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Home  »  The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived before Achilles.  »  Chapter III. Theseus and the Minotaur. V.

Padraic Colum (1881–1972). The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived before Achilles. 1921.

Part III. The Heroes of the Quest

Chapter III. Theseus and the Minotaur. V.

THAT day the youths and maidens of Athens were brought through the labyrinth and to the hall where the Minotaur was. They went through the passages weeping and lamenting. Some cried out for Theseus, and some said that Theseus had deserted them. The heavy door was opened. Then those who were with the youths and maidens saw the Minotaur lying stark and stiff with Theseus’s sword through its neck. They shouted and blew trumpets and the noise of their trumpets filled the labyrinth. Then they turned back, bringing the youths and maidens with them, and a whisper went through the whole palace that the Minotaur had been slain. The youths and maidens were lodged in the chamber where Minos gave his judgments.