Theseus destroys the Minotaur by the aid of Ariadne, who conducts the hero through the windings of the labyrinth—Her kindness is ill requited by her lover, who cruelly deserts her in the Isle of Dias, where she is discovered by Bacchus, who makes her his wife, and presents her with a splendid crown, which is afterward made a constellation.
Now Minos, landed on the Cretan shore, Performs his vows to Jove’s protecting power: A hundred bullocks, of the largest breed, With flowerets crown’d, before his altar bleed; While trophies of the vanquish’d, brought from far, Adorn the palace with the spoils of war.
Meanwhile the monster of a human beast His family’s reproach and stain increased. His double kind the rumour swiftly spread, And evidenced the mother’s beastly deed; When Minos, willing to conceal the shame That sprung from the reports of tattling Fame, Resolves a dark enclosure to provide, And far from sight the two-form’d creature hide.