by
transforming the Minotaur into a mere general or famous athlete
named Taurus, whom Theseus vanquished in Crete. But the rationalistic
version never found much favour, and the Athenian potter was always
sure of a market for his vases with pictures of the bull-headed
Minotaur falling to the sword of the national hero. No more fortunate
has been the German attempt to resolve the story of Minos and the
Minotaur, the Labyrinth and Pasiphae, into a clumsy solar myth.
The whole legend of the Minotaur, on this theory, was connected
with the worship of the heavenly host.
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