With some time to kill in Oxford. I recently paid a second visit to the Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality at the Ashmolean Museum. This exhibition explores, as the title suggests, the myths and realities of the palace of Knossos, its discovery and its people.

Split into four main sections, the exhibition delves into the ancient legends of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth of King Minos, followed by the search for and excavation of the real Palce of Knossos, followed by an exploration of the Minoan civilisation and their culture, and finishes with the destruction of the palace and the continuing story of the site, creating a connection to the Labyrinth abandoned after the Minotaur has been slain.

The first section opens with a spectacular life sized statue of the Minotaur as its centrepiece, with a short video telling the story of Theseus and his quest into the Labyrinth. This sets the tone for the original legends of the Labyrinth from Ancient Greece itself, explained via coins and tiles featuring the labyrinth, and vases, cups and artwork depicting Theseus, the Minotaur, Ariadne and other elements of the story. Also displayed in this section is a papyrus fragment of text of the Iliad concerning the Cretan hero Idomeneus fighting at Troy.

The gallery then moved into the historical Crete, descriptions of the island and the search for the Labyrinth by later travellers and archaeologists. This section featured maps and prints of Crete under the Venetians, and the earliest map of the island, with many of the place names still recognisable.

The end of this section moves into the discovery of Knossos in the 19th and 20th century. Initial focus is paid to Minos Kalokairinos, the Cretan archaeologist who conducted the first digs and excavations at Knossos, only to be vastly overshadowed by Arthur Evans. Alongside a lifesize photo of the man himself is one of the vast Pithos vases he discovered in his excavations, letters from his dispute with Evans and drawings he made of now lost artefacts.

While it is most fitting to include Kalokairinos in an exhibition delving into the myths and realities of Knossos, this gallery section then immediately undoes itself by then spending the rest of the space on Evans and his papers, drawings and notes. I imagine this is due to the significantly larger quantities of materials by and about Evans, due to his position as Keeper of the Ashmolean, that is available to the curators and exhibition designers in comparison with Kalokairinos, but this proved to be a somewhat missed opportunity.

We then move from legend and discovery into reality, with the remainder of the exhibition displaying artefacts from the Minoan civilization. A particular focus is on the every day life of the Minoans, with objects for cooking and dining, weaving and spinning equipment (providing a link back to the legend of Ariadne), weights, jewellery and other objects, drawn from the Ashmoleans own collection, as well as loans from Heraklion Archaeological Museum.

All of these object beautifully demonstrate the unique Minoan artistic style, and often featuring bull or animal imagery tying back to the Labyrinth and Minotaur. This section rounds off with replicas of artefacts from Knossos, including a wooden version of the “Throne of Ariadne” owned by Evans, and strikingly accurate 3d scanned and printed statues of the Snake Goddess.

Alongside these 3d replicas is footage of the Knossos and Labyrinth sections of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. Just as the exhibition opens with the earliest legends of the Labyrinth, it closes with the newest.

The exhibition isn’t quite done after this, with more artefacts from Minoan sites around Knossos, including objects from the supposed human sacrifice at Anemospilia and the cemetery at Poros. This is in addition to artefacts from later stages of Knossos’ occupation during the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods, indicating there is more to the Minoans than Knossos, and more to Knossos than the Minoans.

The actual end of the exhibition is a frankly bizarre video that seems to be a stream of words and natural imagery, provided by a computer generated monotone voice. I was baffled as to how this connected to the overarching theme of the exhibition and I am not likely to ever find out given I could only stand a few minutes of the cacophony. An odd ending to an otherwise excellent exhibition.