hough giving evidence of gradual decline in its later stages. The
earlier tombs provided, what had been singularly lacking at Knossos,
a number of fine specimens of the 'stirrup-' or 'false-necked' vase.
There was also a number of bronze vessels and weapons, including
swords, some of which were nearly a metre in length. In one tomb,
which had evidently belonged to a chieftain, there was found a
short sword of elaborate workmanship, with a pommel of translucent
agate, and a gold-plated hilt, on which was engraved a scene of
a lion chasing and capturing one of the Cretan wild-goats. The
occurrence in some of the tombs of a long rapier and a shorter
sword or dagger is unexpected, as there are no representations of
the two weapons being worn together in Minoan warfare. Mr. Andrew
Lang has made the picturesque suggestion that we may have here an
anticipation of the duelling custom of the Elizabethan age, in
which the dagger was held in the left hand, and used for parrying
thrusts, or for work at close quarters, as in the savage encounter
between Sir Hatton Cheek and Sir Thomas Dutton at Calais in 1610.

On the hill of Isopata, between Knossos and the sea, Dr. Evans
also discovered a stately sepulchre, whose occupant had evidently
been some Minoan King of the Third Middle period. The tomb consisted
of a rectangular chamber measuring about 8 by 6 metres, and built of
courses of limestone blocks, which projected one beyond the other
until they met in a high gable, forming a false arch similar to
those of the beehive tombs at Mycenae. The back wall of the chamber
had a central cell opposite to its blocked entrance, and the portal,
also false-arched, led into a lofty entrance-hall, in the side
walls of which, facing one another, were two cells, which had been
used for interments. The whole was approached by an imposing avenue
cut in the solid rock. The tomb had been rifled in ancient days,
but there still remained a golden hair-pin, parts of two silver
vessels, and a large bronze mirror; while among the stone vessels
found a diorite bowl again recalled the hard stone vessels of the
Early Egyptian dynasties.

The Dictaean Cave has already been mentioned as being peculiarly
associated with the legends about the birth of Zeus and his relationship
with Minos. Hesiod states that Rhea carried the new-born Zeus to
Lyttos, and thence to a cavern in Mount Aigaios, the north-west
peak of Dicte. Lucretius, Virgil, and Dionysius of Halicar