Now when Daedalus fled to Athens, Minos, contrary to the decree, pursued
him in long war galleys, and being driven to Sicily by a storm, died
there. When his son Deukalion sent a warlike message to the Athenians,
bidding them give up Daedalus to him, or else threatening that he would
put to death the children whom Minos had taken as hostages, Theseus
returned him a gentle answer, begging for the life of Daedalus, who was
his own cousin and blood relation, being the son of Merope, the daughter
of Erechtheus. But he busied himself with building a fleet, some of it
in Attica, in the country of the Thymaitadae, far from any place of
resort of strangers, and some in Troezen, under the management of
Pittheus, as he did not wish his preparations to be known. But when the
ships were ready to set sail, having with him as pilots, Daedalus
himself and some Cretan exiles, as no one knew that he was coming, and
the Cretans thought that it was a friendly fleet that was advancing, he
seized the harbour, and marched at once to Knossus before his arrival
was known. Then he fought a battle at the gates of the Labyrinth, and
slew Deukalion and his body-guard. As Ariadne now succeeded to the
throne, he made peace with her, took back the youths, and formed an
alliance between the Cretans and the Athenians, in which each nation
swore that it would not begin a war against the other.
XX. There are many more stories about these events, and about Ariadne,
none of which agree in any particulars.
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