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Did the ancient people (1) in Bronze Age Crete know about the phi spiral? Knowing so much about geometry, perhaps they did. One of the pictographs on the disk is an equilateral triangle. (2) With 20 dots inside, does it mean icosahedron, the platonic solid made of 20 triangles? (3) The shields (4) on the disk each have seven dots in the shape of a hexagram. Does this reference another Platonic solid, the hexahedron? Other symbols on the disk seem somehow related to geometry. (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) Remembering that the disk comes from a place with "phi" as part of its name - Phi-stos - (which the Greeks pronounce "fes-tos") the question arises, "Did the people there study the principles of phi and did they identify Platonic solids 1200 years before the birth of Plato?" I believe they were actively pursuing knowledge of the sciences of geometry and astronomy and, at the same time, expressing their ideas and discoveries within the context of art.

This vase pictograph, for example, is so similar to this vase excavated at Phaistos. Noticably on the vase is a spiral and a design resembling the symbol for fthe Greek letter Phi. (Click the vase for a larger view.)

The word miracle, from the old Latin word miraculum, means something wonderful and involves the divine intervention of a supernatural being with the power to overturn the ordinary course of events or circumstances dictated by nature. We usually identify this supernatural being as an angel, a winged being, and it is possible this was always the case. Whenever a miracle occurs, humanity identifies the power behind it as having wings. This could explain why mythology tells of the invention of wings by Daedalus, and it could also explain why, in mythology, Daedalus is sometimes elevated to the level of god in association with Dionysis of Crete. But something that qualified as a miracle in the Mediterranean Bronze Age might be something we take for granted in our own time.

When did humanity first conceive of the four dimensions of length, width, height and time? What about the first three dimensions? Was there a time in the evolution of human consciousness when the realization of height as the third dimension amounted to a miracle? Perhaps humanity experienced the third dimension by looking up into the stars and thinking, "Heaven and eternal life are up there and it takes wings to be there." This all must be in the processing of occurring because even as intellectually advanced as we claim to be in our modern era, it seems when looking at the two-dimensional image of the Phaistos Disk we unanimously see only the dimension of width. The other dimensions are there but we do not automatically see them right away.

First question we ask, "How big is it?" We think it must be really big to have all those pictographs on it. No, it is only a little over six inches wide, the size of a small plate or a little bigger than a CD. "Well, what about the spirals? Do we start in the center spiraling out or on the outside spiraling in?" It is round so we do not see length as a dimension, but instead our minds go for the spirals and focus on the pictographs in the spirals. "What do the pictographs say? Is it a language?" Like young Greeks, we cast ourselves into the maze and become lost in there. If Daedalus does not invent wings for us, we will never escape.

It is not easy to realize that, by our observation of this disk, we bring with us the third dimension of height, and this is probably because of the missing second dimension of length. It seems our minds need length and width to arrive at height, and perhaps this is the point of the story of Icarus who escaped the maze by flying out of it. Big thoughts in the Bronze Age might be about the conception of heighth as a third dimension, thoughts big enough to engender a mythology about the person who "invented" it, big enough to be considered a miracle and the person who delivered it to be considered a divine being. Have we not, in our own time, elevated Einstein almost to that status on account of his contributions regarding the fourth dimension? Mythology tells us Daedalus and Icarus were trapped in the maze. They could not escape its length and its width and so there was nowhere to go but height. There was nowhere to go but up.

After a few days of spiraling around and around this way, trying to travel the maze and read the pictographs like sentences in an ancient script, I changed to the other way of looking at it, which is looking down onto it. In our modern vernacular, viewing the Phaistos Disk from inside the spirals is a case of, "You can't see the forest for the trees," and this is the secret to the solution of this maze. You need to fly above it like Icarus to really see it. This maze is further complicated by the entire disk being on flip sides of the same clay "coin," but this was ingenious on the part of Daedalus because it kept the two sections intact for 3,600 years. The two sides have to be placed side-by-side to see what it is all about. Looking down onto it seems better, to me, than running around lost inside it and finding only dead ends. Needing some guidance as to what to do, I heeded the legend of Icarus, who escaped the maze by flying above it, and by doing so I found the third dimension of height as well as an image that Daedalus invented.

Distributed in the spirals are 240 pictographs that many linguists insist are an ancient script. These signs were all impressed onto the clay disk with tiny clay stamps. 48 stamps were used, 37 of which are repeated, 11 are single imprints. With the disk only a little bigger than a CD, imagine how tiny the 48 stamps were that impressed 240 pictographs (121 one side, 119 the other). 48 just happens to be the number of the constellations the Greek astronomer Ptolemy lists in the Almagest in the second century C.E., and from the ancient Greeks comes our system of constellations that they apparently got from the Minoans. But then arises the question, did the Minoans originate this astronomy or was it borrowed from the Bablylonians and the Sumerians? I believe the Phaistos Disk provides the missing link that proves the Minoans were excellent astronomers in their own right. So excellent, in fact, that according to their own confession that seems portrayed on the disk, at least whimsically anyway, they brought about the Minoan eruption and the tsunami with their excellent, but offensive, science and technology.

I started with the pictograph that first caught my attention (left) and noticed that, depending on how you view the disk, this pictograph appears in an upright position and looks like a pyramid. It takes up less room on the disk if it is in a vertical position rather than horizontal, and I thought that perhaps Daedalus was trying to conserve space. Side one of the disk contains 6 of these. I wondered what would happen if I connected them with lines, like connect-the-dots, since they are all identical. When I did that, I was astonished to find a pyramid.

No longer was the disk just wide, but now I could experience length and height, and my mind soared like Icarus flying above the maze. Is this what he saw when he flew so high that the sun melted his wings? Maybe this is what Theseus/Iasius saw from the Argo as he sailed the heaven-ocean to land in Crete and battle the Minotaur, as portrayed in the Maze of Daedalus tile mosaic. The convergence of those two mazes continues, square Maze of Daedalus and round Phaistos Disk maze, as they now both portray pyramids, one an interior view and one an exterior view. But the Phaistos Disk conceals a pyramid with an interior view, as well.

The thought occurred to me this could be the Great Pyramid, and I was convinced this disk pyramid was not random coincidence. With Crete so close to Egypt, and with the world's tallest structure for 4,000 years in Egypt, built nearly 1,000 years before the disk was created, it does not seem far-fetched to imagine that Daedalus would put Cheops on a clay disk. Our fascination with the Great Pyramid never ends. Nearly every person who sees it takes a picture of it. Daedalus, lacking a camera but wanting to preserve an image of it for posterity, could have put it on this clay disk.

I wondered what else Daedalus put on the disk for posterity or for whatever reasons he had for creating it. Perhaps some cataclysmic event urged him to create this pottery art masterpiece, something catastrophic such as the Minoan eruption and tsunami. This masterpiece, created with an early printing press technology to record information, is truly remarkable. Like a CD, it allows something very small to contain a great deal of information, in this case about a "lost" civilization. And if the pictographs on the disk were used like symbols were once used in antiquity, to represent more than one idea or thing, the information contained on the disk could be extensive even though the media itself is very small. If the information is really recorded there, I reasoned, then the discovery of it would be the educational experience of a lifetime. With that in mind, I set out on an educational journey lasting the next 15 years of my life. With a Master of Science for Teachers degree in English Education and a concentration in myth and saga (1976, Georgia Southern University), I enrolled in the Phaistos Disk University to continue my education.

From my perspective, to study the Phaistos Disk is to study the universe and humanity's place within it via the perspective of the first scholarly metaphysicians, the Minoan astronomer-priests. Their studies, much elevated beyond the simple mythologies of the time, were also beyond the understanding and interest of most of the people of their age, and this is nearly always the case with metaphysics. But on the Phaistos Disk may be recorded something unique, a cataclysmic event described in terms of metaphysics. The nearest thing we have to this is the Biblical story of Noah's Ark and the Great Flood, and there is some possibility the Minoan eruption and tsunami engendered that story, as well as the legend of the destruction of Atlantis. The Phaistos Disk might well be the Great Flood artifact and it may also be linked to the Biblical Tower of Babel story.

WAVE SPIRAL AS THE DIMENSION OF TIME

I found the wave spiral and solved the maze by removing the disk pictographs from the transparencies so that only the spirals and line segments were visible. Then I placed the two sides together at the matching line segments and merged them by overlaying the perfectly aligned line segments.

Wave spirals and Figure 8 shields in the art of Minoan Crete.

The two sides of the disk connected create a flowing figure 8 wave spiral that moves uninterrupted from the center of one side of the disk to the other and back again and incorporates all parts of the spiral. It may also represent the tsunami that behaved in exactly the same way - it moved in an uninterrupted path to the northern shores of Crete, consumed the life there, and then withdrew following the same path. The interpretation might have been that the tsunami, brought about by an angry goddess, was patterned on the movement of her eternal heaven-ocean and spiral of creation.

Try this with your cursor. Start at the center of side one of the disk and follow the spiral to the other side and back again. You will travel in a figure 8. If you are a Greek caught in the maze and running from the Minotaur, you are also caught in this inescapable Phaistos Disk Maze of Daedalus, but at least you have some running room, thanks to infinity. If you are Theseus/Iasius, you can escape by flying away in the Argo to sail upon this eternal heaven-ocean. This symbol of infinity perhaps represents the fourth dimension of time. It is usually drawn this way (right) but it lacks the inner spirals. It would truly be remarkable if the Phaistos Disk also evidenced the Minoans concept of four dimensions.

These wave spirals are found throughout the architecture of Minoan Crete, and whatever they represented to the Minoans must have made the tsunami into something like a prophecy fulfilled. At the very least they gave to a massive wave an apocalyptic meaning. (left, Minoan vases with wave spirals and figure 8 shields, right, Figure 8 shields on walls in Palace of Knossos)

Origins of the Phaistos Disk

This disk comes from Minoan Crete, the ancient civilization famous for the Maze of Daedalus and for naming our constellations. The disk is only 6-1/4" in diameter and 1" thick. It was found in 1908 at Phaistos, Crete, beside a tablet of Linear A writing of ancient Crete. The disk delivers complex information in a simple way. Based on the Minoan love of mazes and the ancient method of forming constellations by connecting stars with lines, the disk conceals the constellation Argo and other related images that are revealed when identical pictographs are connected by lines.

Taking a clue from this pictograph (left, man holding a shield with tiny circles in the shape of a hexagram), the connect-the-dots approach of viewing the disk reveals in total eight significant and complex images, as well as numerous simple geometries, that are concealed on the disk.

Concealed on the disk and revealed by connecting identical pictographs with lines are: pentagram inside a heptagon (possibly Sirius and seven planets), constellation Argo, exterior view of a pyramid, interior view of a pyramid, and triangle inside two pentagons (possibly sacred cave). The Pleiades may also be recorded on this disk. Tracings of the two sides of the disk placed side-by-side reveal two mazes, one in the shape of a Minoan wave spiral and the other, when the sides are overlaid at the identical connecting line segments, a maze in the shape of a Minoan figure 8 shield.

How the Disk was Made - The God Khnum-Ra

In ancient Egypt the god Khnum, one of the earliest gods, made the Ba or human bodies of children from clay on his potter's wheel. He also placed them in their mother' womb. This accounted for the origin of the human body of an individual, which came from out of this god. He was the consort of Heket, who breathed life into the children at birth. He was also thought of as the creator of other gods, so he became identified as the Ba of Ra, the human counterpart of the higher divine self or Ka. Ba was also the world for Ram (left, Phaistos Disk pictograph). The creator of the Phaistos Disk was perhaps embodying the spirit of Khnum-Ra when at the potter's wheel creating the disk.

Phaistos Disk, Side 1

As you can see, the pictographs on the disk appear to be identical. As example, the shields (left) that appear fifteen times on this side of the disk are clearly intended to be identical. The same is true for all the pictographs that are apparently identical. Therefore, an assumption was made and widely accepted by all who study the disk that the pictographs were made with tiny stamps pressed into the clay disk. This would also conveniently account for raised pictographs on the disk. As they were stamped into the wet clay, the pictographs were created raised above the disk, making the disk itself into a kind of stamp.

In many cases the pictographs are both raised above the disk and merged with it. In some cases they appear to be pressed into it. Still, how else could the pictographs be elevated above the disk in such a way and how else could the pictographs be made to be identical? The answer has to be use of an early printing press technology in the form of tiny pre-made stamps. But this theory, accepted for so many years by so many people, is incorrect.

Phaistos Disk Tracing, Side 1, Color Coded

The printing press theory of using tiny stamps to the create the disk is incorrect. Nor did the stamp theory ever explain the presence of the elevated spirals on both sides of the disk. The pictographs left, cropped from an enlarged bmp image of the disk, show the pictographs were intended by its creater to be identical but are not absolutely identical because the disk creator lacked the rudimentary printing press technology that has long been ascribed to the creation of the Phaistos Disk.

As the disk is only a little larger than a CD, the pictographs on the disk are tiny. When these two pictographs are reduced to a size that might appear on the disk, they do become "identical." But when they are enlarged they are obviously the same but not identical.

I cropped all the pictographs on the disk and displayed them so you can see that not a single one of them is identical to another. Obviously, a very good artist created these pictographs and this disk (see the table below). Only a good artist working in the genre of miniature art could create 241 individual pictographs to appear to be identical. It is very likely the artist excelled in the genre of miniature art during the Minoan period where art miniaturization which was so very popular.

Miniature art in Minoan Crete included statues, figurines, ritual groups (below, left), incense burners, housewares, signet rings, shrine figurines, miniature goddesses, wagons (left), swings (right), shields, dresses, hats, hut urns (below) and much more.

So, the artist created 241 individual miniature pictographs. How did the artist get them onto the disk and why do the pictographs need to be identical? If an artist is making 241 pictographs to go onto a disk, then why would not the artist create unique pictographs? Ten of the pictographs on the disk are unique. Why hand-create 231 pictographs to look exactly like other pictographs? If the disk was intended to contain a language script, why not etch that script into the disk rather than make so many tiny pictographs? But it seems the artist wanted to make identical miniature pictographs.

If the artist had the idea and the knowledge to create unique stamps, then obviously s/he would have done so, if for no other reason than to make the pictographs truly identical and also to save a monumental amount of time. Therefore, printing press technology in the form of tiny stamps into clay was not known at this time or, if it was known, this particular artist did not know it. There is also the possiblity that the stamp technology was known but did not work well impressed into clay.

So how was it made? Here is my theory. The artist of the Phaistos Disk made at least 10 to 20 sketches of the disk designs prior to creating it. Perhaps the sketches were made using papyrus or perhaps they were simply drawn into sand. Maybe they were created as other Phaistos Disks but did not come out right so were destroyed and the attempts continued until this disk was finally created satisfactorily to the artist. Below are the four main sketches made the artist prior to creating the Phaistos Disk.

After the artist made the sketches, s/he created the 241 miniature pictographs from clay and set them aside. Then the round disk was created from the same batch of clay and then the artist lightly etched the spiral designs into both sides of the wet clay disk. Next, the artist pressed the pictographs onto one side of the disk in exact locations, following the pre-made sketches. When one side of the disk was finished it was turned over and laid down so those pictographs were pressed into the wet clay as the other side was being completed. Then the disk was turned again to lay on the second side and press those pictographs into the clay. The artist then made fine lines of clay for the spirals and placed them onto the disk one side at a time along the patterns already etched into the disk. (Below, Phaistos Disk with both spirals removed and only the pictographs showing.)

Alternately, the artist may have created a way to elevate the disk while working on it. Depending on the wetness of the clay disk, the artist had a time frame to create it of probably two to 8 hours. This method of creating the disk also explains why the artist baked it rather than sun dried it, as baking it would ensure the pictographs were permanently merged with the clay disk. In the process of making the disk, many of the pictographs were unevenly merged into the disk and a close inspection of the disk shows smudging, particularly around the outer edges, indicating the disk may have taken some damage during this process or either the method of holding the disk upright left smudges along the edges. This method of making the Phaistos Disk seems very likely to me, especially since I have an idea of why the artist needed the pictographs to seem identical.

The Phaistos Disk is a pottery art masterpiece and is, at the very least, an artist's triumph in the genre of miniaturization. Not only the pictographs are miniatures but also the disk itself is intended, I believe, to be a miniature Figure 8 Shield. Each side of the disk is a face of the shield, upper and lower, and on both faces are more designs so that the Figure 8 Shield itself is a world disk in miniature. The Phaistos Disk may have been intended as a shield design to create a shield. (Left, pictograph of the warrior holding the disk/shield)

PHAISTOS DISK PICTOGRAPHS
With Locations on the Disk

Line segments are counted from the center of each side, spiraling out

These images are cropped from the disk. Each set of images are the same in that they are intended to be identical, but they are not identical. They were not made with tiny stamps but created by an artist so accomplished at minature art that we believed them to be exactly identical as though made by a printing press technology.

4 Sun/Flower, Helios, Eight, Vertex, Dodona 3 Side A, Positions - 1, 13, 76, Segments - A1, 4, 19 1 Side B, Position - 72, Segment - B19

2 Astronomer-Priest, Argonaut, Sailor, Minyae, Oracle, Divine Curete 2 Side A, Positions - 2, 14, Segments - A1, 4 0 Side B

4 Oar, Argonauts, Minyae, Minyaens 4 Side A, Positions - 3, 15, 46, 71, Segments - A1, 4, 11, 18 0 Side B

11 Runner, Olympic Runner, Herakles, Hermes 6 Side A, Positions - 4, 19, 41, 66, 84, 118, Segments - A2, 6, 10, 17, 20, 30 5 Side B, Position - 51, 60, 71, 88, 94, Segment - B14, 16, 19, 23, 24

6 Spindle for Cloth 3 Side A, Positions - 5, 20, 119, Segments - A2, 6, 30 3 Side B, Position - 44, 89, 95, Segment - B12, 23, 24

2 Maze, Palace, House of the God, Three 2 Side A, Positions - 6, 56, Segments - A3, 15 0 Side B

4 Thistle, Thyrsoi, Festival, Wand with Pine Cone 2 Side A, Positions - 7, 57, Segments - A3, 15 2 Side B, Position - 85, 109, Segment - B22, 28

11 Tree, Sacred Oak, Plant, Five 5 Side A, Positions - 8, 16, 57, 85, 90 , Segments - A3, 5, 15, 21, 22 6 Side B, Positions - 9, 29, 58, 66, 79, 111, Segments - B3, 8, 15, 18, 21, 29

15 Golden Fleece 10 Side A, Positions - 9, 10, 30, 34, 47, 58, 59, 72, 99, 103, Segments - A3, 3, 9, 9, 12, 15, 15, 19, 24, 25 5 Side B, Positions - 35, 52, 74, 104, 114, Segments - B9, 14, 19, 27, 29

17 Bronze Shield, Hexagram, Hexahedron 15 Side A, Positions - 11, 21, 23, 35, 39, 51, 60, 64, 79, 88, 95, 100, 106, 114, 120, Segments - A3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30 2 Side B, Positions - 100, 118, Segments - B26, 30

19 Minyae, Headdress, Crested Dancer, Armed Dancer 14 Side A, Positions - 12, 22, 36, 40, 48, 52, 61, 65, 73, 80, 89, 96, 107, 121, Segments - A3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 26, 30 5 Side B, Positions - 11, 54, 78, 110, 119, Segments - B3, 14, 20, 28, 30

3 Crossroad, Paved Road, Adjacent Angle 3 Side A, Positions - 17, 26, 86, Segments - A5, 9, 21

9 Pillar, Hammer, Awl, Carpentry, Leatherworking 5 Side A, Positions - 18, 44, 53, 69, 77, Segments - A5, 12, 14, 18, 19, 4 Side B, Positions - 4, 24, 98, 108, Segments - B2, 6, 25, 26

6 Horn, Serpent, Fire, Rising 5 Side A, Positions - 24, 37, 49, 62, 91 , Segments - A7, 10, 13, 16, 22 1 Side B, Positions - 77, Segments - B20

5 Vulture, Icarus 5 Side A, Positions - 25, 38, 50, 63, 92, Segments - A7, 10, 13, 16, 22 0 Side B

1 Hat, Hill, Pyramid, Mt. Ida 1 Side A, Positions - 27, Segments - A8 0 Side B

12 Pyramid, Vault 6 Side A, Positions - 28, 31, 43, 68, 93, 117, Segments - A8, 9, 12, 18, 23, 30 6 Side B, Positions - 13, 23, 30, 63, 87, 97, Segments - 4, 6, 8, 17, 23, 25

4 Mother, Isis/Rhea, Earth Mother 2 Side A, Positions - 29, 94, Segments - A8, 23 2 Side B, Positions - 10, 59, Segments - B3, 15

3 Falcon on the Perch, Bird, Partridge, Dove 2 Side A, Positions - 32, 78, Segments - A9, 19 1 Side B, Positions - 57 , Segments - B15

2 > Yoke 1 Side A, Positions - 33, Segments - A9 1 Side B, Positions - 64 , Segments - B17

2 Hoof, Bull's Foot 2 Side A, Positions - 42, 67, Segments - A11, 17

7 Boat, Skiff 2 Side A, Positions - 46, 71, Segments - A12, 18 5 Side B, Positions - 3, 32, 73, 83, 105, Segments - B2, 9, 19, 22, 27

6 Sharpsnout Fish 2 Side A, Positions - 54, 90, Segments - A14, 26 4 Side B, Positions - 55, 61, 92, 103, Segments - B15, 16, 24, 26

1 Crab 1 Side A, Positions - 74, Segments - B18 0 Side B

4 Grass, Marshes 1 Side A, Positions - 75, Segments - B18 3 Side B, Positions - 14, 56, 93 , Segments - B4, 15, 24

18 Star/Seed, Pomegranate, Fruit, Star 3 Side A, Positions - 79, 87, 97, Segments - A20, 25, 28 15 Side B, Positions - 1, 7, 12, 18, 25, 26, 28, 31, 37, 41, 48, 82, 90, 112, 115, Segments - B1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 21, 23, 29, 30

6 Casket, Coffin Chest 1 Side A, Positions - 82, 105, 115, Segments - A24 3 Side B, Positions - 75, 80, 118 , Segments - B20, 21, 30

2 Roll Up, Baby, Rock wrapped as a baby 2 Side A, Positions - 81, 85, Segments - A20, 21 0 Side B

5 Fingers, Dactyls, 5 Divine Curetes, Hand 1 Side A, Positions - 97, Segments - A24 4 Side B, Positions - 17, 36, 45, 47, Segments - B5, 10, 12, 12, 13

1 Pig, Sow 1 Side A, Positions - 98, Segments - A24 0 Side B

6 Wave, Water, Aegean Sea 2 Side A, Positions - 102, 112 , Segments - A25, 28 4 Side B, Positions - 2, 27, 42, 113 , Segments - B1, 7, 11, 29

1 Father, Warrior, Dactyloi, Orion with the Pleiades hanging from the belt, Ares, Planet Mars 1 Side A, Positions - 106, Segments - A26 0 Side B

1 Dog Scratching, Big Dog, Canis Major 1 Side A, Positions - 108, Segments - A27 0 Side B

10 Lioness 2 Side A, Positions - 109, 112, Segments - A27, 28 8 Side B, Positions - 6, 20, 39, 43, 46, 50, 62, 70 , Segments - B2, 5, 10, 11,12,13, 16, 18

1 Lion Roar 1 Side A, Positions - 110, Segments - A27 0 Side B

6 Palenquin, Temple 1 Side A, Positions - 116, Segments - A29 5 Side B, Positions - 22, 68, 69, 81, 102 , Segments - B6, 18, 18, 21, 26

2 Ivy, Heart of Dionysis 0 Side A, 2 Side B, Positions - 5, 34, Segments - B2, 9

2 Hoe, Scepter 0 Side A, 2 Side B, Positions - 8, 33, Segments - B3, 9

1 Ram 0 Side A, 1 Side B, Positions - 15, Segments - A4

2 Cave, Mystery, Hood of a Robe 0 Side A, 2 Side B, Positions - 16, 53, Segments - B4, 14

4 Plant, Olive Branch 0 Side A, 4 Side B, Positions - 19, 38, 49, 76, Segments - B5, 10, 13, 20

5 Gauge, Measuring Device, Fork, Horned Serpent 5 Side B, Positions - 21, 40, 86, 106, 117, Segments - B5, 10, 22, 27, 30

2 Shell, Trumpet 0 Side A, 2 Side B, Positions - 65, 99, Segments - B17, 24

2 Pitcher, Vase 0 Side A, 2 Side B, Positions - 67, 101, Segments - B18, 26

1 Saw 0 Side A 1 Side B, Positions - 84, Segments - B22

1 Axe, Labrys 0 Side A, 1 Side B, Positions - 91, Segments - B22

1 Pyramid, Equilateral, Triangle 0 Side A, 1 Side B, Positions - 96, Segments - B23

1 Young Man, Child, Mythical Creature 0 Side A 1 Side B, Positions - 107, Segments - B28

From the Center of Side 1 to the Center of Side 2
With Line Segments Included
Drag-able Pictographs

Phaistos Disk Shield of Achilles Prototype

If the Phastos Disk was intended as a brilliant shield design, then I might even suggest it was the prototype for the legenday Shield of Achilles, used by Achilles when he fought Hector. Below, left is a concept of the Shield of Achilles derived by Malcolm M. Willcock's reading of Homer's description of the shield in The Iliad, Chapter XVIII (see below). At least the Phaistos Disk hints at the idea of a legendary shield as early as 1600 BCE, five or six hundred years before Achilles is supposed to have fought Hector at Troy. The bright spots on the Phaistos Disk (below, right) denote locations of the fifteen shields on this side of the disk.

The two shields have much in common. Both have five circles, with the circles drawn in a wave spiral on the Phaistos Disk as befits a Minoan disk. Earth, sea, sun, moon and stars are indicated on the Phaistos Disk, as are cattle (1), ploughing (2), reaping (3), sheep (4), dance (5), vintage (6) and City at Peace (7) and City at War (8).

First he (Vulcan) shaped the shield so great and strong, adorning it all over and binding it round with a gleaming circuit in three layers; and the baldric was made of silver. He made the shield in five thicknesses, [the five spirals] and with many a wonder did his cunning hand enrich it.

He wrought the earth, [the unconnected shield above, click the image to see it] the heavens, [the large image covering the disk, including all the shields] and the sea; [the Oceanus surrounding the design] the moon [the shields along the outside edge] also at her full and the untiring sun, [the star in the center] with all the signs that glorify the face of heaven- the Pleiads,[the man holding the shield, the Pleiades said to hang on Orion's belt] the Hyads, huge Orion, [the man holding the shield] and the Bear, which men also call the Wain and which turns round ever in one place, facing. Orion, and alone never dips into the stream of Oceanus.

He wrought also two cities, fair to see and busy with the hum of men. In the one were weddings and wedding-feasts, and they were going about the city with brides whom they were escorting by torchlight from their chambers. Loud rose the cry of Hymen, and the youths danced to the music of flute and lyre, [the Crane Dance or Dance of the Labyrinth, see the next chapter] while the women stood each at her house door to see them.

He wrought also a fair fallow field, large and thrice ploughed already. Many men were working at the plough (left) within it, turning their oxen to and fro, furrow after furrow. Each time that they turned on reaching the headland a man would come up to them and give them a cup of wine, and they would go back to their furrows looking forward to the time when they should again reach the headland. The part that they had ploughed was dark behind them, so that the field, though it was of gold, still looked as if it were being ploughed- very curious to behold.

He wrought also a field of harvest corn, and the reapers were reaping with sharp sickles in their hands. Swathe after swathe fell to the ground in a straight line behind them, and the binders bound them in bands of twisted straw. There were three binders, and behind them there were boys who gathered the cut corn in armfuls and kept on bringing them to be bound: among them all the owner of the land stood by in silence and was glad. The servants were getting a meal ready under an oak, for they had sacrificed a great ox, and were busy cutting him up, while the women were making a porridge of much white barley for the labourers' dinner.

He wrought also a herd of homed cattle. He made the cows of gold and tin, and they lowed as they came full speed out of the yards to go and feed among the waving reeds that grow by the banks of the river. Along with the cattle there went four shepherds, all of them in gold, and their nine fleet dogs The god wrought also a pasture in a fair mountain dell, and large flock of sheep, with a homestead and huts, and sheltered sheepfolds.

Furthermore he wrought a green, like that which Daedalus once made in Cnossus for lovely Ariadne. Hereon there danced youths and maidens whom all would woo, with their hands on one another's wrists. (See the next chapter) The maidens wore robes of light linen, and the youths well woven shirts that were slightly oiled. The girls were crowned with garlands, while the young men had daggers of gold that hung by silver baldrics; sometimes they would dance deftly in a ring with merry twinkling feet, as it were a potter sitting at his work and making trial of his wheel to see whether it will run, and sometimes they would go all in line with one another, and much people was gathered joyously about the green. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune.

All round the outermost rim of the shield he set the mighty stream of the river Oceanus. (The outermost ring of the Phaistos Disk is Oceanus.)

Then when he had fashioned the shield so great and strong, he made a breastplate also that shone brighter than fire. He made helmet, (left) close fitting to the brow, and richly worked, with a golden plume overhanging it; and he made greaves also of beaten tin.

Lastly, when the famed lame god had made all the armour, he took it and set it before the mother of Achilles; whereon she darted like a falcon from the snowy summits of Olympus and bore away the gleaming armour (left) from the house of Vulcan. (Homer)

The pictographs on the disk need to seem identical because the artist intended that they produce additional images than are apparent on the faces of the disk. With the matching pictographs placed strategically to produce the images, many more meaningful designs could be contained on the artifact. Those designs reveal a world of information about the Minoan and Egyptian civilizations. Over a period of the last 100 years many people have studied the disk but without ever seeing the additional images contained by the disk, and for a good reason.

In retrospect, the disk is very simple but our presumptions and our distance from this ancient civilization prevent us from immediately recognizing the patterns on the disk. We do not expect to see a nearly 4,000 year-old connect the dots maze, so we do not see it, even after 100 years of collectively looking at it. Had we first seen the disk in the connect the dots section of the Sunday comics of a newspaper, we would have revealed some of the images before breakfast was over.

Phaistos Disk, Side 2

Phaistos Disk Tracing Side 2, Color Coded Overlay, Drag on top of the disk above

NEXT / SITEMAP Bookmark this site! Click any key to turn the page. Disk of the World: A Spiritual Revelation about the Enlightenment and its Social Oppression This is a Shield Guide portal. We are a vast organization of beings from all parts of the universe and an interdimensional organization of life systems that represent a winged body of planetary systems. We assist in developing light-network domains and appear when requested to shield and guide civilizations on ascension paths. We form portals bridging this evolutionary domain to others in the universe on similar ascension paths. Earth's planetary ascension date is December 21, 2012. Be ready! (Claire Grace Watson, Shield Guide) COPYRIGHT NOTICE "Phaistos Disk - The Minoan World" Copyright Notice - Text and images copyrighted March 21, 1997-2010, Claire Grace Watson, B.A., M.S.T., U.S. Copyright and under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, Claire Grace Watson, B.A., M.S.T. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, including the web page itself and the html/dhtml programming. diskoftheworld.com