The Granite Key (Arkana Mysteries) (22 page)

“What is that?” The girl stared at the curious object. She’d never see anything like it.

“They are called the horns of consecration and they are one of the most common symbols in Minoan culture though they did not originate on
Crete
. Horns of consecration first appeared in the artifacts of Old Europe eight thousand years ago. In the ruins on the island you will see them everywhere. Much like the crucifix is seen everywhere in the Christian religion. Come stand behind the horns and look through them. What do you see?”

Cassie did as she was told. “First there’s a round hill and then back in the distance, a mountain top.”

“Yes, that is
Mount
Jouctas
which was sacred to the goddess in ancient times. There is a reason why the palace was built exactly here and it was not for military defense. It was an act of worship.”

Griffin
picked up the thread. “All four palaces on the island take advantage of the same topographical features. First there is an enclosed valley where the palace is set, then a mounded hill on axis with the palace and beyond that, a mountain peak, also on axis with the palace. The landscape becomes part of the shrine.”

“You have heard of the monoliths at
Stonehenge
and Avebury, have you not?”
Xenia
asked.

“I’ve heard of
Stonehenge
anyway,” Cassie admitted.

“All such structures had a cosmic significance to the people who built them. The monoliths connect the sky with the earth through their sophisticated calendar measurements,”
Xenia
said.

“Nineteenth century archaeologists, of course, posited that the monoliths in
Britain
had been built by some war chief and had a military function,”
Griffin
added. “But of course they were wrong. Just as wrong as it would be to assume
Knossos
was built for defense.”

Cassie remained standing behind the horns of consecration and considered the landscape from that perspective. “When Faye first started telling me about how the world used to be, she said that a long time ago there were civilizations that didn’t go to war.”

“And this was the last of them,”
Xenia
murmured.

Cassie turned to look at her in surprise. “The last of them?” she repeated. “But this place is ancient.”

“The palace was damaged and rebuilt many times because of natural disasters but it was finally destroyed by fire around 1350 BCE,” the trove-keeper said.

“That’s still over three thousand years ago,” Cassie insisted. “And you say this is the last of those old civilizations?”

Griffin
nodded. “I’m afraid she’s right, Cassie. Cultures nearly as sophisticated and equally peaceful go back ten thousand years.”

The girl shook her head in disbelief.
 

“Perhaps we should begin our search now,” the trove-keeper suggested.

They began by pacing through the central court, their eyes sweeping every stone for the lily symbol that matched the one on the granite key.
 
As they moved farther afield, their search led them through a confusing array of short passageways, interlocking rooms, light shafts, and stairways. Cassie found herself becoming disoriented. “Wait, stop for a minute. I think I’m getting dizzy. Where are we?”

Her two companions paused and exchanged a look. “That’s probably how the invading Hellenes felt when they first came to this place,”
Griffin
commented. “That’s why they invented the myth of the labyrinth and the minotaur.

“The what and the what?” Cassie asked blankly.

“Surely, you know the legend.”
Xenia
sounded surprised. “That is the story that gives the civilization its name.”

“It’s safe to assume that Cassie’s knowledge is sketchy at best,”
Griffin
confided to the trove-keeper.

“But she is the Pythia,”
Xenia
protested.

“I’m afraid she came late to her calling,” the Scrivener explained.

“Would somebody please tell me about this...”

Labyrinth and minotaur,”
Griffin
corrected.

“Whatever. Just tell me what they are.”

“Would you like to do the honors?”
Griffin
turned to
Xenia
.

“If you wish.” She nodded and launched into the tale.

Chapter 34
– Art And Facts

 
“The ancient Hellenes said that this island was once ruled by an evil king named Minos. He was evil because each year he demanded that the Athenians send him a tribute of maidens and youths who would be sacrificed to the minotaur. The minotaur was a mythical beast with the head of a bull and the body of a man. He lived in a maze that was called a labyrinth. It was so confusing that anyone who entered the labyrinth could never find their way out again before being devoured by the monster. A Hellenic hero called Theseus was able to navigate the passages of the labyrinth with the help of King Minos’ daughter. He slew the minotaur so that no more Hellene youth would be sacrificed to the bull-man ever again.”

Cassie listened skeptically to the account. When
Xenia
was finished, she commented, “Given what I’ve learned about ancient Hellenic legends, I’m not sure I believe their version of things.”

“You are wise to doubt the tale. Overlord mythology is often propaganda to explain why the conquerors should be in charge of society. The Hellenes wished to create a story that would favor their heroes and discredit the civilization that came before.”

“Was there ever a real King Minos?” the girl wondered aloud.

“No one knows.”
Griffin
shrugged. “But Sir Arthur Evans was familiar with the legend and that’s the reason he called this civilization Minoan, after the fabled King Minos. You see, the language of the original inhabitants has been lost so we don’t know what these people called themselves. With respect to the minotaur, the bull was a sacrificial animal to the Minoans so it would have been easy for the Hellenes to fuse the notion of man and bull and give it a negative connotation. In fact, they said the beast was conceived by King Minos’ wife after she mated with a bull. As for the labyrinth, the word roughly translates as place of the double axes. Given the profusion of that particular symbol around the palace and the confusing architectural design, I think the Hellenes got the idea for their mythical labyrinth from
Knossos
itself.”

They had been continuing their search the whole time
Griffin
and
Xenia
were unfolding the story. By the time the tale was finished, the trio found themselves in a room with paintings covering the walls. Cassie thought they were paintings until
Xenia
explained that they were frescoes—pictures painted over wet plaster. The images displayed at the palace were reproductions. All the original images had been moved to the museum at Heraklion in order to protect and preserve them.

“Sir Arthur Evans went to great pains to reconstruct the frescoes and often he didn’t have much to work with. He had to guess what the originals might have looked like,”
Griffin
said.

“These are amazing!” Cassie exclaimed as she went from one image to another. The Minoans obviously loved nature. It was evident in the birds and flowers and monkeys and dolphins. All in brightly colored motion.

“This doesn’t look like any classical art I’ve ever seen,” the girl commented. “These people sure aren’t shy, are they?” The men in many of the frescoes were depicted wearing loincloths while the women wore dresses with open bodices, exposing their breasts.

Xenia
laughed. “That is true. They had a very frank attitude about the human body and did not consider it a source of shame.”

“It isn’t merely the mode of dress that distinguishes them from other ancient societies,”
Griffin
observed. “When one thinks of Babylonian, Egyptian or even Greek art, the style is angular, geometric, static. Here the style is fluid and graceful. Almost alive.” He paused to contemplate a picture of a blue bird at rest amidst flowers. “The difference in style is also reflected in a difference in subject matter.” He stood next to Cassie. “Look carefully and tell me what you don’t see in these images.”

“OK, here we go again.” The girl laughed.

“I’ll give you a hint. Think about the typical Greek pottery that you would find in museums. What scenes do they depict?”

Cassie paused to consider. “Usually some guy stabbing another guy with a sword.” She recalled
Griffin
’s earlier comment about the non-defensive location of the palace. The answer came to her more quickly this time. “I’ll go out on a limb and say that Minoan art doesn’t show a lot of violence?”

“No warfare, no struggle, no weapons of any kind,” the Scrivener affirmed. “All of the images you see at
Knossos
speak of the benevolence of nature and of human beings living in harmony with that benevolence.”

“Well, what about this one?” Cassie walked over to a fresco of what looked like a bull fight. “Here’s this guy grabbing a bull by the horns while another guy is jumping off the bull’s back and a third guy is standing behind. Isn’t that violent?”

Both
Xenia
and
Griffin
started laughing simultaneously.

“The guy, as you call him, who is grabbing the bull’s horns is actually a woman,” the young man said.

“Huh? How can you know that? Her chest looks pretty flat.”

“Based on the color of the skin,”
Griffin
explained. “Like the Egyptians, the Minoans distinguished between the sexes in their artwork by depicting women with white skins and men with reddish brown. We also know that bull-leaping was a sport in which both sexes participated.”

“So what’s she doing grabbing the horns, then?” Cassie was still mystified. “Is she trying to break the bull’s neck? Did the guy who’s positioned over the bull’s back get tossed?”

“Your assumptions show how much you have been influenced by overlord values,”
Xenia
remarked, still smiling. “The people in the picture are demonstrating their acrobatic skills. When the woman grasps the bull’s horns, he will instinctively lower his head and try to toss her. She will use the momentum to spring over the animal’s back and land behind him. The man depicted above the bull is doing a somersault and he will alight where the second woman is standing. She may be in position to catch him.”

Cassie was impressed. “I bet the Flying Wallendas never had the nerve to try a stunt like that. Jeez, it looks dangerous.”

“No doubt it was,” agreed
Griffin
. “Bull-leaping was practiced in ancient Anatolia and
India
long before the Minoans settled here. To this day a variation of it is still performed in the Basque region of
France
. In terms of a test of courage it seems much more sporting than bullfighting.”

“That is a hideous blood sport begun in
Spain
by the Romans.”
Xenia
’s voice was filled with disgust. “A small army of men on horseback torturing the animal for hours by stabbing him repeatedly until he is weak enough to be dispatched by a matador with a sword. You see the difference in the world view. Bull-leaping shows the unity of human and nature. Bullfighting shows the overlord desire to subdue and destroy nature.”

Griffin
tactfully tried to soothe her. “Perhaps it’s a sign of the times that bullfighting is rapidly falling out of favor with the public. It’s even been formally outlawed in many places.”

“The sooner the better,”
Xenia
growled. “Come, let us move on. We have more areas to search.”

The trove-keeper marched out of the fresco room.

It had just been an impression when she’d first met her, but now Cassie was sure that she didn’t want to be on
Xenia
’s bad side. It was a good thing no bullfighters were likely to cross her path today.
Griffin
suggested they give the trove-keeper a few minutes head start to allow her to cool down.

After waiting a discrete interval they caught up with her in a chamber that was called the throne room. When she saw them wander in,
Xenia
calmly moved on to a new topic. “This is quite incorrectly called the king’s throne room because of that chair.” She pointed to a carved alabaster seat fitted into the wall.

“Sir Arthur based his assumptions on the fact that the chair is centrally located ergo it must be a throne,”
Griffin
added. “And where you have a throne—“

“You automatically must have a king,” Cassie cut in. “That is if you were raised with overlord values.” She laughed. “Am I learning? I guess you were right when you told me how archaeologists sometimes don’t know what they’re looking at.” She turned to
Xenia
. “So what do you think this room was used for?”

“It is very likely a room where the high priestess would have conducted rituals. You see the basin there.” She pointed to a huge stone bowl on the floor. “That would be for libation offerings. Things like wine or oil.”

Xenia
shifted her attention to the wall behind the throne. She gave
Griffin
an amused look. “I should think this fresco would be your favorite.”

The Scrivener laughed.

Cassie looked from one to the other. “I don’t get it. What’s the joke?”

“Do you know what these creatures are?”
Xenia
asked the girl.

Cassie studied the figures. They were crouching or rather resting on all fours. They had animal bodies and the heads of birds. Like all the other frescoes of animals in the palace, they seemed light and joyful. The lines of their bodies were curved, not angular. Their heads were turned upward, the expression on their faces was soft and expectant.

The girl shrugged. “Don’t have a clue. What are they?”

“They are griffins,” the trove-keeper said.

Cassie looked doubtfully at
Xenia
. “They belong to
Griffin
?”

The young man laughed out loud. “No, not griffin’s possessive, griffins plural. These are mythical creatures with the heads of eagles and bodies of lions. They are called griffins.”

“According to ancient lore, griffins are often found protecting treasures of one sort or another,”
Xenia
explained.

“Guess you’re in the right line of work then,” Cassie observed to the young man.

“My parents were not unaware of the irony when they named me,”
Griffin
admitted.

The trio studied the walls of the throne room, searching for their elusive symbols to no avail.

“Where to next?” Cassie asked. Her neck was beginning to ache from looking up and down at so many walls.

“We haven’t paid a visit to the prince yet,”
Griffin
suggested.

Xenia
nodded.

Cassie followed them silently since they seemed to know exactly where they were going. Crossing the central court, they walked down a corridor until
Griffin
stopped before a picture of a youth with a feathered headdress set against a backdrop of lilies.

“Hey, lilies!” Cassie exclaimed, pointing excitedly at the fresco.

“This image has been called either a ‘Priest-King’ or the ‘Prince of Lilies,’”
Xenia
said.

“And he’s very famous,”
Griffin
added significantly.

“Why’s he famous?” Cassie didn’t see anything particularly noteworthy about the image. It looked typical of the other frescoes she had already seen.

“I would draw your attention to the skin tone,” the Scrivener suggested.

She noticed the white skin of the figure and remembered what she had been told about Minoan painting styles. Men were reddish brown and women were white. “Holy cow!” Cassie exclaimed. “It’s not a guy. It’s a girl!”