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The cellars underneath this palace, where the wine and the grain and the olive-oil were stored, had been so vast and had so greatly impressed the first Greek visitors, that they had given rise to the story of the "labyrinth," the name which we give to a structure with so many complicated passages that it is almost impossible to find our way out, once the front door has closed upon our frightened selves.
宮殿下面建有儲藏葡萄酒和橄欖油的地窖，每個都碩大無朋，給第一批前來參觀的古希臘游客留下過深刻印象。于是，他們據此創造了克里特"迷宮"的故事。迷宮常被我們用來形容一座有著許多復雜通道的建筑物，一旦其前門在我們身后重重地臺上時，我們將驚恐地發現自己找不到其它的出口。
But what finally became of this great Aegean Empire and what caused its sudden downfall, that I can not tell.
然而這個偉大島國最后究竟發生了什么，是何人何事導致了它突然的衰落？本人對此也一無所知。
The Cretans were familiar with the art of writing, but no one has yet been able to decipher their inscriptions. Their history therefore is unknown to us. We have to reconstruct the record of their adventures from the ruins which the Aegeans have left behind. These ruins make it clear that the Aegean world was suddenly conquered by a less civilised race which had recently come from the plains of northern Europe. Unless we are very much mistaken, the savages who were responsible for the destruction of the Cretan and the Aegean civilisation were none other than certain tribes of wandering shepherds who had just taken possession of the rocky peninsula between the Adriatic and the Aegean seas and who are known to us as Greeks.
克里特人精通書寫術，可迄今為止，還沒人能破譯他們留下的碑文。因此，我們無法熟悉其歷史，只能從愛琴海人存留的遺跡中，推測他們英雄業績的點點滴滴。那些廢墟表明，愛琴海人的世界是一夜 之間被來自歐洲北部平原的野蠻民族攻陷的。如果猜得沒錯，這個摧毀克里特人和愛琴海文明的野蠻種族就是剛剛占領亞得里亞海與愛琴海之間那個巖石半島的游牧部族，也即我們稱呼的古希臘人。
