When Theseus came to Athens, all of Attica was plunged into deep sadness. For the third time, ambassadors from Crete arrived from the powerful King Minos for tribute. This tribute was heavy and shameful. The Athenians had to send seven boys and seven girls to Crete every nine years. There they were locked in a huge palace, the Labyrinth, and they were devoured by the terrible monster Minotaur, with the body of a man and the head of a bull. Minos imposed this tribute on the Athenians because they killed his son Androgeus. Now for the third time the Athenians had to send a terrible tribute to Crete. They have already equipped a ship with black sails as a sign of grief for the young victims of the Minotaur.
Seeing the general sadness, the young hero Theseus decided to go with the Athenian boys and girls to Crete, free them and stop paying this terrible tribute. It was possible to stop payment only by killing the Minotaur. Therefore, Theseus decided to engage in battle with the Minotaur and either kill him or die. The elderly Aegeus did not want to hear about the departure of his only son, but Theseus insisted on his own. He made a sacrifice to Apollo-Delphinius, the patron of sea travel, and from Delphi, just before leaving, he was given an oracle so that he would choose the goddess of love Aphrodite as his patroness in this feat. Having called upon Aphrodite for help and made a sacrifice to her, Theseus went to Crete.
The ship happily arrived at the island of Crete. The Athenian youths and girls were taken to Minos. The powerful king of Crete immediately drew attention to the beautiful young hero. The king’s daughter, Ariadne, also noticed him, and Theseus’ patroness, Aphrodite, aroused in Ariadne’s heart a strong love for the young son of Aegeus. The daughter of Minos decided to help Theseus; she could not even imagine that the young hero would die in the Labyrinth, torn to pieces by the Minotaur.
Before going to battle with the Minotaur, Theseus had to perform one more feat. Minos insulted one of the Athenian girls. Theseus stood up for her, but, proud of his origin, the king of Crete began to mock Theseus; he was angry that some Athenian dared to oppose him, the son of Zeus. Theseus proudly answered the king:
“You are proud of your descent from Zeus, but I am not the son of a mere mortal, my father is the great shaker of the earth, the god of the sea Poseidon.”
“If you are the son of the god Poseidon, then prove it and get the ring from the depths of the sea,” Minos answered Theseus and threw the golden ring into the sea.
Calling on his father Poseidon, Theseus fearlessly threw himself from the steep shore into the sea waves. The salty spray flew high and hid the waves of the sea of Theseus. Everyone looked with fear at the sea that had swallowed the hero, and were sure that he would not return back. Ariadne stood full of despair; and she was sure that Theseus was dead.
And Theseus, as soon as the sea waves closed over his head, was picked up by the god Triton and in the blink of an eye rushed to the underwater palace of Poseidon. Poseidon joyfully welcomed his son into his magical underwater palace and gave him the ring of Minos, and Poseidon’s wife, Amphitrite, admiring the beauty and courage of the hero, laid a golden wreath on Theseus’s lush curls. Triton again picked up Theseus and carried him out of the depths of the sea to the shore to the place from which the hero threw himself into the sea. Theseus proved to Minos that he was the son of Poseidon, lord of the sea. Minos' daughter Ariadne rejoiced that Theseus returned unharmed from the depths of the sea.
But an even more dangerous feat lay ahead: it was necessary to kill the Minotaur. Here Ariadne came to Theseus' aid. She gave Theseus, secretly from his father, a sharp sword and a ball of thread. When Theseus and all those doomed to be torn to pieces were taken to the Labyrinth, Theseus tied the end of a ball of thread at the entrance to the Labyrinth and walked along the confusing endless passages of the Labyrinth, from which it was impossible to find a way out; He gradually unwound the ball to find his way back along the thread. Theseus walked further and further and finally came to the place where the Minotaur was. With a menacing roar, bowing his head with huge sharp horns, the Minotaur rushed at the young hero, and a terrible battle began. The Minotaur, full of rage, rushed at Theseus several times, but he repelled him with his sword. Finally, Theseus grabbed the Minotaur by the horn and plunged his sharp sword into his chest. Having killed the Minotaur, Theseus followed the thread of a ball out of the Labyrinth and brought out all the Athenian boys and girls. Ariadne met them at the exit; she joyfully greeted Theseus. The young men and women saved by Theseus rejoiced. Decorated with wreaths of roses, glorifying the hero and his patroness Aphrodite, they led a merry round dance.
Now it was necessary to take care of salvation from the wrath of Minos. Theseus quickly equipped his ship and, having cut through the bottom of all the Cretan ships pulled ashore, quickly set off on the return journey to Athens. Ariadne followed Theseus, whom she fell in love with.
On the way back, Theseus came to the shore of Naxos. When Theseus and his companions were resting from their journey, the god of wine Dionysus appeared to Theseus in a dream and told him that he must leave Ariadne on the deserted shore of Naxos, since the gods had appointed her to be his wife, the god Dionysus. Theseus woke up and, full of sadness, quickly got ready to set off. He did not dare to disobey the will of the gods. Ariadne, the wife of the great Dionysus, became the goddess. The companions of Dionysus loudly greeted Ariadne and praised the wife of the great god with singing.
And Theseus's ship quickly rushed on its black sails across the azure sea. The coast of Attica has already appeared in the distance. Theseus, saddened by the loss of Ariadne, forgot his promise to Aegeus - to replace the black sails with white ones if he, having defeated the Minotaur, happily returned to Athens. Aegeus was waiting for his son. Staring into the distance of the sea, he stood on a high rock near the seashore. A black dot appeared in the distance; it grew, approaching the shore. This is his son's ship. He's getting closer. Aegeus looks, straining his eyes, to see what kind of sails he has. No, white sails do not shine in the sun, the sails are black. So Theseus died! In despair, Aegeus threw himself from a high cliff into the sea and died in the sea waves; only his lifeless body was thrown ashore by the waves. Since then, the sea in which Aegeus perished has been called the Aegean. And Theseus landed on the shores of Attica and was already making thanksgiving sacrifices to the gods, when suddenly, to his horror, he learned that he had become the involuntary cause of his father’s death. Theseus, grief-stricken, buried his father's body with great honors, and after the funeral took power over Athens.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru