DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7525#0184
The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos.
561
resting-place of Idomeneus, the leader of the Cretan contingent of eighty ships
against Troy, whose grave was pointed out near Knossos in Hellenic times
together, close beside it, with that of his colleague and half-brother Meriones the
son of Molos. According to Diodoros a it was marked with this epitaph :
K.po)(tlov ,I8op.evrjo<; opa rdtyov. 'Avrdp iyco tol
TrXrjCTLOV l$pvfJLou MrjpLOvr)<; 6 MoXov.
Idomeneus was the grandson of Minos, which would probably make him out
too late in the series for the original occupant of the Isopata tomb. The later
interment may be thought to be hardly important enough for so great a prince,
yet there is always a possibility that in times of decline and perhaps of pressing
danger the later scion may have found a resting-place in an ancestral vault.
Indeed it is hard to imagine that the grave cist of this imposing tomb was used
again for one who was not of some account. In spite of exhaustive researches no
trace of any like built tomb could be found in the neighbourhood. A few metres
to the south, however, there came to light a chamber-tomb cut in the rock, of
somewhat irregular form, but containing fragmentary remains of painted vases in
the Palace Style contemporary with those of the neighbouring vault. Could this
otherwise quite isolated sepulchral chamber be the traditional tomb where Meriones
was laid, hard by the resting-place of his half-brother ?
Such questions may never be answered, but the possible survival here of
local traditions cannot be gainsaid, especially when it is remembered that the
later use of the vault went on apparently into the Geometrical Period. At any
rate the site would have been specially appropriate for the tomb of the Cretan
prince who led the largest naval contingent of any of those who took part in
Agamemnon's expedition. As a matter of fact the height on which it stands
directly overlooks the extensive maritime town of Knossos, the existence of
which a little east of the present town of Candia has been ascertained by the
researches of the last season. It seems, too, that the tomb lay close to the
ancient roadline, bringing the Palace and inland town into communication with
the port.
In the days when the summit of the great chamber, itself rising some three
metres above the rock surface, was capped by a mound, and that perhaps in turn
surmounted by a stela or heroon, it must have been a most conspicuous landmark.
V. 79, 4.
561
resting-place of Idomeneus, the leader of the Cretan contingent of eighty ships
against Troy, whose grave was pointed out near Knossos in Hellenic times
together, close beside it, with that of his colleague and half-brother Meriones the
son of Molos. According to Diodoros a it was marked with this epitaph :
K.po)(tlov ,I8op.evrjo<; opa rdtyov. 'Avrdp iyco tol
TrXrjCTLOV l$pvfJLou MrjpLOvr)<; 6 MoXov.
Idomeneus was the grandson of Minos, which would probably make him out
too late in the series for the original occupant of the Isopata tomb. The later
interment may be thought to be hardly important enough for so great a prince,
yet there is always a possibility that in times of decline and perhaps of pressing
danger the later scion may have found a resting-place in an ancestral vault.
Indeed it is hard to imagine that the grave cist of this imposing tomb was used
again for one who was not of some account. In spite of exhaustive researches no
trace of any like built tomb could be found in the neighbourhood. A few metres
to the south, however, there came to light a chamber-tomb cut in the rock, of
somewhat irregular form, but containing fragmentary remains of painted vases in
the Palace Style contemporary with those of the neighbouring vault. Could this
otherwise quite isolated sepulchral chamber be the traditional tomb where Meriones
was laid, hard by the resting-place of his half-brother ?
Such questions may never be answered, but the possible survival here of
local traditions cannot be gainsaid, especially when it is remembered that the
later use of the vault went on apparently into the Geometrical Period. At any
rate the site would have been specially appropriate for the tomb of the Cretan
prince who led the largest naval contingent of any of those who took part in
Agamemnon's expedition. As a matter of fact the height on which it stands
directly overlooks the extensive maritime town of Knossos, the existence of
which a little east of the present town of Candia has been ascertained by the
researches of the last season. It seems, too, that the tomb lay close to the
ancient roadline, bringing the Palace and inland town into communication with
the port.
In the days when the summit of the great chamber, itself rising some three
metres above the rock surface, was capped by a mound, and that perhaps in turn
surmounted by a stela or heroon, it must have been a most conspicuous landmark.
V. 79, 4.