ABSTRACT

Out in the middle of the wine-dark sea there is a land called Crete, a rich and lovely land, washed by the sea on every side; and in it are many peoples and ninety cities. There, one language mingles with another. In it are Achaeans, great-hearted native Cretans, Kydonians and Dorians in three tribes and noble Pelasgians. Among these [ninety Cretan] cities is Knossos, a great city; and there Minos was nine years king, the boon companion of mighty Zeus.