Day Tripping - Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality

According to Ancient Greek legend, King Minos tasked Daedelus, the renowned craftsman and architect, to build an elaborate labyrinth beneath the palace of Knossos on the island of Crete to hold the ferocious minotaur, born to his wife Pasiphaë after her liaison with a bull. Knossos was discovered and excavated over a century ago by the British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans and Jon, Tony and I visited the site in May, 2022 (HERE). 

Much as we wanted to go back for his birthday, the direct flights to Crete don't resume until the spring, so we did the next best thing, we travelled to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for a major exhibition which launched on 10th February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality, the first in the UK to focus on Knossos and alongside discoveries from the Ashmolean's Sir Arthur Evans Archive there are also over a hundred artifacts which have never left Greece or Crete before.

We picked Tony up at 9am yesterday (Monday) morning, arriving at the city's Park & Ride at just after 11am. From there we hopped on a bus and arrived at the Ashmolean twenty minutes later.

The Ashmolean, opened in 1683 by Elias Ashmole (1617 - 1692), is widely believed to be the first modern museum.

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that I'd photographed several of these exhibits when we visited the Archeological Museum in Heraklion last year. In Greece the ancient artefacts are so plentiful you almost become immune to their charms, this smaller scale exhibition made us appreciate each and every one of them.

Remember my birthday trip (HERE) to the Picasso Museum in Malaga when I wrote of his fascination for the Minotaur? This is one of his many works depicting the fearsome beast.

The exhibition also includes "an exclusive experience of Knossos Palace from the acclaimed video game Assassin’s Creed Odyssey" which meant absolutely nothing to three old farts like us but we joined in anyway.

We ate in the Ashmolean's rooftop restaurant, enjoying the glorious blue skies and the stunning view across the dreaming spires of Oxford. The food was sublime and quite pricey but what the hell, life's for living.

Whilst I tucked into spinach gnocchi with wilted spinach, cashews, lemon & parsley pesto and toasted pumpkin seeds served on a beautifully colour-coordinated plate, the boys opted for the Ashmolean beef burger made from locally sourced beef with baby gem, beef tomato, crumbled Oxford blue cheese, apple ale & chilli relish served on a brioche style bun with chips. We toasted the birthday boy with a Cotswold craft ale.

After lunch it was time to explore the rest of the Ashmolean, although we'd probably have needed to spend a fortnight there to do the permanent collections justice.

The boys soon lost me amongst the ceramics - 17th Century Delft tiles, a Bernard Leach vase and more tiles by the Arts and Crafts god,William de Morgan...be still my beating heart!

17th Century ceramics from England, Poland and Italy. 

Then I fell in love with the jewellery worn by the Visigoths AD 478 - 721) and Ostrogoths (AD 469 - 553). That belt buckle with the blue stone has my name written all over it.

Spellbinding 16th and 17th Century art from the Low Countries.

Lots of wonderful Ancient statuary including the vengeful Greek goddess, Athena (see you soon, bab!) and the beautiful youth, Antinous, said to have been Roman Emperor Hadrian's lover and who drowned in the Nile before he was twenty.

We finished with a tour of Ancient Egypt.

We've not been able to visit the Egyptology section in Birmingham's Museum & Art Gallery for years (Covid and ongoing refurbishments) so it was exciting to wander around the exhibits at the Ashmolean.

My favourite thing in Brum is the mummified cat so I was happy to find another in Oxford.

Needless to say, it was impossible to exit through the gift shop without making a cheeky purchase.

As Tony had never visited The Cotswolds we took a detour through the picture postcard village of Woodstock on the way home.

If you're not familiar with Greek Mythology or you'd like to read about the legend of Minotaur retold from the often-overlooked woman's perspective, Jennifer Sant's Ariadne is a fantastic read. Abebooks, my go-to website for books, has secondhand copies from 83p! 

Sending loads of Valentine's Day love to you all!

See you soon.

PS Thanks so much to our friend Lynn for giving us the heads up on the exhibition. If you fancy seeing it for yourself, Labyrinth:Knossos, Myth and Reality runs until 30th July and you can buy tickets HERE.