Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year. E. C. Hartwell
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