of one which is much larger and brighter than the others. It closely follows Arcturus and is best seen during the early evenings of July when it is floating high in the dome of the heavens, a most fascinating star figure.
Long ago, in some of the old countries, people saw in this "Crown" the likeness to a broken plate held out by a beggar to receive alms; the Pawnee Indians imagined it a camp circle of warriors sitting in council around their camp fire and that the bright star was a servant preparing a feast over the fire; the Australian natives called it the "boomerang," but in Greek mythology this is the crown which Bacchus gave the beautiful Ariadne after she had been deserted by Theseus, King of Athens, on the island of Naxos which lay far out to sea.
According to a later legend, from which the Crown obtained its name, a yearly tribute of seven youths and maidens was exacted from the Athenians by the tyrant Minos, King of the Island of Crete. These Athenian captives were then rowed over from Greece to Crete and confined in a labyrinth as a feast for a ferocious Minotaur. This labyrinth had been constructed by Dædalus, a most ingenious artist and artificer, who had so perfected the intricate maze of passageways that neither the Minotaur, nor any of his victims, could possibly escape.
Theseus, son of Ægeus, the king of Athens, grieved deeply at the fate of so many innocent sufferers, and thinking that he might be able to overcome the monster, bravely offered himself as one of the seven youths. When Ariadne, daughter of the wicked King Minos, saw the handsome Prince arrive among those to be sacrificed, she was filled with love and pity and risked her own life by secretly furnishing him with a strong sword and a long thread. Theseus then attacked the Minotaur and slew him, afterwards extricating himself from the difficult windings of the labyrinth by means of the thread. He and Ariadne then slipped down
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