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Chapter Sixteen, Lecture Two Crete Archaeology and Cretan Myth Archaeology and Cretan Myth • Crete between Greek and trade routes to the east, Egypt, and the west Archaeology and Cretan Myth Archaeology and Cretan Myth • First people from Anatolia (7000 B.C.) – First script pictorial – Second: Linear A – Later, the Mycenaeans adapted Linear A for use in their own language. This script called Linear B Archaeology and Cretan Myth • Minoan power ends in 1450 • Cnossos rebuilt but now occupied by Mycenaeans • Second destruction: 1400 B.C. • Third and final: 1200 B.C. Archaeology and Cretan Myth • What can we know about the Minoans? • Ancient Greeks wanted to know too and used their myths as guide to history – Thucydides • Arthur Evans (1899) – Uncovered Minoan material culture at Cnossos Archaeology and Cretan Myth • Minoans were vigorous, pleasure-loving, seafaring, with a taste for vibrant, naturalistic art • Palaces not fortified – A thalassocracy? • Relationship with Athens perhaps a historical truth – Theseus and the Minotaur Archaeology and Cretan Myth • Minoan Religion – Worshipped a Great Mother goddess – The “Snake Goddess” – Ariadnê (“the very holy one”) – Ariadnê Aphrodite – Bull as the symbol of male fertility and Zeus? • Bull jumping as human sacrifice to the god? Archaeology and Cretan Myth • Athenian youths given to the Minotaur perhaps an image of child-sacrifice • Double axe – Used to sacrifice the bull? – Labys < Labyrinth “house of the double axe”? • Pasiphaë and the bull a reflection of sacrifice of young women to the god? – modified to a sexual surrender Archaeology and Cretan Myth • Minoan myth preserved by the Greeks who emphasized the lurid and licentious about the Cretans – Pasiphaë – Phaedra – Megara Archaeology and Cretan Myth • The story of Theseus appears to be a folktale that resembles a male’s initiation into adulthood – In Athens, young men (18–20 ) who were ephebes alluded to the model of Theseus in their oath Archaeology and Cretan Myth Theseus Journey to a far land Male Initiation Driven from native land Victory over death and a Mock death and demons monster Amorous adventure Sexual experience Becomes king Return to society with full privileges Archaeology and Cretan Myth • Daedalus, the trickster, also underlines the folktale quality of Minoan myth • Prototype of the passionate artist – Daedalic style of art End
