Crete's Grieving King Silences the Flutes: Minos Marches on Athens

PAROS, GREECE — The relations between King Aegeus of Athens and King Minos of Crete were marked by hostility, war and a tragic agreement, according to Ancient Pages, which this week published a preview of an article by A. Sutherland on the subject. The agreement, the site writes, ultimately placed Athens under Cretan rule.

The account begins with Androgeos, son of Minos, who traveled to Athens to take part in the Panathenaic Games. He was reportedly so skilled that he defeated every Athenian opponent. The preview states that he subsequently died, though the excerpt does not describe how.

News of the death, the article says, reached Minos while he was performing a sacrificial rite in honor of the Charites on Paros, an island in the Cyclades. The king is said to have torn the wreath from his head and ordered the flutes to fall silent, yet he finished the ceremony. The article adds that the rite on Paros was thereafter performed without wreaths, flutes or music of any kind.

Minos then gathered his powerful fleet and set out against Athens, the preview reports, in a war of revenge that "cost much." There the excerpt ends, with the remainder reserved for paying members of the site.

The terms of the bloody debt named in the headline are therefore left to the reader's imagination, or to a subscription. Related articles listed beside the preview concern the Trojan priest Laocoon, the evildoer Tantalus, and the mysterious disappearance of King Aegeus after his wedding.