Minos searched for Daedalus by travelling from city to city asking a riddle. He presented a spiral seashell and asked for it to be strung all the way through. When he reached Camicus, King Cocalus, knowing Daedalus would be able to solve the riddle, fetched the old man. He tied the string to an ant, which walked through the seashell, stringing it all the way through. Minos then knew Daedalus was in the court of King Cocalus and demanded he be handed over. Cocalus managed to convince him to take a bath first. Cocalus' daughters then killed Minos.
After the escape of Daedalus and Icarus from King Minos's imprisonment, and the subsequent death of Icarus, Daedalus arrived in Sicily, where he was welcomed by King Cocalus.
When he reached Camicus in Sicily, Cocalus, knowing that Daedalus would be able to solve the puzzle, showed it to him.
It is said that either King Cocalus or his daughters slew Minos 2 while he was bathing, and that they later gave the body to the Cretans, explaining that Minos 2 had slipped in the bath, and by falling into the hot water had died.
Cocalus gave the shell to Daedalus, who fastened a thread to an ant, and having bored a hole in the spiral shell, allowed the ant to pass through it.
Cocalus promised to meet this demand and entertained him, but when Minos 2 had taken his bath, he was killed by the king's daughters; or perhaps he was drenched with boiling water.
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