DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0216
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
in the Late Minoan Age. These sports, in which girls as well as youths
Minoan were trained to take part, and of which the tales of the Minotaur and the
Sports. Athenian children may be in part a later echo, were clearly of a very acrobatic
kind. They are essentially circus performances, to be distinguished from the
feats of Minoan cowboys in grappling wild bulls. Perilous they must un-
doubtedly have been, but they were far removed from the mere exposure
Fig. 137 d. Head of Bull Rhyton grappled by Men (|).
of captives to wild bulls, such as we see depicted on a Pre-dynastic Egyptian
palette. It has already been noticed 1 that these Knossian sports find an
apparent parallel on a Cappadocian cylinder dating from about 2400 b. c, and
therefore probably distinctly earlier than the beginning of the M. M. I Period.
That these performances should appear in connexion with a type of
vessel the ritual destination of which is undoubted2 is itself a highly
suggestive circumstance. The later circus-shows of the same kind, as seen
in the wall-paintings, also seem to have had religious associations, and to have
been held in honour of the Great Minoan Goddess.
1 See above, p. 15, note 3.
2 See Section in Vol. II dealing with Minoan ' rhytons '.
in the Late Minoan Age. These sports, in which girls as well as youths
Minoan were trained to take part, and of which the tales of the Minotaur and the
Sports. Athenian children may be in part a later echo, were clearly of a very acrobatic
kind. They are essentially circus performances, to be distinguished from the
feats of Minoan cowboys in grappling wild bulls. Perilous they must un-
doubtedly have been, but they were far removed from the mere exposure
Fig. 137 d. Head of Bull Rhyton grappled by Men (|).
of captives to wild bulls, such as we see depicted on a Pre-dynastic Egyptian
palette. It has already been noticed 1 that these Knossian sports find an
apparent parallel on a Cappadocian cylinder dating from about 2400 b. c, and
therefore probably distinctly earlier than the beginning of the M. M. I Period.
That these performances should appear in connexion with a type of
vessel the ritual destination of which is undoubted2 is itself a highly
suggestive circumstance. The later circus-shows of the same kind, as seen
in the wall-paintings, also seem to have had religious associations, and to have
been held in honour of the Great Minoan Goddess.
1 See above, p. 15, note 3.
2 See Section in Vol. II dealing with Minoan ' rhytons '.