These were in fact the wanderings of the heroes, the
period of _Sturm und Drang_ which succeeded the great civilized epoch of
Minos and his thalassocracy, of Knossos, Phaistos, and the Keftius.
On the walls of the temple of Medinet Habu, Ramses III depicted the
portraits of the conquered heroes who had fallen before the Egyptian
onslaught, and he called them heroes, _tuher_ in Egyptian, fully
recognizing their Berserker gallantry. Above all in interest are the
portraits of the Philistines, those Greeks who at this very time seized
part of Palestine (which takes its name from them), and continued to
exist there as a separate people (like the Normans in France) for at
least two centuries. Goliath the giant was, then, a Greek; certainly he
was of Cretan descent, and so a Pelasgian.
Such are the conclusions to which modern discovery in Crete has impelled
us with regard to the pictures of the Keftiu at Shekh 'Abd el-Kurna. It
is indeed a new chapter in the history of the relations of ancient Egypt
with the outside world that Dr. Arthur Evans has opened for us. And in
this connection some American work must not be overlooked. An expedition
sent out by the University of Pennsylvania, under Miss Harriet Boyd,
has discovered much of importance to Mycenaean study in the ruins of an
ancient town at Gournia in Crete, east of Knossos.
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