n Minos died the new
Cretan king might oppress Athens.

Minos died, at last, and his son picked a quarrel with Theseus, who
refused to give up a man that had fled to Athens because the new king
desired to slay him, and news came to Theseus that a great navy was
being made ready in Crete to attack him. Then he sent heralds to the
king of a fierce people, called the Dorians, who were moving through the
countries to the north-west of Greece, seizing lands, settling on them,
and marching forward again in a few years. They were wild, strong, and
brave, and they are said to have had swords of iron, which were better
than the bronze weapons of the Greeks. The heralds of Theseus said to
them, 'Come to our king, and he will take you across the sea, and show
you plunder enough. But you shall swear not to harm his kingdom.'

This pleased the Dorians well, and the ships of Theseus brought them
round to Athens, where Theseus joined them with many of his own men, and
they did the oath. They sailed swiftly to Crete, where, as they arrived
in the dark, the Cretan captains thought that they were part of their
own navy, coming in to join them in the attack on Athens; for that
Theseus had a navy the Cretans knew not; he had built it so secretly. In
the night he marched his men to Cnossos, and took the garrison by
surprise, and burned the palace, and plundered it. Even now we can see
that the palace has been partly burned, and hurriedly robbed by some
sudden enemy.

The Dorians stayed in Crete, and were there in the time of Ulysses,
holding part of the island, while the true Cretans held the greater part
of it. But Theseus returned to Athens, and married Hippolyte, Queen of
the Amazons. The story of their wedding festival is told in
Shakespeare's play, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' And Theseus had many
new adventures, and many troubles, but he left Athens rich and strong,
and in no more danger from the kings of Crete. Though the Dorians, after
the time of Ulysses, swept all over the rest of Greece, and seized
Mycenae and Lacedaemon, the towns of Agamemnon and Menelaus, they were
true to their oath to Theseus, and left Athens to the Athenians.

PERSEUS

I

THE PRISON OF DANAE

Many years before the Siege of Troy there lived in Greece two princes
who were brothers and deadly enemies. Each of them wished to be king
both of Argos (where Diomede ruled in the time of the Trojan war), and
of Tiryns. After long wars one of th