The Minotaur., part 3 · page 21 2101Then she led Theseus along by the hand until they came to a dark, shadowy grove, where the moonlight wasted itself on the tops of the trees, without shedding hardly so much as a glimmering beam upon their pathway.102After going a good way through this obscurity, they reached a high marble wall, which was overgrown with creeping plants, that made it shaggy with their verdure.103The wall seemed to have no door, nor any windows, but rose up, lofty, and massive, and mysterious, and was neither to be clambered over, nor, as far as Theseus could perceive, to be passed through.104Nevertheless, Ariadne did but press one of her soft little fingers against a particular block of marble and, though it looked as solid as any other part of the wall, it yielded to her touch, disclosing an entrance just wide enough to admit them They crept through, and the marble stone swung back into its place.105"We are now," said Ariadne, "in the famous labyrinth which Daedalus built before he made himself a pair of wings, and flew away from our island like a bird.106That Daedalus was a very cunning workman; but of all his artful contrivances, this labyrinth is the most wondrous.107Were we to take but a few steps from the doorway, we might wander about all our lifetime, and never find it again.108Yet in the very center of this labyrinth is the Minotaur; and, Theseus, you must go thither to seek him."1 2← previousThe Minotaur., part 2next →The Minotaur., part 4↑ back to Tanglewood TalesThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/5/page/2/