OF SIX MEDIEVAL WOMEN 



in classical stories and folk-lore. 1 Perhaps the 

 most familiar example, and, owing to the recent 

 excavations in Crete, the most interesting one, 

 is that connected with Glaucos, son of Minos, 

 king of Crete. In the story (Apollod. iii. 3) 

 Glaucos when a boy fell into a cask of honey 

 and was smothered. His father, ignorant of his 

 fate, consulted the oracle to ascertain what had 

 become of him, and the seer Polyeidos of Argos 

 was named to discover him. When he had 

 found him, Minos shut Polyeidos up in the 

 tomb with the dead body of the boy until 

 he should restore the latter to life. Whilst 

 Polyeidos was watching the body, a serpent 

 suddenly came towards it and touched it. 

 Polyeidos killed the serpent, and immediately a 

 second one came, which, seeing the other one 

 lying dead, disappeared and soon returned with 

 a certain herb in its mouth. This it laid on the 

 mouth of the dead serpent, which immediately 

 came to life again. Polyeidos seized the herb 

 and placed it on the mouth of the dead boy, 

 who was thereupon restored to life. 



This story is most graphically depicted on a 

 fifth-century Greek vase in the British Museum, 

 and, whatever its real interpretation may be, it 

 has gained in significance since the life of the 

 distant past of the island has been laid bare, and 

 large jars, which in all probability were used for 

 storing wine and honey and other necessaries, 

 and from their size and contents might well 



1 Warnke, op. cit. civ. ; Hertz, op. cit. p. 409. 

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