For this reason, the ancients thought there were bronze palaces on this mountain-top where gods lived in. gods spent their time in this palaces, built by Hephaestus, when they did not interfere in human beings' business. The ancients considered gods as a group of people gifted with superhuman powers. They attributed to them all the qualities which human beings have only in the slightest part.•They were immortal and always young, beautiful and high. They could move immediately from a place to another, and take the shape they wanted. Nevertheless they had all human faults: they were jealous, quarrelsome, envious, they tried to have more power than other gods, and they took part in human wars and quarrels, taking first one side and then the other.•In their banquets, the ambrosia was served, the exquisite food which gives immortality. It was brought by doves on the Olympus, they took it into the Hesperides garden. gods drank the nectar, served by the beautiful Hebe, youth goddess. Each god of the Olympus protected one or more parts of human beings' daily life: Athena was the goddess of Arts and Knowledge, Hera protected the marriage and motherhood, Artemis was the goddess of Hunting, Apollo was the god of the Sun and poetry, Ares was the god of the War, Hermes was the god of Trade.•They could also influence nature: for example, Poseidon could cause earthquakes or sea-storms, with a blow of his trident, Apollo could dry up the vegetation or make it luxuriant with the rays of the sun. In the beginning all these gods symbolized the strengths of the nature that the primitive man did not know how explain to himself, and for this reason, sometimes he thought these strengths had their own life, while sometimes he thought they were guided by a god. Woods, springs, mountains and trees were related to special divinities (Nymphs and Satyrs). They did not live on the Olympus and they were submitted to the authority of the most important gods.•Human beings thought that, even the most powerful god, Zeus, should submit to the Fate's rules, as they had understood that, even if they prayed to the gods, their prayers were not often heard. This entity was not considered as a god, but it was superior to everyone, and nobody could break its rules. Everyone has got his fate, which cannot be changed.•She considered herself as important as Zeus was. When he gave birth to Athena alone, also Hera tried to do the same. However when she saw that her son was born very ugly, cast him out of Olympus and made him lame. Hephaestus was a very important god, even though he was ugly and lame: he was the smith of the gods and made their weapons and all kind of tools. He was kind and helpful, and perhaps the ancients had introduced also ugliness, together with the kindness, among the gods so that all the human characteristics were represented.•She considered herself as important as Zeus was. When he gave birth to Athena alone, also Hera tried to do the same. However when she saw that her son was born very ugly, cast him out of Olympus and made him lame. Hephaestus was a very important god, even though he was ugly and lame: he was the smith of the gods and made their weapons and all kind of tools. He was kind and helpful, and perhaps the ancients had introduced also ugliness, together with the kindness, among the gods so that all the human characteristics were represented.•He was the only god who worked and he was always willing to make any kind of object for the other gods. He made for himself two solid golden robots with the shape of two beautiful young girls which he used as crutches. Maybe, for his kindness he had as wife the beautiful Aphrodite who was unfaithful to him. When Hephaestus found Aphrodite together with Ares, the god of the war, he bound them with an invisible chain. This provoked the laughter of all gods.•Aphrodite symbolized the physical love, rather than the love in the marriage. She had the power to make fall in love; not only of herself, but also of everyone she wanted. No god or mortal could evade her law, and even Zeus fell in love again and again with mortal women because of her. To take his revenge, Zeus compelled her to love a mortal. She is also the symbol of the beauty, and she has always been depicted as a beautiful young girl. She had a capricious disposition and avenged herself on whoever did not respect her law or did not worship her.•The beautiful Narcissus who had rejected the love of the nymph Eco, was condemned to fall in love with his image, so that when he saw himself reflected in a spring tried to embrace himself and drowned. While the sculptor Pygmalion who did not want to fall in love so as not to take his mind off his job, was compelled to love a statue which he had sculptured. Heros, the son of Aphrodite, was depicted as a winged child who amused himself striking people by chance with his arrows giving or taking away the capacity of loving.•When Apollo laughed at him, Heros made him to fall in love with the nymph Daphne, while she was stricken by the indifference arrow. Apollo pursued Daphne up hill and down dale, but when he was going to catch her up she was changed into a laurel plant. Since then this plant became the sacred plant to the god of art. It is for this reason that poets are depicted crowned by the laurel and the degree has taken its name from it. Apollo was an important god who had little intimacy with human beings. He was the god of the sun, as well as the protector of arts and poetry. He crossed the sky driving a chariot made by Hephaestus.•It is probably for this reason that he is considered an infallible archer and his arrows can cause death or health to human beings. As a consequence of this he is considered the protector of medicine. Moreover, he was also the god of the prophecy; a large number of sanctuaries, where people went to consult oracles, were dedicated to him. He was depicted as a beautiful young boy, a good god and a supporter of moral laws. Nevertheless, he did not hesitate to avenge himself when Marsia challenged him to a music competition. Apollo hung him on a tree and skinned him alive and made two donkey's ears grow on the umpire Midas.a•When the mortal woman, Niobe, boasted to have given birth to twelve children, while Apollo's mother, Leto, had had only two children. These latter, Apollo and Artemis, struck Niobe's children with their arrows killing them all. Niobe, petrified by grief changed herself into a rock which goes on crying. As Apollo was the god of the Sun, so Artemis, his twin, was the goddess of the Moon. Moreover, Artemis was very skilled with the bow like her brother. In consequence of the fact that she liked hunting, she decided never to get married. She was one of the few goddesses who resisted the power of Aphrodite.•She was a severe goddess and was depicted wearing a short dress. She is armed with bow and arrows, made by Cyclops, accompanied by dogs and very young Nymphs. The goddess did not tolerate being seen by human beings and she punished whoever was disrespectful to her. As she was the goddess of the Moon, she was identified also with Hecate, the goddess of Darkness who walked in the graveyards or backroads, accompanied by the howling of the dogs, and engaged to protect the witches who gathered the magical herbs. Athena was another goddess who decided never to get married. As we have already said, she sprang from Zeus' head and was one among the most revered goddesses in the ancient world.•She was the goddess of science and practical arts, invented the loom, the plough, and taught mortals to break in horses. She was a prudent and restrained goddess, and although she was a warrior, she was never violently impetuous. However, like all gods, she punished mortals who dared to challenge her: when a young girl, Aracne, boasted that she could embroider better than her, Athena accepted the challenge, and at the end of the work she recognized that the young girl was as skilled as she was. Nevertheless, Athena changed her into a spider, i. e. the insect which weaves and re-weaves its poor cloth.•As Athena was wise and right during war, so Ares was violent, cruel and inconstant. This god went into battles with a chariot with its wheels armed with scythes, and accompanied by Discord, Terror and Fear, that is Eris, Demos and Fobos. While the Greeks, who were a peaceful people, did not dedicate him special gifts, on the other hand the Romans considered him the founder of their people: according to the legend, he was the father of Romulus and Remus.•However Hermes was a god much loved by the Greeks. He was very cunning, resourceful, a punctual and full of resources messenger. Since his birth he showed exceptional gifts: he was born in the morning, went out at noon and he found a tortoise which he killled at once. Then he used its shell to make the lyre. The same day he stole fifty oxen of Apollo, which he took away making them walk backwards to confuse others' ideas.•When Apollo found out the theft, Hermes was peaceful in his cradle, acting as if nothing had happened. Zeus made the little Hermes give back what he had stolen, and he agreed at once giving also a lyre to Apollo as a present, which became the favourite musical instrument of the god of music. Hermes stole also Aphrodite's belt, Hephaestus' hammer, Poseidon's trident. Nevertheless, he was forgiven for all these thefts. gods and goddesses turned to him whenever they had to send a message or execute some commissions. This is the reason why he became the protector of travellers, traders, and even of thieves.•He was considered the inventor of scales, and moreover he took dreams to sleepers, a sort of secret messages sent by Zeus. He was depicted as an agile and slender young boy, sometimes he had a lamb on his shoulders, other times, instead, he wore a winged hat (petasus), winged sandals, and he had the caduceus in his hands, a stick with two twisted snakes, symbol of peace. Moreover he took the dead into the Underworld and committed them to Charon who transported them beyond the infernal river.
How far was the kingdom of the dead from the earth?•According to a poet of the ancient world if a copper anvil fell from the sky, it would take nine days and nine nights to reach the earth and there would be the same distance from the earth to the Underworld. The kingdom of the dead was found Underground and the dead finished there together with rebel gods. This reign comunicated with the surface of the earth via natural caverns and was bounded by some rivers of which the most important was the Acheron (the river of pain), the Styx (the river of terror), and the Lethe (the river of oblivion). Drinking from the latter, souls forgot earthy life.•As the boatman Charon had to be paid, to the dead was put into their mouth a coin. The concept of Paradise  did not exist and the Underworld included the Elysiums Fields where the good remained in peace and the Tartarus where the evil were punished. Cerberus, the three head-dog, kept watch over the entrance of the Tartarus. The dead were judged by Minos, Rhadamanthus and Eacus, men of divine origin who had been renowned for their impartiality during their lives. Hades and Persephone ruled in the Underworld. Hades received this kingdom when he shared the universe with his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon.•As Hades wanted to get married, he abducted Persephone, daughter of the goddess of the nature, Demeter, while she was gathering some flowers together with the Nymphs. Unexpectedly the earth opened, and the chariot, pulled by the black horses where the tenebrous god was, jumped out from the abyss. Poseidon dragged Persephone with him and proclaimed her the Queen of the Darkness. Demeter looked for her everywhere without finding her, until the Sun which can see everything revealed her what had happened and told her that Zeus agreed with Poseidon. For this reason, Demeter got angry and decided to be no more interested in nature: plants and seeds dried up and the earth became desolate and full of snow.•As Hades did not want to release Persephone, so Zeus suggested a compromise: Persephone should come back on the earth for two third of the year, while she had to spend the other four months of the year with her husband in the Underworld, causing the coming of the winter on the earth. Persephone's companions who did not defend her when she had been abducted, were changed in Sirens, monsters half-woman and half-bird which with their sweet song attracted the sailors causing them be shipwrecked.•As we have already said, Sisyphos and Tantalus were among the evil in the Tartarus. Moreover, there were the fifty daughters of Danae who had killed their husbands during the first night of their marriage and were condemned to draw water to fill a pot without bottom. The living could not go into the Underworld and the dead could not go out. In this regard we can recall Orpheus and Euridyce's myth. Orpheus was a musician so skilled that when he sang accompanied with his lyre all creatures followed him spellbound. An unlucky day his loved wife, Eurydice, died for a snake-bite. Orpheus was extremely sad and decided to go to look for her into the Underworld.•Even Cerberus and Charon enchanted by his song let him go in; in the same way Hades and Persephone were so charmed that let him take back into the earth Euridyce, but this was possible on one condition: during his long return journey, Orpheus should never turn back. However, when Orpheus was going to end his journey he thought he had been deceived and turned. He could still see his wife when she was resucked into the Underworld.•The third brother, Poseidon, received the kingdom of the waters. He lived into a palace beneath the sea and he drove his coach pulled by horses with a golden mane. His trident sank ships, and stirred up storms, earthquakes and sea-quakes from which could rise even new islands. He made rise, for example, The Sporadi Islands and opened the Straits of Messina. While gods quarrelled about the war of Trojan, Poseidon, who was angry, gave a blow so strong with his trident that Hades jumped out of his throne shouting, as he feared that the Underworld ceiling collapsed, letting in the sun light which he detested.•Poseidon was a good god who protected the sailors, but he was also very vindictive: he persecuted Odysseus who had blinded Polyphemus, his son. As one knowns, Polyphemus was a giant who had only one eye in the middle of his forehead. When Odysseus was shipwrecked near his cave, Polyphemus captured the shipwrecked people to eat them. Odysseus could with his slyness make him drink some wine and while the giant was sleeping, Odysseus blinded him with a pole made red-hot, then he escaped and he hid himself with his companions under the belly of Polyphemus' sheep.•As Polyphemus, also the other children of Poseidon were monstrous: Triton was half-man and half-fish, Pegasus was a winged horse, Arione was a speaking horse. The horse was sacred to Poseidon, and nowadays waves are still called "cavalloni" in Italian which means big horses. Dionysus was the most recent of the Greeks gods, who in older times was considered a not very important god, but then he became one of the most revered gods. According to the legend, Dionysus was son of Zeus and of the mortal woman, Semele.•With a trick, the jealous Hera persuaded Semele to ask Zeus to show himself in all his light; the splendour of the father of the gods reduced the wretch to ashes, but before she died Zeus took from her belly the little one who was not yet completely formed and sewed it in his thigh. After a couple of months, Dionysus was born. For a long time nobody wanted to recognize his divine nature and moreover Hera persecuted him in every way. Having reached adult age, Dionysus entered the Underworld and took his mother Semele to Olympus. He was god of wine and drunkenness. He surrounded himself with Satyrs and Nymphs, who sang and danced, and he was followed by bands of women affected by drunkenness.•These women, the Maenads, were pratically invulnerable and were able to tear apart wild beasts and human beings, they suckled lion cubs and completely forgot their families. While with his suite, Dionysus ran through the islands of the Aegean Sea, on the island of Naxos, he met Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus, and he married her, obteining immortality for Ariadne.
Tied to the aspects of nature as Demeter, goddess of the harvest and Dionysus, god of vineyards, there where other gods who existed in the natural environment.•The primary god was Pan, son of Hermes, god of the forest and of flocks and herds. Being since his name means "everything" in Greek, in another interpretation he was identified as the god of nature. Pan had an ugly appearance with the hooves and tail of a goat and a small horn on his head; he was a good musician even if he wasn't as good as Apollo. He played the flute, formed by a series of reeds of different lengths tied together. Pan made this flute with the reeds which Syrinx the nymph transformed herself to get away from him.•He was adored particularly by the shepherds who considered him responsible for the fertility of the herd; if the herd didn't reproduce, they whipped the god's statue. From the name of Pan is also derived the word "panic" which means a crazy fear; the god slept during midday and if disturbed, he made terrifying noises which scared everyone. With a terrible roar he made the invading Persians flee from Greece. When he wandered the country he was accompanied, as was Dionysus, by Satyrs which were the minor gods of the woods, resembling him in aspect, and by Nymphs.•The Nymphs were imagined as beautiful girls and were divided into several categories: the Nereidis were Nymphs of the sea, the Nyads were of the rivers and springs, the Oryads were of the mountains and canyons, while the Dryads were the Nymphs of the trees. The Nymphs never got older, but they weren't all immortal because they lasted as long as the element of nature which they protected. The Nymphs are the protagonists of many love stories with gods and men. Those which didn't want to fall in love followed Artemis in his hunting.•This great group of gods which protected many human activities, however did not create man. Actually, Zeus was very irritated when the first man was created by the titan Prometheus. Prometheus had modelled a figure with mud that resembled the gods, giving him the possibility to look at Heaven walking erect. This god gave man fire, stealing it from the gods, and taught man to cook food, to make heat, and forge metal. For this theft Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock on Caucasus where a vulture ate his regenerating liver.•To counterbalance the advantage given to man by fire, Zeus sent to the earth the first woman, made by clay by Hephaestus. This woman's name was Pandora, which means "all virtue and vice". In fact, every god on Mount Olympus had given to Pandora a quality: Aphrodite, beauty; Athena, competence for domestic labours; Hermes, the gift of telling lies. Zeus gave her a sealed box with the order to never open it. Pandora was given in marriage to Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus, just as stupid as his brother Prometheus was intelligent.•After some time Pandora couldn't resist her curiosity and opened the box. From it escaped all evils, sufferings and misfortunes that have plagued mankind ever since. Pandora tried unfruitfully to close the box, but inside was left only hope, that yelled to be let out which can console humanity of all these other tragedies.•Freeing Prometheus from his torment was the invincible Heracles (Hercules). Son of a mortal woman, Alcmene, and Zeus who wanted a valiant son to defeat the Giants in war, Heracles was very valiant, strong, courageous and generous, but also very irrational and violent. Persecuted by Hera, notwithstanding his great valiance, he wandered the earth having many adventures, but never succeeded to conquer a kingdom and often was placed in the service of mortals. He was depicted as a muscular man, wearing the hide of the first lion he killed, and he carried a club.•At eight months he strangled two serpents that had entered his nursery. During a fit of anger he killed his wife and three kids. Not succeeding to find peace, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi that told him to go to Euristheus who would give him 12 labours to perform to pay for his sin. These labours took Heracles all over the world and the Underworld. The first labour was to kill and skin a lion that could not be killed by any weapon. Heracles fought with his club, and even though the club broke, he succeeded in killing the lion. He skinned the lion and wore its hide.•His second labour was to kill the Hydra of the Lerna marsh. The Hydra was a monster with the body of a dog and many heads which regrew every time they were cut. Little by little Heracles cut the heads with his sword while his nephew Iolaus burnt the neck to stop the regrowth. When the Hydra was dead, Heracles took its venom for his arrows. Euristheus didn't consider the labour valid because Heracles was helped by his nephew.•As his third labour the hero had to capture a sacred hind of Artemis, that had hooves of bronze and horns of gold. Heracles captured it with a net, but while he carried it to Euristheus, he met Apollo and Artemis who reproved him. Artemis allowed him to take the hind to Euristheus after which he was to let it go.•The fourth labour was to capture alive the wild boar that lied on mount Erimanthus. While he went there, Heracles had to fight against the Centaurs and killed many with his poisoned arrows. Freed from the Centaurs, he found the wild boar and captured it after having pushed it into a ravine full of snow.•The fifth labour was less heroic: Euristheus ordered him to clean the stables of king Augia in one day, which were covered with a high layer of manure. Heracles offered to clean the stables for Augia in exchange for a tenth of his animals. To do this as quickly as possible, Heracles turned the course of a river and caused it to pass through the stable, thus sweeping out all of the manure. Euristheus did not count this as a valid labour because Heracles looked to profit himself.•For his sixth labour, Heracles had to kill the Stinfal birds. These birds had beaks and talons of bronze and ate both man and animal leaving an excrement that was venomous and destroyed crops. Heracles scared the birds with a bell that was given to him by Athena and when they were in flight, he killed them.•For his seventh labour, Heracles had to capture a bull that Minos, the king of Crete, did not sacrifice to Poseidon. The hero captured the bull and then let it go after showing it to Euristheus.•The eighth labour consisted of capturing the four horses of Diomedes that lived on human flesh. Heracles captured the four horses and when Diomedes attacked him, Heracles succeeded in having the horses eating him. From that moment and onward they became tame.•For the ninth labour, Heracles, won the gold belt that Ares had given to Ippolita, queen of Amazons, as a power symbol.•For the tenth labour Euristheus ordered to Heracles to steal the beats of Gerione, an ogre with three eyes and six arms that lived in Oceanus. During the voyage, Heracles stopped by the Straits of Gilbratar where two stone columns were erected to indicate the end of the known world. He stole the herds and killed Gerione. Returning with the animals, Heracles had many adventures, but in the end succeeded in reporting all the animals to Euristheus. Seeing as Euristheus did not count two labours as being valid, Heracles had to do another two.•For the eleventh labour, Heracles had to seize the golden apples at the Hesperides garden. This garden was found at the slopes of Mount Atlanti's and during the voyage, Heracles killed the vulture that devoured the liver of Prometheus and freed him. Reaching Atlas, the titan, that was holding the heavenly globe, he asked him for his help offering to hold the Heaven in his place. The titan accepted and the Esperides gave up the apples without any problems. When he returned, Atlas decided to leave the weight of the Heaven on Heracles' shoulders. Heracles pretended that he was in agreement with him, but asked him to hold it for just one moment so he could find a more comfortable position. Atlas consented and Heracles grabbed the apples and fled.•The last labour was that of capturing Cerberus that was guarding Tartarus. To do this, Heracles had to descend to the Underworld where he was accompanied by Hermes, guide of the shadows, and Athena. Charon was threatened by Heracles and ferried him to the entrance of the Hells. There, Hades himself was wounded by the hero. At the entrance, Heracles then freed Teseus and had created such troubles that Persephone told him to take Cerberus and get out of there. Heracles then fled the Hells with the terrible dog on his back. He carried it to Euristheus, who was hiding because of the fear. At this point Heracles returned Cerberus to the Underworld.•After living through many more adventures and still being constantly tormented by Hera, finally Heracles obtained immortality from Zeus and was brought up to Mount Olympus where he married Hebe.•Another heroic son of Zeus was Perseus. Acrisius, king of Argus, closed his daughter Danae up in a tower because there was a prophecy that her son would kill him. Zeus entered the tower in the form of golden rain and from their union was born Perseus. Acrisius then put mother and son in a boat without oars and abandoned them in the sea. A fisherman found them and took them to his house. The king of the island fell in love with Danae, therefore to get rid of Perseus, he was given the charge of obtaining the head of the gorgon Medusa. The hero went to the three witches, sisters of the Gorgons, who were the only ones who knew where the Gorgons could be found.•The three witches were in the form of a swan with one eye and one tooth that they shared. Perseus stole the eye and the tooth and refused to restore them unless they told him where the gorgons were to be found. When they told him, he threw the eye so they could not warn the Gorgons of his arrival. For this undertaking, Perseus got a magic shield from Athena as a gift, and the winged sandals and a sickle from Hermes; the Nymphs, instead, gave him an helmet that would have make him invisible and a sack in which he could put the head of Medusa.•Protected by invisibility, Perseus flew to the beach were the three Gorgons slept; this was a terrible sight: they were winged monsters with long teeth, forked tongues, fingernails of bronze and snakes instead of hair. Only Medusa could be killed. The hero advanced without looking at her directly, but using the reflection in the shield he slashed of her head with the sickle and put it in the sack. He succeeded in fleeing from the other two Gorgons thanks to his magic helmet that made him invisible. The winged horse Pegasus was born from Medusa's blood on the sand.•After Perseus saved Andromeda, who was tied to a reef to be eaten by an aquatic monster (which he turned to stone with Medusa's head), he married her and returned to island where his mother was to be found. His mother had fled to a temple to avoid the king. The king did not believe Perseus and therefore was turned to stone when he showed him Medusa's head. Years later, during a javelin and discus competition, Perseus struck Acrisius and accidentally killed him thus fulfilling the oracle. The head of the Gorgon was given to Athena and she placed it on her own aegis.•Perhaps the most famous of the heroes was Achilles, son of the mortal Peleus and of the goddess of the sea, Thetis. The goddess was beautiful and both Zeus and Poseidon wanted her; a prophecy however had said that her son would be more powerful than his father, therefore the gods decided to have her marry a mortal. As all gods of the sea, Thetis also had the ability to transform and to escape Peleus she changed into a lion, water, fire, and various other sea creatures. At the end she consented to marry Peleus. The wedding gifts from the gods were luxurious.•The goddess of Discord, Eris, wasn't invited, for this reason she came to the banquet very angry and threw on the table a golden apple with the words "For the fairest". Immediately Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite began to fight, each sustaining that the apple was for her. The gods didn't want to favour one more than the other, so they sent the three goddesses to the mortal Paris. Each goddess, to obtain the apple, promised Paris a gift: Hera the promise of world dominion, Athena the victory in all battle, and Aphrodite the love of the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris chose Aphrodite and she in exchange gave him knowledge of Helen who however was married to Menelaus.•Helen and Paris fled to Troy and Menelaus to get his wife back, gathered an armed of Greeks and laid siege to the city. Among these warriors was the son of Peleus and Thetis, Achilles who was invulnerable because his mother had immersed him in the river Styx holding him by the heel that remained the only part which could be wounded. Achilles had exceptional weaponry formed by Hephaestus and was a ruthless very fierce warrior. According to a prophecy Achilles had two possibilities: or to live to an old age without glory or to die victorious at Troy. His mother hid him among the women of the kingdom of Licomedeus, dressed like a girl.•Since Troy couldn't fall without the participation of Achilles, the astute Odysseus went to Licomedeus to find him with a trick. He dressed up as a merchant and placed some armour in a basket among jewels and clothing. While the women of the kingdom were quickly interested in the jewelery and clothing, Achilles admired the armour and his disguise was discovered. During the Trojan war he killed many of the heroes that defended the city. Above all, it is famous his duel with Hector, the greatest Trojan hero, whom Achilles killed and drug bound to his chariot for a few days.•The death of Hector was revenged by his brother Paris who shot an arrow guided by Apollo to the only vulnerable part of Achilles, his heel, which struck him causing his death. The last but not least important hero was Theseus. Theseus also had many adventures, but he is remembered above all for having killed the Minotaur in the Labyrinth of Crete. King Minos of Crete had the Labyrinth built by Daedelus, a famous architect, to keep inside the Minotaur, a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull.•The Minotaur was fed by human flesh that the Athenians, defeated in war, had to furnish sending to Minos every year seven boys and seven girls. To free his city from this tribute Theseus went with the other children. Reaching Crete Ariadne fell in love with him, the daughter of Minos, who gave him a spool of thread furnished by Daedelus. Theseus attached the beginning of the spool at the entrance and entered the Labyrinth unwinding it; he came to the Minotaur and killed it and then rewinding the string he found the way to exit the Labyrinth. He kidnapped Ariadne and took her away with him.•To punish Daedelus for having helped Theseus, Minos closed Daedelus and his son Icarus in the Labyrinth. To flee, Daedelus made some wings of wax and feathers and with his son Icarus, they flew away. Daedelus warned his son to not fly to high, but when they were far away from Crete, Icarus became too excited and rose too high in the air and the heat of the sun melted the wax which held together the wings and he fell into the sea and died.