EARLY MINOAN SHIPPING

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shaped like some great saurian, with trailing tail and a monster's head pro-
truding from its angular shoulders, as if in eternal pursuit of the rocky islet of
Paximadi that rises like a swimming tortoise beyond. But the six miles'

Fig. 135. View of Dia and Islet of Paximadi from Candia. By Theodore Fyfe.

interval that separates its nearest point from the shore is too great to allow
much protection on that side. Unquestionably, however, as already pointed
out,1 this desolate island—the legendary stranding place of Ariadne—has in all
ages performed a very real function as a place of refuge for shipping against
the Northern blasts. In its two principal coves there are some slight traces of
Minoan habitation,2 though to-day its rocky heights and rock-strewn glens can
only give sustenance to rabbits and a few stray goats.

The peak of Juktas, rising immediately behind the site of Knossos,
certainly affords a most conspicuous goal for mariners, marking from far out
to sea the point where the little river debouches into its sandy cove.

- a b

Fig. 136. Sailing Vessels on Seal-stones of the Close of the Early Minoan Age.

Of the ships themselves, either drawn up along the river-mouth or
anchored in the roads, we obtain summary glimpses on Minoan seals and on Ships on
clay documents both of the hieroglyphic series and of the earlier and later class ^"ls3"
with the advanced linear signs. Specimens have been already given taken

1 P. of M., i, pp. 298, 299.

2 See loc. cit., p. 2c