Knossos - Legends of Knossos

Legends of Knossos

In Greek mythology, King Minos dwelled in a palace at Knossos. He had Daedalus construct a labyrinth in which to retain his son, the Minotaur. Daedalus also built a dancing floor for Queen Ariadne. The word labyrinth manifestly contains the word labrys, the double axe, at least in folk etymology. It was subsequently adopted by Arthur Evans because it seemed to fit the archaeology of Knossos. It has never been credibly questioned, mainly because of that archaeology.

Western civilization was thus predisposed by legend to associate whatever palace ruin should be found at Knossos with the legends of Minos and the labyrinth. The very first name of the first man to excavate at Knossos, Minos Kalokairinos, was taken from the legend. As far as is currently known, it was Stillman who, seeing the sign of the double axe on the massive walls partly uncovered by Kalokairinos, first associated the complex with the labyrinth of legend. Evans agreed with Stillman. The myth stirred his imagination to such a degree that he viewed the first room uncovered, the Throne Room, as the bathroom of Ariadne. Moreover, he named his subsequently constructed living quarters the Villa Ariadne. As a professional archaeologist he knew that the likelihood of any feature of the palace being associated with any part of the legend was small. Like Schliemann, he was enough of an impressario to retain elements of the legend.

As it turns out, there probably was an association of the word, whatever its etymology, with ancient Crete. The sign was used throughout the Mycenaean world as an apotropaic symbol: its presence on an object would prevent it from being "killed". Axes were scratched on many of the stones of the palace. It appears in pottery decoration and is a motif of the Shrine of the Double Axes at the palace, as well as of many shrines throughout Crete and the Aegean. And finally, it appears in Linear B on Knossos Tablet Gg702 as da-pu₂-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja, which probably writes Mycenaean Greek Daburinthoio potniai, "to the mistress of the Labyrinth," recording the distribution of one jar of honey. A credible theory uniting all the evidence has yet to be formulated.