The Disk of the World

By means of a series of linkages I’ve become aware of the Phaistos Disk, a Minoan clay disk dating to the second millennium BC. After reading Doris Lessing’s Canopus in Argos series of novels, I became aware of the fact that a southern constellation called Argo Navis once existed. Trying to see that constellation I came across multiple diagram of it. The origin of the most pleasing of the lot, which I reproduced with others in the post on this subject (link), I could not properly source; it came from a crossword puzzle page. Then yesterday the artist who had actually drawn it, Claire Grace Watson, posted a comment. Where she had discovered it, it turns out, was on the Phaistos Disk (side B), and the story of that is found on her site Disk of the World (link). The Wikipedia article on the subject is here; that’s where I got the image of the disk (side A) that I show here. Now this set of linkages constellates (!) a new thematic which is itself a perfect match for Doris Lessing’s work: mysteries upon mysteries. Of these Claire Watson’s wondrous site is itself a marvelous instance. Those inclined to wonder about past and future ought to see it, hence I provide the link.