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
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
—he
heads out to sea, to Crete
Brothers
look, but cannot find—found cities instead
gives
her Laelaps and Talus (giant bronze robot)
Minos
fights with his brothers
•
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
greatest
craftsman of all time—invented statues
Makes
wooden
cow for
her to hide in
makes
Daedalus build the Labyrinth
Androgeus
goes to compete in Athens
makes
him fight the Bull (Heracles brought it to mainland)
Androgeus
dies (Theseus kills it eventually)
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
every
nine years 7 boys and girls for Minotaur
Theseus,
recently arrived in Athens, volunteers to be one of the
boys
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
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
just
as Daedalus couldn't be held back, neither can Cupid
Minos
searches everywhere for Daedalus
Minos
killed in bathtub filled with boiling water or pitch
Athenian
view of an older culture they do not fully comprehend
