THESEUS
IV
After Ariadne had rewarded the last champion with the last
prize, Minos declared the games closed. Escorted at that time by his
courtiers he bade me come to him separately.
"I want you to come with me now, Prince Theseus, to a place
by the sea where I shall put you to the test, and we shall see
if
you
are the true son of the god Poseidon, as you claimed to be just now.''
He took me to a small promontory with waves beating at its
foot. "I shall now," said the king, "throw my crown into the sea, as
a mark of my confidence that you will be able to retrieve it from the
bottom."
The queen and the two princesses were there to see what would
come of the test; and so, emboldened by their presence, I protested:
"Am
I a dog, to fetch and carry for my master-even if
it
be
a crown? Let me dive in without bait and I shall bring back something
or other which will attest and prove my case."
In my audacity I went still further. A stiff breeze had sprung up,
and it happened that a long scarf was dislodged from Ariadne's shoul–
ders. A gust blew it towards me. I caught it with a smile, as if the
princess or one of the gods had offered it to me. Then, stripping off
my close-fitting corselet, I wrapped the scarf round my loins in its
place, twisted it up between my thighs and made
it
fast. It looked
as
if
I did
this
from modesty, lest I should expose my manhood be–
fore these ladies; but in fact it allowed me to hide the leather belt
which I was still wearing, and to which was attached a small purse.
In this I had, not metal coins, but some valuable stones which I had
brought with me from Greece, knowing that they would keep their
full value, no matter where I went.
Then I took a deep breath and dived.
A practiced swimmer, I dived deep, and did not come up to
the surface until I had removed from my purse an onyx and two
chrysophrases. Once back on dry land I offered, with my most chi–
valrous bow, the onyx to the queen and the chrysophrases to each
of her daughters. I pretended to have gathered them on the bottom,
or rather (since it was hardly plausible that the stones, so rare upon
dry
land, should have lain promiscuously at the bottom of the sea, or
that I should have had time to pick them out) that Poseidon himself
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