Page 291 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

highers Hocked to Crete to share the prosperity. Among them
were many Achaeans from the Greek mainland.
When the Cretans of this chapter’s lifetime were about forty
years old, the blow fell, completely without warning.

The festival of the bulls that year was of unparalleled splen-

CRETAN PREOCCUPATION WITH THE SEA SHOWED ITSELF, NOT IN REP­
RESENTATIONS OF SHIPS, WHICH ARE DISAPPOINTINGLY FEW AND
POOR, BUT IN MAGNIFICENT VASES PAINTED WITH ALL MANNER OF
FISH, SEA PLANTS, AND CORALS. THIS VASE IS FROM GOURNIA, IN
EASTERN CRETE.

dor. Many teams of toreadors had come from Greece to take

part, and many Achaean princes, with their retinues, were there
to watch their champions. Among them Prince Theseus of Attica
was the most magnificent, and he distinguished himself by a pol­
ished amateur display in the arena against the chosen of the bulls,

the Minotaur itself. And the burghers of Knossos retired to their