250 



DISCOVERY 



The Throne Riom of the palace is almost intact. 

 The throne of Minos still stands, carved out of solid 

 stone, and along the wall on either side are the stone 

 benches on which his council sat. Minos was not only 

 the legislative head of the State, he was also the 

 Supreme Judge. So, at any rate, legend indicates, and 

 experience proves that legend is a guide which can be 

 trusted at least to indicate our path. Minos is repre- 

 sented by the legend as holding converse with Zeus every 

 nine years in the Dictaean cave, and as recei%'ing from 

 him, after the manner of Moses in the Old Testament, 

 a famous code of laws which held good throughout 

 the period of the Minoan Empire. And at his death 

 he carried on similar duties in the lower world. 

 Odysseus, during his visit to the shades' " saw Minos, 

 the famed son of Zeus, with his golden sceptre, dealing 

 out justice to the dead, as he sat there." 



The great staircase by which one descends into the 

 east wing of the palace is surprisingly well preserved, 

 and by 1910 the remains of five flights of it had been 

 restored to their original positions. This staircase, in 

 the words of its discoverer, was traversed " by kings 

 and queens of Minos's stock, on their way from the 

 scenes of their public and sacerdotal functions in the 

 west wing of the palace, to the more private quarters 

 of the royal household." These quarters were built 

 on the south-east slope overlooking the valley of the 

 river Kairatos. The Queen's megaron — a sort of 

 hall with columns across it, open at one end to let in 

 the light — was especially luxurious. Its wall paint- 

 ings, designed in perspective, included a scene of the 

 sea, with its playful fishes, and one of forest Hfe. From 

 the latter the picture of a gorgeously feathered bird 

 has been preserved. The paintings further included 

 a dado of dancing girls. 



It is in this section of the palace that the drainage 

 system is best exemplified. As it was lower than the 

 rest of the building, and as the water-supply came 

 from the west, the engineers were up against the 

 problem of preventing flooding — a stiff enough problem 

 for engineers of 4,000 years ago. They solved it by 

 a system of pipes in parabolic curves which subjected 

 the flow to friction. Sinks, lavatories, underground 

 pipes — these are modern things. They nevertheless 

 belonged also to the palace at Knossos. There were 

 workmen's rooms and artists' rooms in the palace ; 

 every accommodation, in short, which was necessary 

 for a complete community, for the palace was more 

 or less self-sufBcing, like a mediseval castle. 



There was another great palace at Phaestos which 

 stands at the opposite side of the island. It was 

 smaller, but in many ways as magnificent, and was 

 roughly based on the same plan of a system of wings 

 grouped round a central court. Much speculation is 

 ' Homer, Odyssey, xi. 568. 



invited as to what the relationship was between the 

 two cities. The two palaces were built about the 

 same time, possibly (in view of the likeness of style) 

 by the same architects. Both palaces were destroyed 

 more than once. Such are the facts, and the ice is 

 thin for speculation. Were Knossos and Pha^tos 

 deadly enemies ? The Haweses think* that the first 

 palace of Knossos was " attacked and burned at the 

 close of M.M. II, possibly by the rival ruler of Phsstos." 

 Were they connected with each other ? Mr. Hall " 

 thinks that Phaestos was merely a southern residence 

 of King Minos, who had unified the island under a 

 pax Minoa. Legend relates that Pha;stos was a 

 colony of Knossos. An obviously significant fact to 

 be remembered in any discussion on this point is that, 

 in sharp contrast to the Mycensan cities of the main- 

 land, Knossos and Phaestos were in the main unforti- 

 fied. It is true that M. Dussaud has suggested that 

 Knossos was fortified, but the vast majority of scholars 

 agree that his supposed " fortifications " were nothing 

 of the kind. Dr. Burrows has devoted a special chapter 

 to this point in the as j'et unpublished second edition 

 of his book, the manuscript of which he left in my care 

 when he died. His general conclusion is that, while 

 there may have been some sort of fortification in the 

 early days of Crete, Knossos established a peaceful 

 regime when she won her supremacy in L.M. I. In 

 any case, Knossos was not fortified in the days of her 



empire. She had no fear from within the island, and 



she had command of the seas. 



VI 



The buildings of the Stone Age have left hardly a 

 trace of themselves, because they were made of such 

 perishable materials as mud, reed, and \\icker\vork. 

 Dr. L. Pernier has discovered, under the Minoan 

 palace at Phaestos, a bit of the floor of one of these 

 mud huts. It consists of red clay about 4 inches 

 thick. Some houses, it is true, have been found near 

 the modern Palaikastro, built of unhewn stone, and 

 dating from the Neolithic Age, but they are excep- 

 tional. It was only when metal tools were invented 

 that stone could be used generally for building. At the 

 beginning of the Bronze Age the lower walls used to be 

 made of stone, and the upper of sunburnt brick, the 

 latter being further strengthened by wooden stays. 

 Lime plaster was used even then to protect the walls 

 against the weather. Later in the Bronze Age, when 

 the great palaces were built, it became the practice to 

 build foundations and lower walls to a height of 

 about 2 yards of strong limestone blocks, some of 

 them 3 yards long and i yard wide, and of gypsum. 

 A protective covering of plaster was then applied. 



' Crett the Forerunner of Greece, p. 70. 



» The Ancient History of the Norlh-Easl. p. 45. 



