The Sea-Kings of Crete | Page 2

BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE I. The Throne of Minos II. (1) The Ramp, Troy, Second City;
(2) the Circle-Graves, Mycenæ III. Wall of Sixth City, Troy IV. The
Lion Gate, Mycenæ V. (1) Vaulted Passage in Wall, Tiryns; (2)
Beehive Tomb (Treasury of Atreus), Mycenæ VI. The Cup-Bearer,
Knossos VII. The Long Gallery, Knossos VIII. A Magazine with Jars
and Kaselles, Knossos IX. (1) Magazine with Jars and Kaselles; (2)
Great Jar with Trickle Ornament X. (1) Part of Dolphin Fresco; (2) A
Great Jar, Knossos XI. Pillar of the Double Axes XII. (1) Minoan
Paved Road; (2) North Entrance, Knossos XIII. Relief of Bull's Head
XIV. Clay Tablet with Linear Script, Knossos XV. (1) Palace Wall,
West Side, Mount Juktas in Background; (2) Bathroom, Knossos XVI.
A Flight of the Quadruple Staircase; (2) Wall with Drain XVII. (1) Hall
of the Double Axes; (2) Great Staircase, Knossos XVIII. The King's
Gaming-Board XIX. Ivory Figurines XX. (1) Main Drain, Knossos; (2)
Terra-cotta Drain-Pipes XXI. Theatral Area, Knossos: Before
Restoration XXII. Theatral Area, Knossos: Restored XXIII. Great Jar
with Papyrus Reliefs XXIV. The Royal Villa: (1) The Basilica; (2)
Stone Lamp XXV. (1) Knossos Valley; (2) Excavating at Knossos
XXVI. Great Staircase, Phæstos XXVII. The Harvester Vase, Hagia
Triada XXVIII. Sarcophagus from Hagia Triada XXIX. Minoan

Pottery XXX. Late Minoan Vase from Mycenæ XXXI. Kamares Vases
from Phæstos and Hagia Triada XXXII. Goldsmiths' Work from
Beehive Tombs, Phæstos
SKETCH MAP OF CRETE
PLAN OF KNOSSOS
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF CRETE To Illustrate THE SEA
KINGS OF CRETE BY The Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S.]

THE SEA-KINGS OF CRETE
AND THE
PREHISTORIC CIVILIZATION OF GREECE
CHAPTER I
THE LEGENDS
The resurrection of the prehistoric age of Greece, and the disclosure of
the astonishing standard of civilization which had been attained on the
mainland and in the isles of the Ægean at a period at least 2,000 years
earlier than that at which Greek history, as hitherto understood, begins,
may be reckoned as among the most interesting results of modern
research into the relics of the life of past ages. The present generation
has witnessed remarkable discoveries in Mesopotamia and in Egypt,
but neither Niffur nor Abydos disclosed a world so entirely new and
unexpected as that which has been revealed by the work of Schliemann
and his successors at Troy, Mycenæ, and Tiryns, and by that of Evans
and the other explorers--Italian, British, and American--in Crete. The
Mesopotamian and Egyptian discoveries traced back a little farther
streams which had already been followed far up their course; those of
Schliemann and Evans revealed the reality of one which, so to speak,
had hitherto been believed to flow only through the dreamland of
legend. It was obvious that mighty men must have existed before

Agamemnon, but what manner of men they were, and in what manner
of world they lived, were matters absolutely unknown, and, to all
appearance, likely to remain so. An abundant wealth of legend told of
great Kings and heroes, of stately palaces, and mighty armies, and
powerful fleets, and the whole material of an advanced civilization. But
the legends were manifestly largely imaginative--deities and demi-gods,
men and fabulous monsters, were mingled in them on the same
plane--and it seemed impossible that we should ever get back to the
solid ground, if solid ground had ever existed, on which these ancient
stories first rested.
For the historian of the middle of the nineteenth century Greek history
began with the First Olympiad in 776 B.C. Before that the story of the
return of the Herakleids and the Dorian conquest of the men of the
Bronze Age might very probably embody, in a fanciful form, a genuine
historical fact; the Homeric poems were to be treated with respect, not
only on account of their supreme poetical merit, but as possibly
representing a credible tradition, though, of course, their pictures of
advanced civilization were more or less imaginative projections upon
the past of the culture of the writer's own period or periods. Beyond
that lay the great waste land of legend, in which gods and godlike
heroes moved and enacted their romances among 'Gorgons and Hydras
and Chimeras dire.' What proportion of fact, if any, lay in the stories of
Minos, the great lawgiver, and his war fleet, and his Labyrinth, with its
monstrous occupant; of Theseus and Ariadne and the Minotaur; of
Dædalus, the first aeronaut, and his wonderful works of art and science;
or of any other of the thousand and one beautiful or tragic romances of
ancient Hellas, to attempt to determine this lay utterly beyond the
sphere of the serious historian. 'To analyze the fables,' says Grote, 'and
to elicit from them any trustworthy particular facts, appears to me a
fruitless attempt. The religious recollections, the romantic inventions,
and