THE THRONE OF MINOS (p. 72)
THE SEA-KINGS
OF CRETE
WITH 32 FULL-PAGEILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
SECOND EDITION
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1913
Page vTO MY SISTERS AND MY BROTHERS
Page viiPREFACE
The object aimed at in the following pages has been to offer tothe general reader a plain account of the wonderful investigationswhich have revolutionized all ideas as to the antiquity and thelevel of the earliest European culture, and to endeavour to makeintelligible the bearing and significance of the results of theseinvestigations. In the hope that the extraordinary resurrectionof the first European civilization may appeal to a more extendedconstituency than that of professed students of ancient origins,the book has been kept as free as possible from technicalitiesand the discussion of controverted points; and throughout I haveendeavoured to write for those who, while from their school daysthey have loved the noble and romantic story of Ancient Greece,have been denied the opportunity of a more thorough study of itthan comes within the limits of an ordinary education.
In the first chapter this standpoint may seem to have been undulyemphasized, and the retelling of the ancient legends may be accountedmere surplusage. Such, no doubt, it will be to some readers, butperhaps they may be balanced by others whose Page viii recollection of the great storiesof Classic Greece has grown a little faint with the lapse of years,and who are not unwilling to have it prompted again. Reference tothe legends was in any case unavoidable, since one of the mostremarkable results of the explorations has been the disclosure ofthe solid basis of historic fact on which they rested; and, ifthe book was to accomplish its purpose for the readers for whomit was designed, reference seemed almost necessarily to involveretelling.
I have to acknowledge extensive obligations to the writings andreports of the various investigators who have accomplished so wonderfula resurrection of this ancient world. My debt to the works of Dr.A. J. Evans will be manifest to all who have any acquaintance withthe subject; but to such authors as Mrs. H. B. Hawes, Dr. Mackenzie,Professors Burrows, Murray, and Browne, and Messrs. D. G. Hogarthand H. R. Hall, to name only a few among many, my obligations areonly less than to the acknowledged chief of Cretan explorers.
To the Rev. James Kennedy, D.D., librarian of the New College,Edinburgh, and to the Rev. C. J. M. Middleton, M.A., Crailing,my thanks are due for invaluable help afforded in the collectionof material, and I have been not less indebted to Mr. A. Brown,Galashiels, and to Messrs. C. H. Brown and C. R. A. Howden, Edinburgh,and others, for their assistance in the preparation of theillustrations. To Mr. A. Brown in particular are due plates II.,III., IV., V., IX., X., XV., XVI., XX., Page ix XXIII., XXIV., and XXV.; and toMessrs. C. H. Brown and C. R. A. Howden Plates I., VII., VIII.,XI., XII., XVII. (I), and XXI. I have to record my hearty thanksto the Council of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studiesfo