[27]
At about the same time appeared the monster1 reared in Crete, the offspring of Pasipha, daughter of Helius, to whom our city was sending, in accordance with an oracle's command, tribute of twice seven children. When Theseus saw these being led away, and the entire populace escorting them, to a death savage and foreseen, and being mourned as dead while yet living, he was so incensed that he thought it better to die than to live as ruler of a city that was compelled to pay to the enemy a tribute so lamentable.
1 The Minotaur, “the bull of Minos,” to whom seven boys and seven girls were annually sent as tribute by the Athenians; cf. Plat. Phaedo 58a.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
