The Death of Aegeus

The ship had left the island of Dia (Naxos), and was sailing for Athens. Everyone was wendering why Theseus had left the island without a search for Ariadne. But they could not know of Theseus drean and the threat of Dionysus. The young prince was sitting at the prow of the ship crying and not talking to anyone. Everyone knew that they will never see Ariadne again and they where very saad about it because she was the one who helpt Theseus to come out of the labyrinth alive and save their lifes.

The ship was sailing quietly into the sea, bearing Theseus and his liberated fellow Athenians with heavy hearts due to the loss of Ariadne. Theseus forgot the signal which he had prearranged with his father. The vessel's sails were to be black only if the expedition concluded as on all previous occasions, with the death of the Athenians. In the exultation of triumph, and in anguish over the loss of Ariadne, Theseus neglected to hoist a white sail.

And Aegeus?

The old king during his absence to Crete could not have a moment's rest. He was surely a strong young hero and he had prooved him self, but the Minotaur was not just any beast. But what Aegeus feard more was the labyrinth it self. Nobody ever came out of that maze alive.

Aegeus saw the black sail. That was the signal that his son Theseus and the other thirteen Athenians where dead and the old king without a second thought threw himself from the heights in despair. There was no way for him to know that his beloved son was alive and he had slain the Minotaur.

Theseus, been already heart broken from the loss of Ariadne, returned home to find a second loss, that of his father, the pain was unbearable. To honor his father, Theseus named after him the sea in which he was drowned. The Aegean Sea.