The legend that gave the Aegean Sea its name

Among the athletes was the prince Androgeus, son of Minos, king of Crete, half-brother of the Minotaur.

Androgeus wins all the competitions: running, throwing and singing. He becomes so popular that one evening he is killed in a brawl by a group of drunken Athenian youths. As soon as the news reaches Minos, he is overwhelmed by grief and anger and feels only a thirst for revenge. He decides to punish the Athenians in the cruelest way possible, feeding them to the Minotaur.

Minos' demand is: 7 virgin men and 7 virgin women to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, otherwise there will be war. Athens is forced to offer human sacrifices to the Minotaur every 9 years, because the Greeks knew how to calculate the movement of the Moon around the Earth according to a cycle lasting 9 years.

Theseus, who had two fathers — one earthly, Aegeus, king of Athens, and one divine, Poseidon, god of the sea — is sent on the third occurrence of the tribute. Before Theseus departs, his father Aegeus gives him one single, very clear order. If and when he returned to Athens, he must raise a white sail instead of a black one, so that when the ship appeared on the horizon the king would know that his son was safe.

Theseus kills the Minotaur and manages to escape from the labyrinth thanks to Ariadne's thread, who is believed to have been the eldest daughter of King Minos. Together they set sail for Athens. For months, every morning, Aegeus gazes at the same stretch of sea in the hope of seeing the ship, and when it finally appears on the horizon its sail is black. The inconsolable king believes his son has been killed by the Minotaur and, overwhelmed by grief, chooses to die by throwing himself into the sea.

From that day on, the sea was called the Aegean in memory of the ruler.