58 



NA TURE 



[November 20, 1902 



may believe in the existence of the Labyrinth without 

 believing in the existence of an actual Minotaur ! 



Leaving the Hall of the Double-Axes, we bear round 

 to the left above the little valley of the Kairatos to the 

 ancient northern entrance, where is to be seen a very 

 interesting surface-drain which carried off water from 

 the central court. And now we again stand outside the 

 palace with our faces turned in the direction of Candia. 



Looking back, we are at once struck by a feature of 

 Knossos which entirely differentiates it from Tiryns or 

 Mycenae. It is not fortified. " Bastions" there may be at 

 the northern entrance, but they do not seem to have been 

 of any particular military value. The Labyrinth was not 

 a fortress, it was a peace-time palace, the residence of 

 kings who ruled a settled people and needed not to fear 

 armed attack. But one day war came to Knossos, and 

 the dominion of the proud Minoan thalassocrats dis- 

 appeared in the smoke of the burning Labyrinth. 



This open and unfortified character of the palace 

 testifies to the high state of civilisation of the Minoan 

 Knossians, thus agreeing with all tradition of the great 

 Cretan law-giver who personifies the ancient princes of 

 Knossos. But high civilisation often brings degeneracy 

 in its train, and, as has already been pointed out in these 

 columns (vol. lxvi. p. 393), there are many traits in the 

 culture of Knossos which give the modern observer a 

 decidedly sinister impression. 



Of the Mycenaean town of Knossos, excavated by Mr. 

 Hogarth in 1900, which lay to the south-west of the 

 palace, there is not much to be seen. A discovery of 

 Mr. Evans's, made during the present season (1902) and 

 communicated by him to the Times, may, however, 

 give us some idea of what the town may have looked 

 like. To quote Mr. Evans: — "This is the remains 

 of a mosaic, consisting of small porcelain plaques, 

 which in its original form seems to have represented 

 scenes disposed in various zones recalling the subjects of 

 Achilles' shield — the walls and houses of a city, a river, 

 a vine and other trees, warriors with bows, spears, and 

 throwing sticks, besiegers and defenders, and various 

 animals. But the most surprising part of all are the 

 houses of which the city is composed. Fragmentary as 

 are their remains, it has been possible to reconstitute 

 about a couple of score of these. The varying character 

 of the structure — stone, timber, and plastered rubble — is 

 accurately reproduced ; and the walls, towers, gateways — 

 a whole street of a Minoan city rises before us much as 

 it originally stood. But what is even more surprising 

 than the fact that the elevations of these prehistoric 

 structures should be thus recovered for us intact from 

 the gulfs of time is the altogether modern character of 

 some of their features. Here are three-storeyed houses 

 (some of the semi-detached class showing two contiguous 

 doorways) with windows of four panes, or double windows 

 of three panes each, which seem to show that the 

 inmates of the houses had actually some substitute for 

 glass." Perhaps they had window-glass ; why not ? 

 It was known to the Romans, and has been found at 

 Pompeii. However this may be, it would indeed seem, as 

 Mr. Evans says, "as if the brilliant and unexpected 



the chapters of Kretschmer's Einleitung on the languages of Asia Minor 

 and the pre-Heilenic population of Greece (x., xi., p. 289 ff. ; csp. p. 404). 

 I should also like to refer him to my article in Natuke November 14, 

 1901, Suppl. p. vii , where he will find the matter explained to the best 

 of my ability. With regard to another point which has been urged 

 against the correctness of the identification of the Knossian palace 

 with the Labyrinth as being, par e.vcelUiice, the " Place of the Double- 

 Axe," I confess that I do not see that the fact of the Double-Axe sign 

 being cut tpoi the rough stone blocks of the walls, which were intended to 

 be covered with stuc.:o or with gypsum slabs, is of much weight, as I am 

 inclined to regard these signs as hieroglyphs, intended merely for the 

 guidance of the masons, signifying that such and such a block was intended 

 for a building or room somehow connected with the worship of the god of 

 the Double-Axe. Indeed, the hieroglyphic of their tutelary deity may have 

 been used by the Minoans as a sort of heraldic device to mark " Govern- 

 ment stores," exactly like the British " broad arrow." I do not know 

 whether this explanation will commend itself to Mr. Rouse or not, but it 

 appears natural enough to a student of Egyptology. 



NO. 1725, VOL. 67] 



character of the finds " at Knossos is " likely to maintain 

 itself to the last." 



We retrace our steps to Candia and thence start for 

 Phaistos, on horse- or mule-back. We pass Knossos 

 once more, we pass Iuktas, and so on over the watershed 

 between the .Egean and Libyan seas, with snowy 

 Psiloriti (Ida) on the right hand and Lasithi (Dikte) on 

 the left, into the Messani, the valley of the Ieropotamos, 

 to the acropolis-hill of Gortyna, which stands at the 

 entrance of a remarkable gorge through which flows the 

 Lethaios of the ancients. The site of this once famous 

 city, which supplanted both Knossos and Phaistos as the 

 chief town of Crete, was investigated by the Italians 

 two or three years ago, and again examined by Mr. 

 Taramelli in 1901 ; he found no traces of occupation in 

 Mycenaean days. Hence we pass down the broad 

 Messard to the triple acropolis of Phaistos at Agia 

 Photia, first identified by Admiral Spratt. 



Phaistos stands upon a triple-peaked- hill, which 

 forms the end of the spur which divides the Messard 

 from the maritime plain of Dhibaki, where the Iero- 

 potamos reaches the sea. At its base runs the Iero- 

 potamos. Its situation is therefore much stronger than 

 that of Knossos, and seems to be better adapted for a fort- 

 ress than the low knoll on which the Minoan metropolis 

 stood. On the third, the lowest, peak, Prof. Halbherr 

 and the Italian expedition have excavated a Mycenaean 

 palace, the architecture of which is entirely Knossian — 

 Minoan — in type ; we find here the same corridors, the 

 same magazines, the same pillared halls and open courts 

 as at Knossos. There is no doubt whatever that the 

 palaces of Knossos and Phaistos were built by the same 

 people and approximately at the same period. Legend 

 ascribes the foundation of Phaistos to Minos, and there 

 is no reason to doubt that this legend enshrines forgotten 

 history. If, then, Phaistos was founded by the Knossians, 

 its palace would be expected to show signs of a some- 

 what later date than Knossos. These signs are quite 

 apparent. Phaistos marks a development of, an improve- 

 ment on, Knossos. In some ways it must have been 

 much finer ; certainly its ruins are much more impressive. 

 The masonry at Knossos is neither so good nor so well 

 preserved as that at Phaistos ; the curious triangular 

 dedrpov at Phaistos, with its altar and tiers of stone seats, 

 has no parallel in the mother-palace, nor has the latter 

 now anything to compare with the great and broad 

 stairway which leads up to the pillared hall at Phaistos, 

 although it is possible that some similar stairway may 

 once have existed at Knossos, but has now disappeared. 

 Phaistos, then, makes a finer show than Knossos, but is 

 really far less interesting. In the first place, it has no 

 legendary past to speak of ; we know nothing of its 

 ancient dynasts, while Knossos was the city of Minos, the 

 metropolis of the ancient dominion over land and sea 

 which is connected with the name of the great legendary 

 lawgiver, and its palace is in all probability the identical 

 Labyrinth which the legendary Daedalus built for the 

 great king. In the second place, Phaistos is nothing 

 but bare walls, fine though their masonry may be, and 

 has yielded practically none of those minor discoveries 

 which tell us so much more than bare walls can ; while 

 Knossos, on the other hand, has, as we know, yielded 

 minor discoveries of the utmost importance, which have 

 revealed to us most of our present knowledge of Minoan 

 civilisation and have told us its date. 



One difference between Knossos and Phaistos, how- 

 ever, is noticeable, and that a somewhat significant 

 one. Phaistos was more strongly fortified than Knossos, 

 and in many places the palace walls, built of ponderous 

 stones like Mycenae and Tiryns, are visible. This we 

 should expect in a building which was evidently placed 

 where it is for more or less military reasons, and it 

 confirms the idea that Phaistos was built by the Minoan 

 rulers of Knossos with the direct purpose of controlling 



