The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-05-16
A|NOIAOR NOT / FAKE
Crete Yields the Beginnings
of Grecian History.
ALMOST AS OLD AS EGYPT
What the Spade Shows of
Life 4,500 Years Ago.
ALMOST AS OLD AS EGYPT

The palace of King Minos. father Of the
Minotaur, has been found in Crete, ac-
cording to the New York Journal. Thus
one of the strangest fables Of Greek
mythology has been proved to be founded
on fact
The Minotaur was represented TO be
creature half man and half bull who lived
in labyrinth in Crete. Seven youths and
seven mafdens were exacted every year
from Athens TO feed him. Thesus the
great Greek hero, went into the labyrinth
slew the Minotaur and escaped with the
help of Ariadne, daughter of Minos.
The Minotaur has been the prototype
of a devouring monster In literature
since the dawn of civilization.
The scholars engaged n excavaung the
ruins of prehistoric Crete, the birthplace
of Greek civilization, announce that they
have discovered the palace of Minos, on
the cite of the ancient city of Konossos.
This is one of the most fascinating dis
coveries of all the numerous archaeolo-
gicaI expeditions of modern times Most
modern scholars believe the legends OF
Minos and the Minotaur to be one OF the
nature myths which nations create TO eH-
plain their early history. But the spade
of the excavato- is correcting the as
sumption of the scholars. Almost every
day combinations of the legends but ate
iy rejected, are turned up from the faith
full soil which has preserved them Tor
thousands Of years. Just as Isis and
Osiris, the gods of Egypt, have been
proved to have at once walked the earth,
and the walls Of Babylon are even greater
than they were described by Minos, and
in which he lived, lies a confirmation of
the most curious of all the Greek legends
and one of the most stirring. 1t brings
into real History Minos, Thesus, Ariadne
and host of immortal figures Of ANTIGUA
ty.
The excavations at Crete have been car
ried on by Mr.. Arthur j. Evans and Mr..
D. C. Hogarth for some years past. Mr..
Evans has before this published some of
his researches in a volume called Gre
tan Photographs" by which he proved that
long before the time usually assigned to
Cadmus, the so-called inventor Of the
Greek alphabet, there was writing and
high degree of culture in Crete. In fact,
these discoveries have created an entire
revolution in Greek chronology. The be
ginning of Greek civilization has been US
ually assigned TO the beginning of the first
thousand years b. c.. but 1t is now GER
tain that there were ages of progress an
tedating that time. There existed human
society in the Hellenic area, which in
clUdes the islands thereabout organized
and productive, to a period so remote that
it's origins were more distant from the age
Of Pericles than that age is from cur own
1t seems that the civilization of the He'll
mes runs back almost as for as that of
Egypt. Mr.. Hogarth says that "the deri-
walton Of various decorative motives, and
probably of the returning spiral from the
twelfth dynasty scarabs (Which seems es-
tsblished) takes Cretan art back at least
to $500 B. c., and in all probability there
is yet another millennium TO be reckoned."
This primitive writing is what Mr.. Ev-
ans has now found in the palace Of Minos;
so it is plain, on the best archaeological
evidence. that Minos reigned in Crete at
least 300 B. c., or $500 years ago. The
space of more than 800 years which sep
arates him from the classical period OF
Greek thought permitted a development
of the story of his life into an elaborate
legend; but that Crete is to be credited
with the very beginning Of the civiliZa-
ton afterwards developed in Greece seems
to be indicated by the legend which
places the very birthplace of Zeus (Ju-
piter) on the island Of Crete. If the great
est Of the gods came from Crete, and Nj
nos was said to have been his son, this
shows that the Greeks looked TO that IS
land as the source of their inspiration.
1t is even within the bounds OF POSSIBLE
ity that further excavations at the so
remains Of his tomb, proving that. Ike
Osiris. he was the first great man among
primitive Helenes, afterwerd to become
their first god.
The island of Crete IS only sixty miles
south OF the main land and has long been
recognized as a difficult place to account
for historically. The claim OF the Cretans
the Grecian gods is but the starting Ioint
Tor the story Of M,nos, their national hero
BY conversing with Zeus. his father, he
gained such wisdom that he became the
greatest law-giver Of the age and laid
the foundation OF the government and
laws Of Crete. Il is TO him also that the
establishment Of the first Greek navy
is attributed. and he acquired the Thai
assakraty, or dominion over the sea Both