The
Mycenaean stele, where the chief of the ancient stock pursues his
Northern assailant, has its _motif_ reversed in the archaic Greek
stele discovered by Dr. Pernier at Gortyna, where a big Northerner
with round shield and greaves threatens a tiny Minoan or Mycenaean,
crouching behind his figure-of-eight shield. The two rude pictures
may be taken as typical of the beginning and the end of the process
which resulted in the establishment of the race of Agamemnon at
'Golden Mycenae.' Pressed upon thus by the warlike Achaeans, perhaps
already forced from their homes on the mainland, the Mycenaeans
of Tiryns and Mycenae were obliged to fare forth in search of new
dwelling-places. Not unnaturally the emigrants may have turned to
the land from which their civilization had originally sprung, in
the expectation that the Cretans would not refuse a welcome and a
home to men of their own stock. Seemingly they were disappointed in
their expectation. The Minoans, or, at least, the Minoan rulers, were
not prepared to admit peacefully the incursion of this new element
into their kingdom; and the wanderers, under the spur of desperate
need, took by force what was denied to them as suppliants. So, in
all probability, the glory of the Minoan Empire was destroyed by
the hands of its own children, the descendants of men whom Knossos
herself had sent forth to hold her mainland colonies.
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