Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece

MEDITERRANEAN PEOPLES HIST 1301 | History Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece On the Aegean island of Crete, a distinct civilization emerged by 2000 BCE, reaching its zenith at the start of the Late Bronze Age, about 1600 BCE. The tale of King Minos of Crete, who constructed the enormous labyrinth known as the Labyrinth and imprisoned within a half-bull, half-man known as the Minotaur (the “Bull of Minos”), was subsequently recounted by the Classical Greeks. Minos compelled young men and women from Athens, Greece, to enter the Labyrinth to be eaten by the monster in order to exact revenge for the murder of his own son. The term "Minoan," which comes from the word "Minos," is used by historians to refer to the older Cretan culture that they see in the story as a distant memory. The biggest of the Minoan palaces on Crete was constructed at Knossos. Historians think that Crete was mostly peaceful and unified under a single administration, with Knossos serving as the capital, since they were typically undefended. Along the coast of Anatolia and on other Aegean islands like Thera, the Minoans also built towns and trading stations. Their palaces were enormous buildings that functioned as administrative and commercial hubs. Scholars refer to this script as Linear A, which the Minoans created and wrote on clay tablets in order to record information for these centres. It hasn't been figured out yet. The labrys, or double axe, was a frequent weapon and emblem in these palaces and is where the name "labyrinth" originated. Young men and women engaged in bullfights in the courtyards, which might have served as the inspiration for the tale of the Minotaur. These battles, along with marine life and other natural themes, are depicted in frescoes on the palace walls. The goddess of nature, fertility, and snakes was worshipped by the Minoan people, who also held bulls in high regard. The fact that this snake-wielding female deity is so frequently seen in figurines together with other creative representations of women suggests that at least some women in Minoan civilization enjoyed high social standing. Religious rites were performed in little shrines, in caverns, on the summits of mountains, and in hallowed woods. The palaces of Crete were destroyed in 1500 BCE. After Knossos was restored, scribes there started using a new alphabet that academics refer to as Linear B, which is thought to have sprung from Linear A and is an early version of Greek. Historians have concluded that Greeks from the mainland invaded Crete and reconstructed Knossos based on the discovery of Linear B clay tablets on the Greek mainland. Since Mycenae was the biggest Bronze Age city in Greece, the Bronze Age culture that generated Linear B is known as Mycenaean. Greeks of the Bronze Age seem to have moved from the Balkans to mainland Greece in 2000 BCE, and with the start of the Late Bronze Age, or 1600 BCE, they began to acquire Minoan culture. The Mycenaean Greeks were split up into several independent kingdoms, in contrast to the Minoans. There have been massive palace complexes similar to Knossos in Mycenae, Tiryns, Thebes, Pylos, and Sparta, occasionally encircled by colossal defences. These places match the strong kingdoms that are mentioned in Homer's Iliad, a later Greek epic poetry. This poem narrates the tale of the Trojan War, in which the Greek countries attacked the city of Troy under the command of King Agamemnon of Mycenae. The discovery of the Bronze Age city of Troy in western Turkey by archaeologists also raises the possibility that the Iliad was partially inspired by oral traditions that helped to maintain the memory of these long-gone Bronze Age countries. According to the Linear B tablets, the monarch of these palaces was referred to as the Wanax, or "lord," the same title given to the valiant Iliad rulers.