Theseus seven most courageous youths and the seven most beautiful maidens were to board a boat and be sent as tribute to Crete, never to be seen again. In another version, King Minos had waged war with the Athenians and was successful. He then demanded that, at nine-year intervals, seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls were to be sent to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster that lived in the Labyrinth created by Daedalus. On the third occasion, Theseus volunteered to talk to the monster to stop this horror. He took the place of one
Daedalus the waves ... a hawk-like man flying sunward above the sea, a prophecy of the end he had been born to serve”. Daedalus is said to have created statues that were so realistic that they had to be tied down to stop them from wandering off. In "Meno", Socrates and Meno are debating the nature of knowledge and true belief when Socrates refers to Daedalus' statues: "... if they are not fastened up they play truant and run away; but, if fastened, they stay where they are." Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (; "Daidalos" "cunningly wrought", perhaps related to δαιδάλλω