which makes it all that more sad that it's closed for the next two
years. There is a temporary exhibit, that carries a few things (the
highlights of the main exhibit), but it wasn't the same.
It was fairly remarkable to see the shifting style of art--the
prehistoric Minoans used very bland lines--curvy figures that only
looked human if you were comparing it to a lizard. Which is fine--I
think the same of some south American art. The Minoans use a lot of
bulls, snakes and dolphins in their art. I suppose there are a lot of
dolphins in the waters--and they are well respected. I wonder if they
ever tried to catch one? How would you go about catching a dolphin if
you were a prehistoric semi-caveman? You wouldn't want to kill it--I'm
sure they recognized the natural beauty and intelligence of the
animals. But could you lure it over? The big problem would be getting
a net. Ropes in the old days were probably not very waterproof and
hard to come by. (I muse over this as I anticipate I may be stranded
in a cave someday, in either a recreation of Lost, as justice for not
having watched it, or a Cast-away like adventure. And of course I'll
need a pet dolphin if I am stranded). In any event, it was a pretty
cool museum.
Follow up the museum with the actual place--The Palace of Knossos! We
drove out there (now with Papa Wheeler in tow, fresh off the boat...
or plane, in this case) and walked around the old site. They don't
have much info about it. Some bloke Evans went and tried to
reconstruct the palace as he imagined it had looked in the early 20th
century, and laid down cement slabs and rebuilt frescoes and
everything. It made a bit of a mess of it all, and they weren't very
sure about any of it in the firs place. I felt Evans went overboard in
a few places--for instace, in one place he says is looks like a
theater, and called the corner the theater. Well, with a less active
imagination and a bit more logic, what I saw in the same spot was a
bunch of shallow steps you'd have a tough time sitting on for more
than ten minutes--a poor theater if ever there was one. But Evans
"discovered" Knossos, and cemented over everything before anyone could
disagree, so his definition stands. Very well. We decided to not get a
tour guide, so I acted as the tour guide for the Wheeler party,
describing vistas and storehouses as I saw fit (drawing liberally from
the posted signs). It was a riot! (Not to be confused with what's
going on in Athens, though...)
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