who till then were kept in the Labyrinth. Also they say that
the victor in the first contest was a man of great power in the state, a
general of the name of Taurus, who was of harsh and savage temper, and
ill-treated the Athenian children. And Aristotle himself, in his
treatise on the constitution of the Bottiaeans, evidently does not
believe that the children were put to death by Minos, but that they
lived in Crete as slaves, until extreme old age; and that one day the
Cretans, in performance of an ancient vow, sent first-fruits of their
population to Delphi. Among those who were thus sent were the
descendants of the Athenians, and, as they could not maintain themselves
there, they first passed over to Italy, and there settled near
Iapygium, and from thence again removed to Thrace, and took the name of
Bottiaeans. For this reason, the Bottiaean maidens when performing a
certain sacrifice sing "Let us go to Athens." Thus it seems to be a
terrible thing to incur the hatred of a city powerful in speech and
song; for on the Attic stage Minos is always vilified and traduced, and
though he was called "Most Kingly" by Hesiod, and "Friend of Zeus" by
Homer, it gained him no credit, but the playwrights overwhelmed him with
abuse, styling him cruel and violent. And yet Minos is said to have been
a king and a lawgiver, and Rhadamanthus to have been a judge under him,
carrying out his decrees.

XVII. So when the time of the third payment of the tribute arrived, and
those fathers who had sons not yet grown up had to submit to draw lots,
the unhappy people began to revile Aegeus, complaining that he, although
the author of this calamity, yet took no share in their affliction, but
endured to see them left childless, robbed of their own legitimate
offspring, while he made a foreigner and a bastard the heir to his
kingdom. This vexed Theseus, and determining not to hold aloof, but to
share the fortunes of the people, he came forward and offered himself
without being drawn by lot. The people all admired his courage and
patriotism, and Aegeus finding that his prayers and entreaties had no
effect on his unalterable resolution, proceeded to choose the rest by
lot. Hellanikus says that the city did not select the youths and maidens
by lot, but that Minos himself came thither and chose them, and that he
picked out Theseus first of all, upon the usual conditions, which were
that the Athenians should furnish a ship, and that the youths should