THE SEA-KINGS OF CRETE 
board which had evidently been de- 
signed for use in some game, perhaps 
resembhng draughts or chess, in which 
men were moved to and fro from oppo- 
site ends. The board was over a yard 
in length and rather more than half a 
yard in breadth (see page 20). 
Its framework was of ivory, which 
had originally been overlaid with thin 
gold plate, and it was covered with a 
mosaic of strips and discs of rock-crys- 
tal, which in their turn had been backed 
alternately with silver and blue enamel 
paste. Round its margin ran a border 
of marguerites whose central bosses 
were convex discs of rock-crystal which 
had probably been set originally in a 
blue paste background. 
At the top of the board were four 
beautiful reliefs representing nautilus 
shells, set round with crystal plaques and 
bossed with crystal. Below them came 
four large medallions, set among crystal 
bars backed with silver plate, and then 
eleven bars of ribbed crystal and ivory 
alternating with one another. Eight 
shorter bars of crystal backed with blue 
enamel fill spaces on either side of the 
topmost section in the lower part of the 
board, which consists of a two-winged 
compartment with ten circular openings, 
the medallions of which have been bro- 
ken out, but were probably of crystal 
backed with silver. The remaining space 
of the board was filled with flat bars of 
gold-plated ivory alternating with bars 
of crystal on the blue enamel setting. 
The mere summary of its decoration 
conveys no idea of the splendor of a 
piece of work which, as Professor Bur- 
rows says, "defies description, with its 
blaze of gold and silver, ivory and crys- 
tal." The late Minoan monarch who 
used it — for so gorgeous a piece of work- 
manship can scarcely have been designed 
for any one but a king — must havebeen 
as splendid in his amusements as in all 
the other appointments of his royalty. 
BUIvIv-E'IGHTS 4,000 YE;aRS AGO 
The gaming-board suggested the lighter 
and more innocent side of the palace life 
(see page 20). A darker and more tragic 
aspect of it was hinted at by the fresco 
which was found among debris fallen 
from a chamber overlooking the so- 
called Court of the Olive Spout. This 
was a picture of those sports of the 
arena in which the Minoan and Myce- 
naean monarchs evidently took such de- 
light, and in which the main figures were 
great bulls and toreadors. In this case 
the picture is one of three toreadors, two 
girls and a boy, with a single bull. The 
girls are distinguished by their white 
skins, the more vari-colored costumes, 
their blue and red diadems, and their 
curlier hair, but are otherwise dressed 
like their male companion. 
In the center of the picture the great 
bull is seen in full charge. The boy 
toreador has succeeded in catching the 
monster's horns and turning a clean 
somersault over his back, while one of 
the girls holds out her hands to catch 
his as he comes to the ground. But the 
other girl, standing in front of the bull, 
is just at the critical moment of the cruel 
sport. The great horns are almost pass- 
ing under her arms, and it looks almost 
an even chance whether she will be able 
to catch them and vault, as her com- 
panion has done, over the bull's back, or 
whether she will fail and be gored to 
death. 
With such a sport, in which life or 
death depended upon an instant, in which 
a slip of the foot, a misjudgment of dis- 
tance, .:r a wavering of hand or eye 
meant horrible destruction, we may be 
sure that the tragedies of the Minoan 
bull-ring were many and terrible, and 
that the fair dames of the Knossian 
palace, modern in costume and appear- 
ance as they seem to us, were as habitu- 
ated to scenes of cruel bloodshed as any 
Roman lady who watched the sports of 
the Colosseum and saw gladiators hack 
one another to pieces for her pleasure. 
That the sport of the bull-ring, and 
particularly this exciting and dangerous 
game of bull-grappling, was an estab- 
lished and habitual form of Minoan 
sport is proved by the multitude of rep- 
resentations of it which have survived. 
The charging bull of Tiryns, the first to 
be discovered, was a mystery so long as 
it stood alone ; but it is only one of a 
succession of such pictures — painted 
upon walls, engraved upon gems, and 
