SANCTUARY QUARTER

809

Attention has been already called to the significance of this attachment
of the central Palace sanctuary to the cult of this Minoan Rhea, the tradition
of which survived on the site in that of her classical successor.1

There is a good deal of evidence that this section of the facade
bordered a part of the building specially devoted to religious usage. In
a small chamber immediately beyond the section of the old facade wall that
borders the area where the seal-impressions were found are the two large
cists that acted as the re-
positories of temple treasure
in the preceding M. M. Ill
Palace. That the tradition
of this dedication outlived
the great seismiccatastrophe
is shown, moreover, by the
smaller cists that were set
over the earlier ' Temple
Repositories '2 at the time
of the Restoration ; though
the sanctuary relics seem
to have been at this time
mainly transferred to an-
other treasury chamber.

At the back of the little
area described as the fore-hall of the shrine and the adjoining ' Room of
the Column Bases', a double opening gave entrance to the Eastern Pillar
Crypt, with its two vats for the overflow of libations poured before its central
support, and thence into the still darker vault beyond.

It will be seen that the little shrine of the Goddess fronted what had been
a distinct sanctuary area of the Palace, the religious character of the base-
ment remains being repeated, as we shall see, in that of the three-columned
Hall that lay above the Pillar Crypts. More than this, it will be found that
the principal cult objects derived from the Treasury Chamber of this
Sanctuary Hall—the libation vessels in the shape of lions' and lionesses'

Fig. 528. Seal-type from Deposit by Columnar
Shrine showing Minoan Rhea on Peak, with Guardian
Lions, Votary, and Shrine.

The

Shrine on
borders
of sanc-
tuary
quarter.

1 Diod. lib. v, c. 66. See p. 7 above.

- The section given in P. of M., i, p. 454,
Fig. 326, is much too low, only having been
taken up to the height of the topmost existing
step. The schist pavement is thus extended
East over an area really covered by steps 5-12.

The remains of the smaller intermediate
column-base had not then been recognized.
The pithos C in the section is called ' L. M. I',
but it must be preferably described as of tran-
sitional M. M. Ill e-L. M. I a fabric.