PARTISAN REVIEW
had handed them to me, in order that I could offer them to the
ladies. Here w.as proof, better than proof itself, of my divine origin
and my good standing with the god.
After this, Minos gave me back my sword.
Soon afterwards chariots bore us off on the road to Cnossos.
v
I was so overwhelmed by fatigue that I could hardly feel due
astonishment at the great courtyard of the palace, or at a monumental
balustraded staircase and the winding corridors through which at–
tentive servants, torch in hand, guided me to the second floor, where
a room had been set apart for me. All but one of its many lamps
were snuffed out after I arrived. The bed was scented and soft;
when they left me, I fell at once into a heavy sleep which lasted until
the evening of the following day, although I had already slept during
our long journey; for only at dawn, after traveling
all
night, had
we arrived at Cnossos.
I am by no means a cosmopolitan. At the court of Minos I
realized for the first time that I was Greek, and I felt very far from
home. All unfamiliar things took me by surprise-dress, customs,
ways of behaving, furniture, (in my father's house we were short of
furniture), household objects and the manner of their use. Among
so much that was exquiste, I felt like a savage, and my awkwardness
was redoubled when people began smiling at my conduct. I had
been used to biting my way through my food, lifting it to my mouth
in my fingers, and these delicate forks of metal or wrought gold, these
knives which they use for cutting meat, gave me more trouble than
the heaviest weapons of war. People couldn't take their eyes off me;
and when I had to talk I appeared a still greater oaf. God! How out
of place I felt! Only on my own have I ever been good for anything:
now for the first time I was in society.
It
was no longer a question
of fighting, or carrying .a thing through by main force, but rather
of giving pleasure; and of this I had strangely little experience.
I sat, .at table, between the two princesses. A simple family meal,
without formality, I was told. And in fact, apart from Minos and
the queen, Rhadamanthus, the king's brother, the two princesses
and their young brother Glaucus, there was nobody except the tutor
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