te
the riches of foreign lands. So it was not hard for him to
persuade Daedalus to make his home with him and be the
chief of his artisans.

And Daedalus 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 (m[)i]n'[=o]-tor), 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 Daedalus, "can you not do something to rid the
land of this Minotaur?" 25

"Shall I kill him?" asked Daedalus.

"Ah, no!" said the king. "That would only bring
greater misfortune upon us."

"I will build a house for him then," said Daedalus, "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
Daedalus; "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 Daedalus
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
b