Myth 16 : Crete

Closely connected to the Myths of Athens—

a grab-bag of folktales

history becoming myth?

Greek misinterpretation/reinterpretation of Cretan stories/events/rituals

There are some Classical Greek sources for this stuff,

but most of it has to come through ROMAN sources

focus on erotic, rhetorical, bizarre

History/Archaeology: What we know

Minoans

arrived on Crete 7000BC/ 3100BC (second wave)

incredibly complex culture: cities, palaces

Writing: Linear A and Linear B

culture ends 1450BC

ritual cannibalism/human sacrifice ?

Crete taken over by Mycenaean Greeks around this time (Linear B)

Minoans were ethnically, racially, linguistically, culturally distinct from Greeks

We do not have any “native” myths

like trying to reconstruct Native American myths—but worse

Some Greeks were aware of limitations

Thucydides (5^th c BC)

Excavations at Cnossus —

incredibly wealthy, seafaring culture

Almost all the myths associated with Crete are late

Daedalus, Theseus

but reflect something Cretan?

Minotaur? Importance of BULL in Minoan culture?

Labyrinth / Labrys “double ax”

Reduced in Greek Roman stories to just filth

By Classical period, Cretans just become a TYPE to fill in folktale details

lustful, incestuous, violent, tyrannical, liars

THE MYTHS ASSOCIATED WITH CRETE:

Europa and the Bull

Agenor (Semitic name),

descended from Zeus and Io (brother Belus = Baal)

Goes to Phoenicia, daughter and three sons

Europa; Cadmus, Cilix and Phoenix

Zeus comes to Europa as a Bull

Told in Ovid, Metamorphoses

—hops on

—he heads out to sea, to Crete

Brothers look, but cannot find—found cities instead

Cadmus—Thebes

Cilix—Cilicia

Phoenix—Phoenicia

Zeus and Europa have kids:

Minos, Sarpedon, Rhadamanthys

gives her Laelaps and Talus (giant bronze robot)

Minos fights with his brothers

Minos marries Pasiphae

children:

• Ariadne (wife of Theseus, abandoned, becomes Dionysus' wife)

• Phaedra (wife of Theseus; falls in love with stepson)

• Androgeus (will get killed—leads to Minotaur sacrifice)

Poseidon is anger (believe it or not)

Makes Pasiphae fall in love with the bull

Daedalus

—exiled Athenian

greatest craftsman of all time—invented statues

Makes wooden cow for her to hide in

Bears the Minotaur

Minos won't kill it

makes Daedalus build the Labyrinth

Androgeus goes to compete in Athens

wins everything—angers Aegeus

makes him fight the Bull (Heracles brought it to mainland)

Androgeus dies (Theseus kills it eventually)

Minos invades in revenge

Nisus is invincible as long as his purple lock grows

His daughter Scylla falls in love with Minos and gives him the lock

Minos scorns the treacherous daughter

Minos—gets Athens to submit with help of Zeus

punishment for Androgeus

every nine years 7 boys and girls for Minotaur

Theseus, recently arrived in Athens, volunteers to be one of the boys

Theseus and Minotaur

Minos' daughter Ariadne immediately falls in love with him

I'll show you the way if you marry me

Use a ball of thread to get back out—as instructed by Daedalus

“a clue”

Kills Minotaur !

and escapes with Ariadne—to Naxos

Theseus is disgusted by her treachery to her father, and abandons her there

seems likely to die—but is actually found by Dionysus

Minos is so pissed about all of this (Minotaur, Theseus, Ariadne),

he imprisons Daedalus and his son Icarus in the Labyrinth

Ovid tells this story twice

just as Daedalus couldn't be held back, neither can Cupid

Don't fly to high, Icarus!

golden mean

Minos searches everywhere for Daedalus

Minos killed in bathtub filled with boiling water or pitch

Observations:

Athenian view of an older culture they do not fully comprehend

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