Ancient Whisperings

Apart from the Athenian Acropolis, Knossos is one of the most iconic archaeological sites – remnants of a kingdom with a 4,000-year history.

Five kilometres southeast of Heraklion lies what remains of an ancient city and palace. Stone for stone, Knossos was a match for any of Europe’s first civilizations. Whispers of its 4,000-year-old history still echo. Farmers, shepherds, merchants, sailors, astronomers, architects and scribes lend their voices to this dirge, recounting the kingdom’s former happiness. Artists worshipped the mother goddess –nature– painting her in brilliant colours. Great Minoan craftspeople masterfully worked gold, metal, glass, agate and faience, creating works of intangible beauty. Women and men adorned themselves in finery, played sports, danced, celebrated and dined at the same tables. The people of Knossos built an ancient wonder that still captivates the imagination of visitors today. With five storeys and 1,500 rooms, inhabitants darted through the palace like buzzing bees, racing in and out of courtyards, corridors, royal apartments, sanctuaries, baths and overflowing storerooms. The labyrinth of Knossos birthed the myth of the minotaur, though no monster was ever a prisoner within its walls. Free people built this wonder that still captivates visitors today.

“The extraordinary murals passed again before my sight: large almond-shaped eyes, cascades of black tresses, imposing matrons with bare breasts and thick voluptuous lips, birds –pheasant and partridge–, blue monkeys, princes with peacock feathers in their hair, fierce holy bulls, tender-aged priestesses with sacred snakes wrapped around their arms, blue boys in flowering gardens. Joy, strength, great wealth; a world full of mystery, an Atlantis which had issued from the depths of the Cretan soil. This world looked at us with immense black eyes, but its lips were still sealed. What kind of world is this? I asked myself. When will it open its lips and speak? What feats did these forebears accomplish here on the very soil we are now treading?”

NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS
“Report to Greco”, transl. P. Bien