Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 4,2): Camp-stool Fresco, long-robed priests and beneficent genii [...] (London, 1935)

iooo INNER PAVED COURT FOR CEREMONIAL SPORTS

to be found in the whole building. There was no apparent remains of the
original painted plaster that had doubtless filled the interstices of this.

It seems highly probable that this Inner Court may have been made

Fig. 951. The Pavilion, as restored, seen from the West, with 'Bridge' of
Access to its Roof Terrace on the Left. In the Background appears the Rocky
Steep beyond the Kairatos Stream with a Gully to Right.

Presumed

scene of
cere-
monial

rites and
sports.

use of for ceremonial rites and sports, both at the time of burials within the
vault and on the occasion of memorial celebrations. It was well fitted for
ring dances such as the TnjSijnKos x°P°s, which still survives in this Cretan
region, and that with which, according to the Homeric Hymn, the train
of Cretan youths followed Apollo of the Dolphin to his Delphic shrine,
singing their native paeans. Still more fittingly, in view of the double
sanctity of the monument, might the 'mazy dance' have been here per-
formed, in honour of the Minoan Mother Goddess—the ' Aphrodite', whose
shrine was recorded above the ' hidden tomb'—and whose epithet of the
'very holy' was to give birth at Knossos to the tales of Ariadne\ It is