on earth, and she takes part in their rituals to Dionysos in which they sacrifice their king. Afterwards, Theseus finds her asleep drenched in the king’s blood and realizes her brutal part in the sacrifice. Appalled, he gathers his companions and sets sail before she wakes up. As they travel home, Theseus remembers Aigeus's request that he paint his sails white. He is concerned that Aigeus will read the white sail as a sign to sacrifice himself. He asks Poseidon for a sign, and reads it to mean that he should do nothing, never anticipating that Aigeus will throw himself to his death when he sees the black sails. Characters Theseus: The protagonist. King of Eleusis and son of King Aigeus of Athens, he is an aggressive leader who combines touchy pride with a drive for social and cultural change. He compensates for his small, light build with agility and ingenuity. He has a strong sense of destiny, duty, and a belief that he is guided by his god Poseidon. Though only seventeen for most of the novel, he is also a skilled warrior, hunter, bull-dancer, and lover. He can instinctively sense earthquakes, a sensation which leaves him disoriented, and which he believes is a gift from Poseidon. Ariadne: The beautiful young daughter of King Minos. High Priestess by right of birth, she is revered as a goddess incarnate by the native Cretans. Gentle and timid at first, she falls in love with Theseus and helps him escape from Crete. When Theseus sees her capacity for violence inherited from the "rotten blood" of a decadent dynasty, he is sickened and loses his love for her. Asterion: The Minotauros. He is heir to King Minos of Crete, though actually the product of adultery between Minos' queen and an Assyrian bull-dancer. Crude, ruthless and clever, Asterion has succeeded in isolating his nominal father, the dying Minos, and is positioning himself to take the throne. Asterion regards Theseus as a "mainland savage" but, desiring the best of everything, purchases him as a bull- dancer in the way that he might buy a horse with stamina and speed. Minos: the title given to the rulers of Minoan Crete during the thousand-year history of an advanced and sophisticated civilisation centred on the vast palace (Labyrinth) of Knossos. On the eve of the great earthquake that destroys the Labyrinth, the last Minos is a sick man