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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.
宫殿下面建有储藏葡萄酒和橄榄油的地窖，每个都硕大无朋，给第一批前来参观的古希腊游客留下过深刻印象。于是，他们据此创造了克里特"迷宫"的故事。迷宫常被我们用来形容一座有着许多复杂通道的建筑物，一旦其前门在我们身后重重地台上时，我们将惊恐地发现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.
然而这个伟大岛国最后究竟发生了什么，是何人何事导致了它突然的衰落？本人对此也一无所知。
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.
克里特人精通书写术，可迄今为止，还没人能破译他们留下的碑文。因此，我们无法熟悉其历史，只能从爱琴海人存留的遗迹中，推测他们英雄业绩的点点滴滴。那些废墟表明，爱琴海人的世界是一夜 之间被来自欧洲北部平原的野蛮民族攻陷的。如果猜得没错，这个摧毁克里特人和爱琴海文明的野蛮种族就是刚刚占领亚得里亚海与爱琴海之间那个岩石半岛的游牧部族，也即我们称呼的古希腊人。
