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 (5th c BC)
incredibly wealthy, seafaring
culture
Almost all
the myths associated with Crete are late
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:
Daedalus and
the Wooden Cow