in the attitude of kneeling, when
about to slay the dragon that watched the gardens of the
Hesperides.]

EXPLANATION.

Oppressed with famine, and seeing the enemy at their gates, the
Athenians went to consult the oracle at Delphi; and were answered,
that to be delivered from their calamities, they must give
satisfaction to Minos. They immediately sent ambassadors to him,
humbly suing for peace, which he granted them, on condition that
each year, according to Apollodorus and Diodorus Siculus, or every
nine years, according to Plutarch and Ovid, they should send him
seven young men and as many virgins. The severity of these
conditions provoked the Athenians to render Minos as odious as
possible; whereupon, they promulgated the story, that he destined
the youths that were sent to him, to fight in the Labyrinth against
the Minotaur, which was the fruit of an intrigue of his wife
Pasiphae with a white bull which Neptune had sent out of the sea.
They added, that Daedalus favoured this extraordinary passion of the
queen; and that Venus inspired Pasiphae with it, to be revenged for
having been surprised with Mars by Apollo, her father. Plato,
Plutarch, and other writers acknowledge that these stories were
invented from the hatred which the Greeks bore to the king of Crete.

As, however, these extravagant fables have generally some foundation
in fact, we are informed by Servius, Tzetzes, and Zenobius, that,
in the absence of Minos, Pasiphae fell in love with a young noble of
the Cretan court, named Taurus, who, according to Plutarch, was the
commander of the fleet of Minos; that Daedalus, their confidant,
allowed their assignations to take place in his house, and that the
queen was afterwards delivered of twins, of which the one resembled
Minos, and the other Taurus. This, according to those authors, was
the foundation of the story as to the fate for which the young
Athenians were said to be destined. Philochorus, quoted by Plutarch,
says that Minos instituted funeral games in honour of his son
Androgeus, and that those who were vanquished became the slaves of
the conquerors. That author adds, that Taurus was the first who won
all the prizes in these games, and that he used the unfortunate
Athenians, who became his slaves, with great barbarity. Aristotle
tells us that the tribute was paid three times by the Athenians, and
that the lives of the ca