Cryptography Reference
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areas. Hence, the fact of the decryption and its methodology to obtain it, using
only analytic techniques, attests to its greatness. It may not have unlocked
secrets as great as the Pharos, as the Rosetta Stone allowed, but it gave us a
clearer picture of our shared history farther back than anyone before could ac-
complish, put the writings of Homer in a clearer light, and gave us the language
of ancient Troy.
Figure 1.17: Knossos fresco: blue dolphins.
Ventris, as so many others who contributed to our cryptological heritage,
died far too young. He had an accident while driving home late one night near
Hatfield, England, at the age of 34. Yet his contribution, another door opened
to the past, and the light it shines for us lives on.
For the reader interested in the words of the discoverers themselves, we
recommend Evans' own work [78], and Schliemann's works [233]-[234]. For an
account of Ventris' cryptanalysis of linear B, see [52].
More From Greek Literature
We now look at three other figures from Greek literature, who lived much
later than Homer. Our first figure is Thucydides, who is considered to be one
of the greatest Greek historians, primarily for his writing of the
History of the
Peloponnesian War
between Athens and Sparta in the fifth century BC. His
work was divided into eight topics ending in the events of the autumn of 411
BC, almost seven years before the end of the war. Yet his work stands tall as a
definitive record, presumed to be the first, of a political and moral analysis of
a country's policies on war, (giving his viewpoint as a native Athenian). Our
interest in him here is a link with the previous section, since he wrote about
how, in 475 BC, the Spartan General Pausanias was recalled from the field using
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