Minos, man or a myth?
determined to uncover more and bought the land three years later. on digging, he came upon the remains of what he described as ‘the throne room of Minos’ and gave ‘Minoan’ civilisation its name. He spent the rest of his life bringing to light the famous 3,500-year-old palace.
restorations give a vivid impression of what it must have looked like, and frescoes show bulls to have held a particularly prominent place in ancient Crete, explaining the myth of the minotaur. Yet little is known about King Minos.
Legends of Crete and greece are incredibly twisted and convoluted, with Minos being a character about whom many historical witnesses speak, but whose figure was revised from the legend and therefore became symbolic.
Emilie Lamplough, trowbridge, Wilts.
QUESTION
Why aren’t British-built cars produced with steering column gear change like they are in the U.S. and Australia? Are floor change gear systems more efficient than the steering column change? iN tHE Fifties and sixties, Austin, Morris, Vauxhall and Wolseley all produced models with steering column gear change. the first Vauxhall Victors were column change.
in the early sixties, i was in the traffic department in Exeter police when there were Morris cars with both systems. i found no difficulty with either system, but the reason for going back to floor change for the main producers was complications in engineering. Sydney Rowsell, Exeter. i’VE been driving for more than 50 years and haven’t seen or driven a manual column change for 40. A column shift is these days normally used on automatic gearboxes. the problems with column shifts, both manual and automatic, are the many linkages between the lever and the gearbox. When these wear, they can be a nightmare to change because of accessibility. A direct link from floor mounted lever to gearbox is easier and cheaper to install and repair. John C. Kent, London SW6.
QUESTION
Have any British footballers plied their trade in South America? FurtHEr to earlier answers, Jack greenwell (1884-1942), a former miner from Durham, played for Barcelona from 1912 to 1916. After managing several spanish sides including Barca and Valencia, he moved to Peru where he managed universitario de Deportes and the Peru national side, taking them to victory in the 1939 Copa America.
He finished his career at independiente santa Fe, Bogota, Colombia, where he died of a heart attack during a training session. Jim Butler, Durham.
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