[Illustration XXII: THEATRAL AREA, KNOSSOS: RESTORED (_p_. 100)
_G. Maraghiannis_]
Probably the power and grandeur of the Empire was never more imposing
than during the hundred years before 1400 B.C. The House of Minos
at Knossos had reached its full development, and stood in all its
splendour, an imposing mass of building, crowning the hill of Kephala
with its five storeys around the great Central. Court, its Theatral
Area, and its outlying dependencies. Within its spacious porticoes and
corridors the walls glowed with the brilliant colours of innumerable
frescoes and reliefs in coloured plaster. The Cup-Bearer, the Queen's
Procession, the Miniature Frescoes of the Palace Sports, stood
out in all their freshness. Magnificent urns in painted pottery,
with reliefs like those of the great papyrus vase (Plate XXIII.),
decorated the halls and courts, and were rivalled by huge stone
amphorae, exquisitely carved. The King and his courtiers were served
in costly vessels of gold, silver, and bronze _repousse_ work.
The Empire of the Sea-Kings was at its apogee, and on every hand
there were the evidences of security and luxury.
But, as in the contemporary Egypt of Amenhotep III. a similar
development in all the comforts and luxuries of civilized life
was swiftly followed by the downfall under Akhenaten, so in Crete
the luxury of Late Minoan II.
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