, beholds its waters that
are to follow, and fatigues its wandering current, now {pointing} to its
source, and now to the open sea. Just so, Daedalus fills innumerable
paths with windings; and scarcely can he himself return to the entrance,
so great are the intricacies of the place. After he has shut up here the
double figure of a bull and of a youth;[12] and the third supply, chosen
by lot each nine years, has subdued the monster twice {before} gorged
with Athenian blood; and when the difficult entrance, retraced by none
of those {who have entered it} before, has been found by the aid of the
maiden, by means of the thread gathered up again; immediately, the son
of AEgeus, carrying away the daughter of Minos, sets sail for Dia,[13]
and barbarously deserts his companion on those shores.

Her, {thus} deserted and greatly lamenting, Liber embraces and aids;
and, that she may be famed by a lasting Constellation, he places in the
heavens the crown taken from off her head. It flies through the yielding
air, and, as it flies, its jewels are suddenly changed into fires, and
they settle in their places, the shape of the crown {still} remaining;
which is in the middle,[14] between {the Constellation} resting on his
knee,[15] and that which holds the serpents.

[Footnote 12: _Of a youth._--Ver. 169. Clarke translates this
line, 'In which, after he had shut the double figure of a bull and
a young fellow.']

[Footnote 13: _Sets sail for Dia._--Ver. 174. Dia was another name
of the island of Naxos, one of the Cyclades, where Theseus left
Ariadne. Commentators have complained, with some justice, that
Ovid has here omitted the story of Ariadne; but it should be
remembered that he has given it at length in the third book of the
Fasti, commencing at line 460.]

[Footnote 14: _In the middle._--Ver. 182. The crown of Ariadne was
made a Constellation between those of Hercules and Ophiuchus. Some
writers say, that the crown was given by Bacchus to Ariadne as a
marriage present; while others state that it was made by Vulcan of
gold and Indian jewels, by the light of which Theseus was aided in
his escape from the labyrinth, and that he afterwards presented it
to Ariadne. Some authors, and Ovid himself, in the Fasti,
represent Ariadne herself as becoming a Constellation.]

[Footnote 15: _Resting on his knee._--Ver. 182. Hercules, as a
Constellation, is represented