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 4,2): Camp-stool Fresco, long-robed priests and beneficent genii [...] (London, 1935)

HYAKINTHOS OF AMYKLAE MINOAN BOY-GOD 421

to the splendid painted reliefs that adorned the Northern Entrance porticoes
of the Knossian Palace.1

We must naturally suppose that the seat of government of the royal
personage here interred was some Minoan predecessor of the neighbouring
Sparta. The ' Mycenaean ' representative of the town is known to have been
situated on the hill of Therapna, where was the monument of Menelaos,
traditionally, through his mother, a great-grandson of ' Minos II '. But the
remains of this, recently explored, have proved to go no farther back than
the latest ' Mycenaean ' Age, posterior by some two centuries to the Vapheio
Tomb. On the other hand, Hyakinthos of the Amyklae Shrine, which lay
nearer to the Tomb, bears a name of a recognized old Cretan and Carian
class,2 and his later association with Apollo may well reflect the earlier rela-
tionship of the Minoan Divine Child to the Mother Goddess.3

Pre-
Hellenic
Priest-
kings of
Spartan

1 See P. of M., iii, § 75, p. 158 seqq., and
especially pp. 176-S9.

- P. Kretschmer, Einleitung in die Ge-
schichte dergricchischcn SpracAe, p. 404; A. Fick,
Vorgriechische Ortsnamen, pp. 5S, 113, 141.

Hyakinthides occur in Attica and Hyakinthos
appears as a place-name in Tenos. Fick
regards the name as ' Lelegian '.
3 See P. o/M., iii. p. 454 seqq.

(B c^Hk 43

Fig. 348 b. Syro-Hittite Cylinder from Aleppo

District, showing Hittite Prince before Table

of Offerings, above which is a Dove with Star in

front and, behind, the Seated Goddess.

Ff 2