DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7518#0012
FOREWORD
In fulfilment of my own desires, Mr. Pendlebury has excellently
carried out the plan of a summary guide to the House of Minos and
its immediate surroundings. In the works of reconstitution, which here
so necessarily followed that of the spade, the object of affording an
intelligible picture to the visitor had been constantly kept in view.
The replacement where possible in situ of the frescoes fallen from
the walls by Monsieur Gillierons admirable restorations has
supplied some samples at least of the original brilliant decoration.
It is true that the existing remains of the building, once with tiers
of upper stories on all sides, leave vast lacunas. The name 'Laby-
rinth' indeed, which itself stands for the 'House of the labrys' or
sacred double axe of old Cretan and Anatolian cult, has led to much
popular misconception. But the idea of a maze - to which the com-
plex impression given by parts of the basements might seem to lend
some support - was far from the conception of its builders. The
Palace itself, and notably the piano nobile of the West Quarter,
was a crescendo of spacious corridors, peristyles, and halls served
beyond by a stately staircase. The 'Grand Staircase' again of the
East Quarter, where the main approach was from above, was of a
unique quality amongst ancient buildings. On the other hand, the
arrangement of the reception rooms in the more public suites of state
usage and the more private section where we may place the quarters
of the women and children is a masterpiece of architectural planning.
It is now some forty years since - lured by the visions of the
earliest folk traditions of Greece and encouraged by such indications
as were to be extracted from seal-stones and the signs of an unknown
script - I first explored the site, at a time when, though minor relics
of great promise abounded, there was nothing visible above ground
beyond the tumbled remains of a wall above the southern slope.
The work of the spade has now brought out the essential under-
lying truth of the old traditions that made Knossos - the home of
7
In fulfilment of my own desires, Mr. Pendlebury has excellently
carried out the plan of a summary guide to the House of Minos and
its immediate surroundings. In the works of reconstitution, which here
so necessarily followed that of the spade, the object of affording an
intelligible picture to the visitor had been constantly kept in view.
The replacement where possible in situ of the frescoes fallen from
the walls by Monsieur Gillierons admirable restorations has
supplied some samples at least of the original brilliant decoration.
It is true that the existing remains of the building, once with tiers
of upper stories on all sides, leave vast lacunas. The name 'Laby-
rinth' indeed, which itself stands for the 'House of the labrys' or
sacred double axe of old Cretan and Anatolian cult, has led to much
popular misconception. But the idea of a maze - to which the com-
plex impression given by parts of the basements might seem to lend
some support - was far from the conception of its builders. The
Palace itself, and notably the piano nobile of the West Quarter,
was a crescendo of spacious corridors, peristyles, and halls served
beyond by a stately staircase. The 'Grand Staircase' again of the
East Quarter, where the main approach was from above, was of a
unique quality amongst ancient buildings. On the other hand, the
arrangement of the reception rooms in the more public suites of state
usage and the more private section where we may place the quarters
of the women and children is a masterpiece of architectural planning.
It is now some forty years since - lured by the visions of the
earliest folk traditions of Greece and encouraged by such indications
as were to be extracted from seal-stones and the signs of an unknown
script - I first explored the site, at a time when, though minor relics
of great promise abounded, there was nothing visible above ground
beyond the tumbled remains of a wall above the southern slope.
The work of the spade has now brought out the essential under-
lying truth of the old traditions that made Knossos - the home of
7