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 2,1): Fresh lights on origins and external relations (London, 1928)

ACROSS CRETE TO PORT ON LIBYAN SEA

89

name it then passed, was a commercial port, bringing Crete into direct
relation with the Nile Valley, from the earliest days of Minoan civilization.
But what makes this conclusion of the greatest interest is the appearance of Abut-
distinct remains of the Minoan transit road itself, with its characteristic Minoan

double wall lines, abutting on the earlier acropolis heiVht. It is, moreover, roadway

1 1 , • , , -1 r r- ■ 1 1 °nearlier

a suggestive phenomenon that, together with an abundance of Early and Aero-
Middle Minoan sherds, there were found here some fragments of'Geometrical' po ,s'

starting-
point for
Egypt.

Fig. 42. Sketch-Map of Komo.

vases, pointing to a reoccupation of this higher citadel in early Greek times.
The story of Menelaos fits in well with the idea that the harbour of Menelaos
Komo may once more have played a part as the starting-point of direct
voyages between Crete and Egypt. The course still taken by sponge-fishing
craft or other small vessels after leaving the Cretan coast runs more or less
due South almost to within hail of the North African shore, which at
Derna is only 180 miles from this point, thence following that coast-line
East to the mouth of the Nile. The pendant to the adventure of Menelaos
off the A/o-o-?/ 7rerpr), is the traditional 'Harbour of Menelaos', which
Herodotus1 places immediately East of the island of Plataea, the original
stepping-off place of the Greeks on the Libyan shore. This has been

1 iv. 169. See above, p. 37, n. 2.