248 



DISCOVERY 



be sent every nine years ' to feed the Minotaur, a 

 monster half man, half bull, which lived in the maze 

 called the Lab\Tinth. The cruel tribute was paid 

 twice ; but on the third occasion, the hero Theseus 

 volunteered to go as one of the victims ; and with the 

 aid of Ariadne, the King's daughter, who fell in love 

 with him, he killed the monster. She gave him a 

 sword and a supply of string, which he fastened to the 

 entrance of the maze as he went inside. He was 

 thus able to retrace his steps. Theseus had promised 

 his father, the old King-Egeus, that if he returned alive 

 his ship would show white sails in place of the usual 

 black, so that the glad news could be read in the dis- 

 tance. Whether in his elation or in his hurry to leave 

 Naxos, where (according to the story) he had deserted 

 Ariadne, ' Theseus forgot his promise, and ^geus, 

 watching anxiously from the cliffs, and seeing that the 

 sails were black, threw himself in despair into the sea. 

 It was thenceforth called the .^gean Sea. 



Minos meanwhile reaped what he sowed. Dffidalus, 

 the architect of the Labyrinth, also incurred the King's 

 wrath, and, making himself wings, fled to Sicily. 

 His son Icarus, who went with him, flew too near to 

 the sun ; the wax which fastened his wings melted, 

 and he fell into the sea. Minos pursued Daedalus to 

 Sicily, and was treacherously killed. His countrymen 

 went on a punitive expedition to the island, but never 

 returned, and Crete was overrun bj' strangers. 



That is legend. It is a fact, however, that the 

 Minoan Empire did come to a sudden and violent end. 

 Remnants of it — " the men from Keftiu " ("the Back of 

 Beyond "), as the Egyptians called them — landed on the 

 shores of Asia Minor, and finally settled in Palestine 

 as the Philistines of the Bible. The mists of legend are 

 clearing. The huge palace at Knossos is one of the 

 solidest sights revealed. In its bewildering corridors, 

 staircases, and rooms one recognises the Labyrinth 

 itself — a recognition which is confirmed by evidence 

 disclosed within the palace. 



IV 



The best description of the palace is to be found in 

 Dr. Ronald Burrows's The Discoveries in Crete. A 

 shorter description is given by Mr. andMrs. C. H. Hawes 

 in their admirable little book, Crete the Forerunner of 

 Greece. It was built on the slope of a lowhill overlooking 

 a secluded valley, three and a half miles from the north 

 shore of the island. WTiile it escaped the notice of 

 pirates, it commanded a view of the Minoan ships in 

 the harbour. 



Knossos relied for defence almost entirely on her 



' Other versions say " every year." 



' The discovery of the forlorn maiden by the god Bacchus 

 is the subject of a famous picture, now in the National Gallery, 

 by the great Flemish artist Rubens. 



fleet. In the report of his first year's work (1900), Sir 

 .\rthur Evans says' that, in contrast to the compact 

 castles of the Argolid, " this Cretan palace, with its 

 spacious courts and broad corridors, was designed 

 mainly with an eye to comfort and luxury." There 

 were minor fortifications, chiefly near the north gate, 

 consisting of a guard-house and bastions, but strategic 

 considerations did not contribute to the main archi- 

 tecture at all. 



It is an amazing structure. Built as long before 

 Christ as has the world travelled since, it sounds 

 incredible that it should boast an underground drainage 

 system and other " modern " contrivances. There is no 

 doubt that Cretan architects were men of quality. Mr. 

 H. R. Hall says, in The Ancient History of the Near 

 East (p. 47), that, " in comparison with this wonderful 

 building [the later palace at Knossos], the palaces 

 of Egyptian Pharaohs were but elaborate hovels of 

 painted mud. Knossos seems to be eloquent of the 

 teeming life and energy of a young and beauty-loving 

 people for the first time feehng its creative power." 

 The present ruins belong to three structures built at 

 different times. The first was built in M.M. I, or before 

 2000 B.C., and was burnt down towards the end of 

 M.M. II. It was soon {circa 1800 B.C.) rebuilt on a 

 bigger scale, and this building in its turn, some three 

 hundred years later, was remodelled and enlarged. It 

 is this last magnificent palace that predominates in 

 to-day's ruins ; in it the Cretans reached the height 

 of their culture. This period, to which belongs what 

 is known as the " Palace Style " in art, Wcis as short- 

 lived as it was brilliant. Within fifty years (so the 

 evidence seems to show) the palace was raided and 

 burnt, and that was the end of .\ncient Crete ; for th£ 

 same invaders who sacked Knossos also destroyed the 

 palace at Phaestos. 



It is lucky, however, that Minoan Ubraries were 

 made not of paper, but of clay tablets. They were 

 presejvcd, not destroyed, by the fire. The baking they 

 then underwent enabled them to sur\ave the dampness 

 of the soil, and they remain to this day, a potential inter- 

 preter of many things we do not understand — f)otential 

 because they cannot yet be read. Scholarship has the 

 hard but fascinating task before it of discovering 

 from these documents the Minoan language. It is 

 lucky, again, that the sackers of Knossos had no use 

 for clay tablets, which accordingly escaped the doom 

 of more " valuable " loot. Dr. Burrows, in The Dis- 

 coveries of Crete (p. 19), quotes the happy analogy of a 

 Renter telegram which, in reference to the fire at Senile 

 in 1906, announced that " the archives were totally 

 destroyed, but the cash and valuables were saved ! " 



The outer walls of the palace were mainly built of 

 gypsum, a stone composed of crystals of calcium 

 • Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. xx, p. 168. 



