Theseus

For Minos was always abused and reviled in the Attic theaters, and it did not avail him either that Hesiod[*](Plat. Minos 320d; Hes. Catalogues (Loeb edition), frag. 74.) called him most royal, or that Homer[*](Hom. Od. 19.179) styled him a confidant of Zeus, but the tragic poets prevailed, and from platform and stage showered obloquy down upon him, as a man of cruelty and violence. And yet they say that Minos was a king and lawgiver, and that Rhadamanthus was a judge under him, and a guardian of the principles of justice defined by him.

Accordingly, when the time came for the third tribute, and it was necessary for the fathers who had youthful sons to present them for the lot, fresh accusations against Aegeus arose among the people, who were full of sorrow and vexation that he who was the cause of all their trouble alone had no share in the punishment, but devolved the kingdom upon a bastard and foreign son, and suffered them to be left destitute and bereft of legitimate children.