The relation of the Minoan King to the religion of his country
is a point of some interest, though the facts known are scarcely
sufficient to afford ground for more than surmise. The very structure
of the palace at Knossos gives evidence of the importance of the
part which he played in spiritual matters, and of the intimate
connection which existed in the Minoan, as in so many other ancient
faiths, between Royalty and Religion. There are not only several
shrines and altars in the palace, but it is probable, as Dr. Mackenzie
has pointed out,[*] that the so-called bathrooms at Knossos and
Phaestos are not bathrooms at all, but small chapels or oratories,
so that altogether religion bulks very largely in the arrangements
of the Royal dwelling. In fact, the Kings and Queens of Knossos
were Priest-Kings and Priest-Queens, the heads of the spiritual
as well as of the material life of their people; and it is not at
all unlikely, from what is known of the religious views of other
ancient peoples, that the Priest-King was looked upon as an incarnation
of divinity. If so, of what divinity? It is here that, in all
likelihood, we get near the heart of the Minotaur legend. 'The
characteristic mythical monster of Crete,' says Miss Jane Harrison,[**]
'was the bull-headed Minotaur. Behind the legend of Pasiphae, made
monstrous by the misunderstanding of immigrant conquerors, it can
scarcely be doubted that there lurks some sacred mystical ceremony
of ritual wedlock ([Greek: ieros gamos]) with a primitive bull-headed
divinity.
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