For that there is manifestly no space, as the
flat area is not larger than a good-sized room; while the undefended
position of the spectators would as certainly have resulted in
tragedies to them as to the toreadors. But from the great rhyton
found at Hagia Triada, from a steatite relief found at Knossos
in Igor, and from various seal-impressions, we know that boxing
was one of the favourite sports of the Minoans, as it was of the
Homeric and the classical Greeks; and the Theatral Area may have
served well enough for such exhibitions as those in which Epeus
knocked out Euryalus, and Odysseus smashed the jaw of Irus. Or
perhaps it may have been the scene of less brutal entertainments
in the shape of dances, such as those which delighted the eyes of
Odysseus at the Palace of Alcinous. To this day the Cretans are
fond of dancing, and in ancient times the dance had often a religious
significance, and was part of the ceremonial of worship. So that it
is not impossible that we have here a spot whose associations with
the House of Minos are both religious and literary--'the Choros
(or dancing-ground) which Daedalus wrought in broad Knossos for
fair-haired Ariadne' (Iliad XVIII., 590).
If the Theatral Area be really the scene of the palace sports,
it has for us a romantic as well as an historical interest; for
Plutarch tells us that it was at the games that Ariadne first met
Theseus, and fell in love with him on witnessing his grace and
prowess in the wrestling ring.
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