Pendlebury, John D.: A handbook to the palace of Minos at Knossos, with its dependencies (London)

FOREWORD

IN fulfilment of my own desires, Mr. Pendlebury
has excellently carried out the plan of a summary
guide to the House of Minos and its immediate sur-
roundings. In the works of reconstitution, which here
so necessarily followed that of the spade, the object of
affording an intelligible picture to the visitor had been
constantly kept in view. The replacement where
possible for sites of the fallen frescoes from the walls by
Monsieur Gillieron's admirable restorations has sup-
plied some samples at least of the original brilliant
decoration.

It is true that the existing remains of the building,
once with tiers of upper stories on all sides, leave vast
lacunas. The name 'Labyrinth' indeed, which itself
stands for the 'House of the labryi or sacred double
axe of old Cretan and Anatolian cult, has led to
much popular misconception. But the idea of a
maze—to which the complex impression given by
parts of the basements might seem to lend some sup-
port—was far from the conception of its builders.
The Palace itself, and notably the piano nobile of the
West Quarter, was a crescendo of spacious corridors,
peristyles, and halls served beyond by a stately stair-
case. The 'Grand Staircase' again of the East Quarter,
where the main approach was from above, was of a
unique quality amongst ancient buildings. On the other
hand, the arrangement of the reception rooms in the
more public suites of state usage and the more private
section where we may place the quarters of the women
and children is a masterpiece of architectural planning.

It is now some forty years since—lured by the visions
of the earliest folk traditions of Greece and encouraged