were said to have gone to visit friends in
far-away parts of Greece. The elder folk, and the young people who were
left, used to stand watching the sea all day, as if they expected
something strange to come upon them from the sea, and Aegeus sat
sorrowful over the fire, speaking little, and he seemed to be in fear.

Theseus was disturbed in his mind, and he did not choose to put
questions to Aegeus or to the townsfolk. He and Medea were great friends,
and one day when they were alone in her chamber, where a fragrant fire
of cedar wood burned, he told her what he had noticed. Medea sighed, and
said: 'The curse of the sons of Pallas is coming upon the people of
Athens--such a curse and so terrible that not even you, Prince Theseus,
can deal with it. The enemy is not one man or one monster only, but the
greatest and most powerful king in the world.'

'Tell me all,' said Theseus, 'for though I am but one man, yet the
ever-living gods protect and help me.'

'The story of the curse is long,' said Medea. 'When your father Aegeus
was young, after he returned to Athens from Troezene, he decreed that
games should be held every five years, contests in running, boxing,
wrestling, foot races, and chariot races. Not only the people of Athens,
but strangers were allowed to take part in the games, and among the
strangers came Androgeos, the eldest son of great Minos, King of
Cnossos, in the isle of Crete of the Hundred Cities, far away in the
southern sea. Minos is the wisest of men, and the most high god, even
Zeus, is his counsellor, and speaks to him face to face. He is the
richest of men, and his ships are without number, so that he rules all
the islands, and makes war, when he will, even against the King of
Egypt. The son of Minos it was who came to the sports with three fair
ships, and he was the strongest and swiftest of men. He won the foot
race, and the prizes for boxing and wrestling, and for shooting with the
bow, and throwing the spear, and hurling the heavy weight, and he easily
overcame the strongest of the sons of Pallas.

'Then, being unjust men and dishonourable, they slew him at a feast in
the hall of Aegeus, their own guest in the king's house they slew, a
thing hateful to the gods above all other evil deeds. His ships fled in
the night, bearing the news to King Minos, and, a year after that day,
the sea was black with his countless ships. His men landed, and they
were so many, all glittering in armour of bronze,