The Story of Glaukos (Glaucus)

Anthêdôn was born to the Minôs of Crete and his wife Pasiphaê. One day the child went into a cave that was used to store mead. In ignorance he drowned himself in the liquor, but nobody knew what had happened to him. Therefore Minôs sent for the Curetes, who were known as great seers, and they told him that whoever could best describe Minôs' miraculous cow would be able to restore Anthêdôn alive to him.

This cow changed colors every four hours: from the black of chaotic night, to the pure white of day, to the vital red of blood, then back to black again. So Minôs had all the diviners in the land brought together, and the Curetes judged the best description to be that of Poluidos. Poluidos said that the cow was like the ripening mulberry, which is first pure white, then vibrant red, and finally a rich dark purple.

Therefore, Poluidos was entrusted with finding Anthêdôn, and by divination he came to the cave. Looking inside he found the drowned boy, and brought him to Minôs. However, the grief-stricken Minôs was not satisfied, because the boy was dead, so he ordered that Poluidos be shut up with the boy's body in a tomb, until he brought Anthêdôn back to life. This was beyond Poluidos' power, and so he prayed to the Gods for help. After a while, as his eyes became accustomed to the dark, he saw a snake approaching the corpse. He killed the snake, because he feared it would nibble on the corpse. Shortly thereafter a second snake came forth and discovered the body of the first. Then it went away and came back holding in its mouth a twig with three blue-green leaves. The second snake laid this twig upon the first snake, which immediately came to life and left with its companion. Poluidos was astonished, but quickly took the serpent's twig and applied it to the boy.

Like the snake, the boy immediately returned to life. Anthêdôn had a shiny blue-green scar over his heart where the twig had touched him, and so he was thereafter called Glaukos (Blue-Green).