DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0262
CHAP. XII.] OTHER COINS OF CNOSSOS.
209
Ducal cabinet at Modena21 ; but they are all, with the
exception of that which I obtained in Sfakia, known to
numismatists. It may be added, that even authors who
understood the ancient myths as records of strictly his-
torical facts, admit that the edifice of the labyrinth had
dissolved into thin air, before their time, and, like the
fabric of a dream, had "left not a rack behind22."
The head of Pallas is represented on some of the
coins of Cnossos, and on others that of Demeter, crowned
with ears of corn. We read in Solinus 44 Gnosii Mi-
nervam civem deam numerantand the same author
adds, that the Cnossians contended with the Athenians
for the praise of having first produced corn for the use
of man23.
The mythological celebrity and historical importance
of Cnossos, demand a more careful and minute attention
than can be bestowed on them in a mere book of travels.
But, since I write as a traveller, and nothing more re-
mains to be examined at Makro-Teikho, I shall at
once bid farewell to this capital of ancient Crete, which,
even after the Roman conquest, remained for some time
a considerable city, but, under the Venetian and Turkish
rule, has dwindled down into this miserable hamlet, and
the few shapeless heaps of masonry, which alone recal
to the remembrance of the passing traveller its ancient
and bygone splendour.
21 They may be thus described: 1. Caput muliebre, ad s. capillis retro
defiuis, corona fastigiata floribus distincta, auripendentibus et monili exor-
nacum. }£ KNT22K2N. Labyrinthus quadratus: in area, hinc A et pilum
hastae, inde P et fulmen. 2. Caput Jovis laureatum, barbatum, ad s.
3-( KNQSIQN. Labyrinthus quadratus, ad cujus aditum Stella.
22 DlODORUS SlCULUS, I. 61. 'O /xev Kara Kpi']Ti]v i](pavL(r6ii TeXews,
£lt£ nvvdaTov tlvos KaTacrKaxj/awros, e'inre tou yjiovov to epyov \vp.i]va-
fxevov. Pliny, xxxvi. 19. kt Exstantque adhuc reliquiae ejus (Lemnii
labyrinthi) cum Cretici Italicique nulla vestigia exstent." See Professor
Hoeck, Kreta, Vol. i. pp. 56—63. by whom the question respecting this
Cretan labyrinth is placed in so clear and strong a light that a doubt
respecting it can hardly remain on any mind.
23 Solinus, c. xi. " Primumque apud se f'ruges satas audacter cum
Atticis contendunt."
VOL. I.
209
Ducal cabinet at Modena21 ; but they are all, with the
exception of that which I obtained in Sfakia, known to
numismatists. It may be added, that even authors who
understood the ancient myths as records of strictly his-
torical facts, admit that the edifice of the labyrinth had
dissolved into thin air, before their time, and, like the
fabric of a dream, had "left not a rack behind22."
The head of Pallas is represented on some of the
coins of Cnossos, and on others that of Demeter, crowned
with ears of corn. We read in Solinus 44 Gnosii Mi-
nervam civem deam numerantand the same author
adds, that the Cnossians contended with the Athenians
for the praise of having first produced corn for the use
of man23.
The mythological celebrity and historical importance
of Cnossos, demand a more careful and minute attention
than can be bestowed on them in a mere book of travels.
But, since I write as a traveller, and nothing more re-
mains to be examined at Makro-Teikho, I shall at
once bid farewell to this capital of ancient Crete, which,
even after the Roman conquest, remained for some time
a considerable city, but, under the Venetian and Turkish
rule, has dwindled down into this miserable hamlet, and
the few shapeless heaps of masonry, which alone recal
to the remembrance of the passing traveller its ancient
and bygone splendour.
21 They may be thus described: 1. Caput muliebre, ad s. capillis retro
defiuis, corona fastigiata floribus distincta, auripendentibus et monili exor-
nacum. }£ KNT22K2N. Labyrinthus quadratus: in area, hinc A et pilum
hastae, inde P et fulmen. 2. Caput Jovis laureatum, barbatum, ad s.
3-( KNQSIQN. Labyrinthus quadratus, ad cujus aditum Stella.
22 DlODORUS SlCULUS, I. 61. 'O /xev Kara Kpi']Ti]v i](pavL(r6ii TeXews,
£lt£ nvvdaTov tlvos KaTacrKaxj/awros, e'inre tou yjiovov to epyov \vp.i]va-
fxevov. Pliny, xxxvi. 19. kt Exstantque adhuc reliquiae ejus (Lemnii
labyrinthi) cum Cretici Italicique nulla vestigia exstent." See Professor
Hoeck, Kreta, Vol. i. pp. 56—63. by whom the question respecting this
Cretan labyrinth is placed in so clear and strong a light that a doubt
respecting it can hardly remain on any mind.
23 Solinus, c. xi. " Primumque apud se f'ruges satas audacter cum
Atticis contendunt."
VOL. I.