THESEUS
Phaedra duly rigged herself out in Glaucus' everyday clothes. The
two were of exactly the same build, and when she had bound up her
hair and muffled the lower part of her face, it was impossible for Ariadne
not to mistake her identity.
It was certainly disagreeable for me to have to deceive Minos, who
had lavished upon me every mark of his confidence, and had told me
of the good influence which he expected me, as an older person, to have
upon his son. And
I
was his guest, too. Of course
I
was abusing my posi–
tion. But it was not, and indeed it is never, a part of my character to
allow myself to be stopped by scruples. The voices of gratitude and de–
cency were shouted down by the voice of desire. The end justifies the
means. What must be, must be.
Ariadne was first on board, in her anxiety to secure comfortable
quarters. As soon as Phaedra arrived we could make off. Her abduction
took place not at nightfall, as had at first been agreed, but after the
family dinner, at which she had insisted on appearing. She pleaded
that as she had formed the habit of going to her room immediately after
dinner her absence could not, she thought be remarked before the morn–
ing of the next day. So everything went off without a hitch, and
I
was
able to disembark with Phaedra, a few days later, in Attica, having
meanwhile dropped off her sister, the beautiful and tedious Ariadne,
at Naxos.
I learnt on arriving at our territory that when Aegeus, my father,
had seen in the distance the black sails (those same which I had omitted
to change) he had hurled himself into the sea. I have already touched
on this, in a few words; I dislike returning to it. I shall add, however,
that I had dreamed, that last night of our voyage, that I was already
King of Attica. Be that as it may, or as it might have been, this was,
for the whole population and for myself, a day of rejoicing for our happy
return and my promotion to the throne, and a day of mourning for the
death of my father. I therefore gave orders that in the rites for the day
lamentations should alternate with songs of joy; and in these songs and
dances we took a prominent part-my companions, now so implausibly
restored to their homes, and myself. Joy and desolation : it was fitting
that the people should be made to explore, a t one and the same time,
these two extremes of feeling.
XI
People sometimes reproached me afterwards for my conduct to–
wards Ariadne. They said I had behaved like a coward, and that I
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