Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

The Labyrinth at Knossos 479

the original Cnossian Labyrinth was not the great palace unearthed
by Sir Arthur Evans, at least was not the whole of that palace, but
was a structure which somehow lent itself to an imitation of the
sun's movements in the sky.

But how are we to conceive of such a structure? Probably it
was an orchestra or 'arena' intended for the performance of a
mimetic dance. Perhaps even it was marked out with mazy lines
to aid the intricate evolutions of the dancers—a practice undoubtedly
known to the later Greeks1. If, therefore, we are to identify the
Labyrinth with any structure so far found, I should suppose that
it was the paved rectangular space near the north-west corner
of the Cnossian palace. This space, discovered by Sir Arthur
Evans2 in 1901 and by him dubbed 'the Theatral Area,' is an

Fig- 345-

east-and-west oblong of 12*94 by 9'^9 metres enclosed by two
flights of steps or seats (18 on the east, 6 decreasing to 3 on the
south side) with a square bastion at their common angle. Its
rough paving was probably once covered with coloured cement or
hard plaster, on which we may believe the labyrinthine lines to
have been set out more or less as in the foregoing ground-plan3.

1 Hesych. ypa/ix/xai ■ kv rrj opx^Tpa ijcrav, <hs rbv x°P°v ^v <TT0LXV foraadai. See
A. E. Haigh The Attic Theatre*1 Oxford 1898 p. 137.

2 A.J. Evans in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1902—1903 ix. 99—112 fig. 68 plan and
section, fig. 69 view.

3 I have here combined a plan of the ' Theatral Area' (based on that of A. J. Evans
loc. cit. p. 103 fig. 68) with the labyrinth-pattern of the wall-painting {supra p. 477
n. 2 f.). But, of course, other arrangements are equally possible.

A. Mosso The Palaces of Crete and their Builders London 1907 p. 313 notes 'a
square figure with nine small holes incised on a step of the theatre.' He suggests that
it was ' a Mycenaean game' and compares ' similar figures cut by idle people on the
pavements of the basilicas in the Roman Forum.'