Brick Greek Myths Page 5

  Melanion eagerly agreed and went off to win over Atalanta. During the race, he threw one of the golden apples down the path ahead. Atalanta saw the golden apple and picked it up.

  She knew that she was a far stronger runner than her opponent, and she quickly caught up with him.

  Melanion threw the second apple, and again, Atalanta stopped to pick it up.

  She once again caught up to Melanion, just as they were coming in to the finish of the race. He threw the final apple, and she stopped to pick that one up as well.

  Atalanta was so distracted by the bright golden apples that she didn’t realize they had cost her the race. Melanion victoriously crossed the finish line.

  Melanion was overjoyed; he got to keep his head and he had proved himself worthy of marrying the powerful and beautiful huntress. He was so elated that he forgot the promise he made to Aphrodite.

  Atalanta found that she was actually quite fond of Melanion. She and her new husband went to a sacred shrine devoted to Zeus. They began to kiss, which was strictly forbidden in the temple.

  Aphrodite saw them together and became enraged, for Melanion’s neglect of their bargain felt like an affront to her power.

  So Aphrodite used her godly powers against the new lovers.

  And she turned them into lions, because it was believed that lions could not mate with one another. From then on, Atalanta and Melanion could never be together.

  Daedalus and Icarus

  There was once a very skilled craftsman named Daedalus.

  He was an architect and a sculptor, whose talent for great art was unmatched by anyone in the world.

  The statues and sculptures that Daedalus crafted were so lifelike—with gazing eyes and limbs that looked like they were in motion—that many people believed the statues were secretly animated and could spring to life. But with this great talent came a great fear; Daedalus often worried that another artist would prove to be better than him.

  This fear ate at him, even when he mentored his own nephew, Talus.

  As it turned out, Talus developed into an incredible sculptor and inventor in his own right. Word spread of Talus’s skill, and some even said he was better than Daedalus.

  With his fears coming true, Daedalus decided he had to do something to stop Talus from becoming a greater and more famous artist.

  So Daedalus made a plan to get rid of him. He took Talus to the very top of the Acropolis and threw him off, sending the young sculptor plummeting to his untimely death.

  Then, to hide his crime, he began to dig a grave to bury the boy. He dug and dug until he had a Talus-sized grave prepared.

  As he sifted through the dirt and scattered it over Talus, a curious onlooker came by and noticed what he was doing. In horror, the witness cried, “MURDER!” and Daedalus knew he had been caught.

  Narrowly escaping capture, Daedalus fled, taking a boat to the nearby island of Crete.

  When Daedalus arrived in Crete, King Minos greeted him warmly, for he had great respect for his art and treated him as a friend.

  Not wasting any time with such a skilled craftsman in his presence, King Minos quickly put Daedalus to work, asking him to build a vast and complex labyrinth.

  Daedalus worked tirelessly, completing what would be his greatest structure yet. The labyrinth was vast and winding, and only he knew how to navigate it.

  Once the labyrinth was complete, King Minos imprisoned the Minotaur—half man, half bull—in the center of the inescapable maze.

  Despite his great accomplishments on Crete, Daedalus grew tired and homesick from living on a faraway island.

  Knowing that Daedalus held the key to the labyrinth’s mysteries and that he could one day betray him, King Minos refused to let Daedalus leave. Enraged, Daedalus told King Minos that while he may be able to prevent him from leaving by land or by sea, there was one area he could not rule over.

  Daedalus and his son, Icarus, worked together to plan their escape from Crete, deciding that if they could not escape by land or by sea, they would go by air.

  Being a great sculptor, Daedalus fashioned pairs of wings with wax and feathers.

  He gave a pair to Icarus so that they could fly away together.

  Before leaving, Daedalus warned Icarus that he must always fly along the same path as his father. If he flew too low, his wings would become wet with the spray of the sea and he would drown. If he flew too high, the heat of the sun would melt the wax and his wings would be destroyed. Icarus readily agreed and promised his father that he would stay close to him.

  Daedalus and Icarus took off, ready to leave Crete far behind them.

  Daedalus then showed his son how to use his wings, and Icarus followed him closely.

  Growing bold and ignoring his father’s warnings, Icarus flew away from Daedalus, soaring up and down through the sky.

  Icarus felt elated and free and rose higher and higher through the clouds toward the gleaming sun. He was so excited by his flight, however, that he didn’t notice that the wax on his wings had begun to melt, dripping down to the sea below.

  The wax melted and his wings broke apart, causing Icarus to plunge from the bright sky and into the sea.

  Daedalus, realizing too late that his son was no longer following him, frantically scanned the sky.

  Looking down at the sea, Daedalus watched as the broken and melted wings were swallowed by the ocean below.

  Struck by terror and grief, he cried out for his son.

  Hubris had killed Icarus, for he was too proud and overconfident to listen to his father about flying too close to the sun.

  Overwhelmed with grief, Daedalus landed in Sicily where King Cocalus welcomed him.

  Daedalus built an impenetrable wall for King Cocalus so that the king could protect his wares and treasures.

  Meanwhile, back in Crete, King Minos had not forgotten Daedalus’s escape and the important secret he held.

  King Minos traveled to Sicily and sent a messenger to King Cocalus to demand he be told the whereabouts of Daedalus.

  King Cocalus did not take kindly to King Minos’s threats and became greatly angered.

  King Cocalus did not take this competition for the great artist lightly and began plotting ways to destroy King Minos.

  Solidifying his plan, King Cocalus pretended to agree to King Minos’s wishes and give up Daedalus. He welcomed King Minos and his guards into the walls of his city.

  Offering King Minos a bit of respite after his long travels, King Cocalus instructed his daughters to draw Minos a warm bath.

  Little did he know, King Cocalus had also told his daughters to heat the water until King Minos was boiled alive.

  King Cocalus delivered the bad news to King Minos’s men that he had died, explaining that he had slipped and fallen into the tub.

  Now safe from King Minos, Daedalus lived and worked freely in Sicily, even founding a school of sculpture to teach future generations his fine craft.

  Though he had escaped capture from his enemies, Daedalus mourned his son to the end of his days.

  The Minotaur

  King Minos of the island of Crete was worried and wished to make his claim to the throne more secure. So he promised Poseidon that he would make a great and wonderful sacrifice in the god’s honor. He vowed that he would sacrifice whatever creature the god would send him from the sea.

  Poseidon sent a great bull for Minos to sacrifice, but when the king saw the beast, he declared that it was too beautiful to kill.

  So he secretly found a different bull and sacrificed the creature for Poseidon.

  Poseidon was not fooled by this trick, and he was furious at Minos’s betrayal!

  He filled the real bull with rage and sent it rampaging across Crete.

  It ran through the countryside and through the villages, destroying everything in its path.

  Poseidon even bewitched Minos’s wife Pasiphae to fall in love with the creature in revenge for Minos’s betrayal.

  Around this time, the famous sc
ulptor Daedulus and his son Icarus arrived in Crete, fleeing persecution for the murder of Daedulus’s nephew. King Minos invited them into his house warmly, happy to have suck a skilled artist at hand.

  Pasiphae was so moved by her love for the beast, she went to Daedalus to ask for his help.

  The artist fashioned her a clever cow disguise and helped her to hide inside of it.

  The disguise fooled the bull, and the beast soon became enamored with the queen.

  Pasiphae became pregnant with the bull’s offspring and gave birth to a strange half-bull, half-man creature that they called the Minotaur. She named her child Asterion.

  Enraged, Minos enslaved Daedalus and Icarus for helping Pasiphae carry out her affair.

  As Asterion grew, he became wilder and wilder, like his father. He began devouring people, and the people of Crete were afraid for their lives.

  Minos brought Daedalus from prison and ordered him to construct a great labyrinth for the creature. When the labyrinth was finished, they sent the Minotaur to the very center to live.

  Meanwhile, King Minos’s son Andogoes was killed in battle by the Athenians.

  In revenge for the death of his only human son, King Minos demanded that Athens send him a tribute of Athenian children: every nine years they must send him seven girls and seven boys. Each year of the tribute, these children of Athens were sent into the labyrinth to feed the Minotaur, and he would devour each one.

  On the third year of these tributes, young Theseus, son of King Aegeus of Athens, stepped forward to volunteer himself for tribute.

  His father begged and pleaded and commanded him to stay, but Theseus was determined to make his name as a hero.

  He told his father that he would slay the beast and put an end to the tributes. If he were successful, he would signal to his father by sailing home with white sails raised. If he failed and was killed, the ship would return home with black sails.

  Theseus arrived in Crete along with the other young people sent as tribute for the Minotaur.

  When King Minos’s daughter Ariadne saw Theseus among the crowd, she instantly fell in love with the handsome youth.

  Fearing that Theseus would be killed by her half brother the Minotaur, Ariadne went to Daedalus to ask him how Theseus could escape the labyrinth.

  Daedalus instructed her to give Theseus string to mark his path so that he could find his way out of the labyrinth once he had killed the beast.

  Ariadne went to Theseus and told him she could help him escape the labyrinth. However, she would only share her secret if Theseus promised to take her back to Athens and make her his queen.

  Theseus happily agreed to marry the beautiful Ariadne, and she gave him the spool of string, instructing him to use it to mark his path.

  The day soon came, and the tributes were sent into the labyrinth to meet their end at the Minotaur’s jaws. Theseus brought his spool of thread along with him.

  Before he continued into the labyrinth, he tied the end of the string to the door.

  Then he began to make his way through the maze, unraveling the spool as he went. All through the labyrinth he saw evidence of the Minotaur’s ravenous appetite.

  Finally he came to the center, where he found the monster sleeping.

  Theseus moved quickly, ran over to the beast, and pulled off its horn.

  The monster bellowed in pain and fury and prepared to charge!

  Theseus stood far enough back, and he raised the Minotaur’s horn in his hand like a javelin.

  Then he threw the horn hard, sending it straight through the Minotaur’s heart to kill him.

  Theseus called to the other Athenian youths, and they all followed his spool of thread to find their way out of the labyrinth.

  Everyone was happy to have survived the ordeal, and they thanked Theseus profusely.

  The Athenians set out for home, and as he promised, Theseus took Ariadne with him.

  On their way, they stopped at the beautiful island of Naxos and had a loud, long celebration.

  Ariadne laid out in the sand for a nap, and while she was sleeping, the party packed up and boarded the ship, unknowingly leaving her behind.

  Theseus was heartbroken when he realized that she was missing, but it was too late to turn back.

  Because the young hero was so upset about the loss of his beautiful bride, he forgot the promise he had made to his father to signal his successful return by raising the white sails.

  When King Aegeus of Athens saw his ship returning with the black sails raised, he was filled with pain and grief, thinking his son was surely dead.

  In his sorrow, the King threw himself from the top of a cliff into the sea.

  Tantalus

  Tantalus was the son of Zeus and a nymph named Plouto. He was the ruler of a city called Sipylus and was married to Dione, the beautiful daughter of Atlas.

  Tantalus was well known for being a very rich man.

  Because of his wealth, he was well liked by the gods and was often invited to dine with them at their great feasts on Mount Olympus.

  But Tantalus took advantage of this great privilege. First, he stole ambrosia, the precious food of the immortals, from the gods at one of the feasts.

  He took this delicacy back to earth and shared it with his mortal friends.

  Tantalus also listened closely to the talk of the gods while dining with them, taking note of all their gossip and secrets.

  Then, when he returned home, he entertained his friends with the foolish stories and scandalous secrets he had overheard.

  Tantalus was also involved in the disappearance of Zeus’s golden dog, which was created by Hephestus at Zeus’s birth to take care of the newborn god.

  Tantalus was given the dog for safekeeping, but when asked to return him, he claimed he had never heard of such a dog.

  The gods, taking note of Tantalus’s bad behavior, decided to forgo punishing him for now and give the rich man another chance to earn their favor.

  Tantalus then invited the gods to dine with him. He had a plan and intended to test the gods on their intelligence and powers of observation.

  In preparation for this dinner party, Tantalus killed his own son, Pelops. He then cut the boy up and put him into the soup to serve to the gods.

  The gods realized what he had done and refused to eat.

  None of the gods took even a bite, save for Demeter, who was sad and distracted by the loss of her daughter. She ate a small part of the boy’s shoulder before she realized what was in front of her.

  Zeus was able to reassemble the child, replacing his missing shoulder with a new one crafted from ivory. Then he brought the boy back to life.

  As terrible as it was for Tantalus to insult the gods, killing his son and serving him was much worse. For his many dreadful offenses, the gods sent him to the Underworld with Hades for a particularly clever punishment.

  Once he arrived in the Underworld, Tantalus was made to stand in water up to his chin. Just above his head hung a branch with a piece of fruit.

  If ever he reached for the sweet ripe fruit, the branch would pull and stretch away from him, keeping the food just beyond his reach, and whenever he would stoop to take a drink of water, it receded into the ground, just beyond his grasp.

  Above him hung a huge boulder that threatened to come down on his head at any moment.

  Here he remained for eternity, with all his wants within sight but always just beyond his reach.

  Sisyphus

  Sisyphus was the founder and king of the great city of Corinth.

  He was widely known as being very cunning. If there were ever a problem, he always knew the cleverest way to fix it.

  One day, Sisyphus discovered that a bandit named Autolycus had been stealing all of his livestock.

  Sisyphus could never prove that Autolycus was the thief, because Autolycus had an amazing power that allowed him to transform all of the pigs and goats and sheep to other colors and other animals.

  Finally, Sisyphus had an idea
. He marked the hooves of all his livestock so that, even if they were turned into different animals, he would know that they were his.

  The next time Autolycus stole his animals, Sisyphus was able to prove that each were one of his by showing the marks on their hooves. The dastardly thief was sent away in chains.

  While Sisyphus was famous for his craftiness in situations like these, he was notorious for darker deeds. He was unabashedly deceitful, and he took pleasure in killing travelers and stealing the daughters of his enemies to maintain his power.