THE PALACE OF MINOS. 433 



"Mais," exclaimed a French savant who honored me with a visit, "ces 

 sont des Parisiennes! " 



The} r were seated in groups, engaged in animated conversation, in 

 the courts and gardens and on the balconies of a palatial building, 

 while in the walled spaces beyond were large crowds of men and boys, 

 some of them hurling javelins. In some cases both sexes were inter- 

 mingled. These alternating scenes of peace and war recall the subjects 

 of Achilles' shield, and we have here at the same time a contemporary 

 illustration of that populousness of the Cretan cities in the Homeric 

 age which struck the imagination of the bard. Certain fragments of 

 fresco belong to the still earlier period of JEgean art, which precedes 

 the Mycenaean, well illustrated in another field by the elegant painted 

 vases found by Mr. Hogarth in some private houses on this site. A 

 good idea of the refinement already reached in these earlier da} T s of 

 the palace is given by the subject of one fresco fragment in this "pre- 

 Mycena?an" style — namely, a boy, in a field of white crocuses, some 

 of which he has gathered and is placing in an ornamental vase. 



Very valuable architectural details were supplied by the walls and 

 buildings of some of the miniature frescoes above described. In one 

 place rose the facade of a small temple, with triple cells, containing 

 sacred pillars, and representing in a more advanced form the arrange- 

 ment of the small golden shrines, with doves perched upon them, 

 found by Schliemann in the shaft graves at Mycena?. This temple 

 fresco has a peculiar interest, as showing the character of a good deal 

 of the upper structure of the palace itself, which has now perished. 

 It must largely have consisted of clay and rubble walls, artfully con- 

 cealed under brilliantly painted plaster, and contained and supported 

 by a woodwork framing. The base of the small temple rests on the 

 huge gypsum blocks which form so conspicuous a feature in the exist- 

 ing remains, and below the central opening is inserted a frieze, recall- 

 ing the alabaster reliefs of the palace hall of Tiryns, with triglyphs, 

 the prototypes of the Doric, and the half-rosettes of the "metopes" 

 inlaid with blue enamel, the Kyanos of Homer. 



A transition from painting to sculpture was supplied by a great 

 relief of a bull in hard plaster, colored with the natural tints, large 

 parts of which, including the head, were found near the northern gate. 

 It is unquestionably the finest plastic work of the time that has come 

 down to us, stronger and truer to life than any classical sculpture of 

 the kind (fig. T). 



Somewhat more conventional, but still showing great naturalistic 

 power, is the marble head of a lioness, made for the spout of a 

 fountain. It, too, had been originally tinted, and the eyes and nos- 

 trils inlaid with brightly colored enamels. A part of a stone frieze, 

 with finely undercut rosettes, recalled similar fragments from Tiryns 

 and Mycenae, but far surpasses them in execution. 

 sm 1901 28 



