connection with the universal currency of the Minotaur legend,
it is probably sufficient. What relation this monstrous divinity
held to the other objects of Minoan worship is not apparent.

[Footnote *: _Annual of the British School at Athens_, xiv., p.
366. The suggestion is also made by Mosso, 'The Palaces of Crete,'
pp. 64-66.]

[Footnote **: 'Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion,' pp.
482, 483.]

It may be, then, that this deity was the one of whom the King was
supposed to be the representative and incarnation, and in that
case the bull-grappling, which was so constant a feature of the
palace sports, had a deeper significance, and was in reality part of
the ceremonial associated with the worship of the Cretan bull-god.
In this connection Professor Murray has emphasized[*] certain facts
in connection with the legendary history of Minos, which would
seem to link the Cretan monarchy with a custom not infrequently
observed in connection with other ancient monarchies and faiths.
It will be remembered that the legend of Minos states variously
that he 'ruled for nine years, the gossip of Great Zeus,' and that
every nine years he went into the cave of Zeus or of the bull-god,
to converse with Zeus, to receive new commandments, and to give
account of his stewardship. The nine-year period recurs in the
account of the bloody tribute of seven youths and seven maidens
who were offered to the Minotaur every ninth year. May we not,
therefore, have in these statements a distorted recollection of
the fact that the Royal Incarnation of the Bull-God originally
held his office only for a term of nine years, and that at the
end of that period he went into the Dictaean Cave, the sanctuary
of his divinity, and was there slain in sacrifice, while from the
cave his successor came forth, and was hailed as the rejuvenated
incarnation of divinity, to reign in his turn, and then to perish
as his predecessor had done? In this case the seven youths and
seven maidens who were offered to the Minotaur at the end of the
nine-year period may have been slain with him to be his companions
and servants in the underworld, or, as is perhaps more likely,
they may, in a later stage of the custom, have been accepted as
his substitutes, so that the death of the King was merely a ritual
one.

[Footnote *: 'The Rise of the Greek Epic,' pp. 127, 128.]

Of course, this explanation of the Minos legend and the story of
the human tribute is in the mea