Paul in the Epistle to
Titus--'The Cretans are alway liars.'
It is round Minos, the son of Zeus and Europa, that the bulk of
the Cretan legends gathers. The suggestion has been made, with
great probability, that the name Minos is not so much the name
of a single person as the title of a race of kings. 'I suspect,'
says Professor Murray, 'that Minos was a name, like "Pharaoh" or
"Caesar," given to all Cretan Kings of a certain type.' With that,
however, we need not concern ourselves at present, further than
to notice that the bearer of the name appears in the legends in
many different characters, scarcely consistent with one another,
or with his being a single person. According to the story, Minos
is not only the son but also the 'gossip' of Zeus; he is, like
Abraham, 'the friend of God.' He receives from the hand of God,
like another Moses, the code of laws which becomes the basis of all
subsequent legislation; he holds frequent and familiar intercourse
with God, and, once in every nine years, he goes up to the Dictaean
cave of the Bull-God 'to converse with Zeus,' to receive new
commandments, and to give account of his stewardship during the
intervening period. Finally, at the close of his life, he is transferred
to the underworld, and the great human lawgiver becomes the judge
of the dead in Hades.
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