The Minoans

The Minoans

The bronze age culture of the Aegean Sea consisted of three different cultural areas:

Cycladic — in the Cycladic Islands
Minoan — on Crete prior to the influx of Greeks in ~2,000 B.C.
Helladic — on mainland Greece (Mycenaeans)

We believe that the Minoans and the Greeks may have been two different ethnic groups. The Greeks appear to have been Indo-European, but the Minoans were not, and scholars are still not sure where they came from.

The civilization of Crete is known by the name “Minoan” after the fabled King Minos of Greek legend.

There is a Greek myth that describes the origins of the Minoan peoples. Zeus was the most powerful of the gods. Europa was a beautiful Phoenician princess. Zeus fell in love with Europa and decided to seduce her. Appearing to her in the form of a white bull with golden horns, he lured her to the seashore. Enchanted by the apparent gentleness of the bull, Europa decked his horns with flower wreaths and sat upon his back. Instantly, Zeus plunged into the sea and carried Europa to Crete. There she bore him three sons: Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon. When Zeus left Europa, she married Asterius, the king of Crete . Because he was childless, Asterius adopted Europa’s sons and made them his heirs. Minos became king at Asterius’ death and was a powerful and just ruler. He established laws which he received from Zeus, that rid the Mediterranean Sea of pirates and allowed him to gain control over the Aegean Islands .

Crete was small, but wealthy because of trade and agriculture. Overseas trade, which was the basis of Cretan prosperity, linked the Greek mainland and Crete closely together and extended to Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria, and the Aegean Islands.

After the death of his son, Androgeos, at the hands of the Athenians, Minos warred against Athens and brought the Greek city under the control of Crete . He was killed in Sicily by the daughters of King Cocalus, who poured boiling water over him as he was taking a bath. According to the mythology, after his death, he became a judge in Hades.

Minos is discussed by many Greek authors, including Plato and Thucydides. An extended account of Minos is provided by the Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily (active first century B.C.), who wrote a forty-volume book, Library of History, between c. 60 and 30 B.C.

Prior to 1870, Greek literature was assumed to be purely mythological — with no factual or historical basis. This perception changed with the work of Heinrich Schliemann. Schliemann was a German businessman with a deep love of the Greeks in general and Homer in particular. He sought to prove the historical accuracy of the Iliad. He wanted to find evidence of the peoples described in the Classical literature and his search began 1870.

Schliemann made important discoveries, including the city of Troy and Mycenae (which we will discuss) — but there were others who found the premise of his work to be interesting.

For example, Arthur Evans, an Englishman, was interested in the legend of King Minos. Arthur Evans went to Crete and in 1900 initiated the early excavations of the Palace of Knossos. He excavated and reconstructed the palace, which still can be seen in Crete today. In the archival photograph below, Evans poses on the stairs clad in white.

The Palace at Knossos was constructed in two phases over the course of 600 years:

Early period 2,000 - 1,700 B.C.
Later Period 1,700 - 1,400 B.C.

The palace was destroyed around 1,700 B.C. probably due to an earthquake, but it was immediately rebuilt. After about 1,500 B.C. the palace was dominated by Greeks.

Interestingly, the palace was not fortified — a fact which contrasts sharply with the Assyrian palaces. Hence, this was a peaceful society. This was probably because the island was protected by the sea, and Crete had a navy.

Crete, as is evidenced by the palace at Knossos, was a well-ordered society administered by kings and nobles. Although King Minos was clearly a legendary figure, many scholars now consider that the name Minos was a royal or dynastic title for the priestly rulers of Minoan Knossos.

The palace was built over many acres. It was not envisioned as a monumental building, but rather grew in a haphazard way. It did not have a directed plan. The approach could be called an additive architecture.

The Palace of Knossos seems to reflect the mythological story of the Labyrinth. The story begins with Poseidon, the god of the sea. Poseidon sent King Minos a bull which Minos was to sacrifice to the god. Minos thought it was too beautiful and sacrificed another instead. This enraged Poseidon. He caused Minos’s wife to have a passionate love affair with bull. She became pregnant and gave birth to a bull-headed monster — the Minotaur — which was kept in a Labyrinth. The King’s daughter was Ariadne. Ariadne’s suitors would be sacrificed to the Minotaur, as were captives from Athens.

Courtyard (A) was the original structure and is the largest room. It could be used for pageants, ceremonies, and games.

The small rooms around the courtyard were called “insulae.” There was some plumbing, including bathrooms and flush toilets. The east side held royal apartments.

It was a palace as well as a center of government. There were storerooms (magazines) for wine, grain, honey, and oil. There were offices, servants quarters, and even some shrines, though the religious significance is not well understood. There may have been a theatre as well.

Storage Jars (or Pithoi) from Palace of Knossos, Crete, Greece, ca, 1700-1400 B.C.

These are examples of the large storage jars uncovered at the site. They were used for honey, wine, oil, and grain.

Stairwell in the residential quarter of the Palace of Knossos, Crete, Greece, ca, 1700-1400 B.C.

The plan was complex, but so was elevation. The palace exists on several levels, which were supported by columns. There were heavy, masonry walls made from rough, unshaped fieldstone and filled with clay. The Minoans used stairwells/light wells to provide light and air to interior rooms. Originally, columns were wood — but they were restored in stone. The were painted. These columns had a cushion-like capital and were tapered from top to bottom — unlike Egyptian and Greek columns.

Even from the photographs, we can get a sense of the complexity with respect to both elevation and plan and understand why this palace gained the reputation of being a labyrinth.

The interior of the palace is very liberally painted with true wet fresco paintings. With wet fresco, the pigment is applied to wet plaster. The pigment is then absorbed into the matrix of the plaster and becomes part of the wall.

This particular fresco is today known as La Parisienne or “the Parisian.” This is another example of a work of art that was given a whimsical name which does not actually pertain to painting. Paris was the reputed fashion center this woman was seen as having a fashionable attire and a fancy hairdo. In addition, her deep red lips look like fashionable makeup.

In some ways, the conventions are typical — we see the profile pose and the enlarged eye. Still, Minoans figural representations tend to be more lively and expressive than the figures in Egyptian painting.

Bull-leaping (Toreador Fresco), from the Palace of Knossos, ca. 1450-1400 B.C., ~ 2 feet, 8 inches high

The so-called Toreador Fresco is another fresco painting. It is heavily restored (only the dark areas are original). It appears that these figures are baiting bull to charge, then grasping the animal's horns, and, finally, vaulting over the bull. The sexes are rendered in different colors: women are white, while the men are darker, reddish in color. Also, observe that this is more of a consistent perspective; we do not see the twisted perspective of the Egyptians, but a more consistent profile view. Overall, the fresco is elegant, and it does not seem like the scene is threatening. Some art historians think this scene should be interpreted literally as a popular Minoan sport. Others, myself included, think that this was probably not meant to be literal. It was probably not a game played in Crete, but rather a mythological tale or perhaps a bull god. Earlier we noted that Zeus transformed himself into a bull to seduce Europa. There are other Minoan stories that involve the bull.

By the way, the Minoans did have a written language known as Linear A. It was developed ca. 1650 B.C., but we cannot read it!

Perhaps, when it is translated, it will provide information on the “snake goddess” and some of the other images that appear at the Palace of Knossos.

The term "kamares" comes from the name of the cave where these vessels were first discovered. It is a useful descriptive term for Minoan pottery.

We also have many examples of decorated Minoan pottery. The earlier Minoan pots were made without a potters wheel. The clay was coiled and tamped smooth. These vessels were decorated with loose, naturalistic subjects — fish, octopus, seaweed, the ocean. Placement on the vessel usually quite sensitive to the form of the vessel. Later, they did use the potters wheel, as did the Egyptians.

The Harvesters Vase is an example of Minoan sculpture. In Crete, we do not have large-scale sculpture akin to the Assyrian relief sculpture or Egyptian tomb sculpture. But we do have some small examples. This peice was carved from stone — steatite. Only the upper half survives. Again, we see an art which is very different from what we have seen so far.

Men with harvest tools and crops are being lead by an older man carrying a staff. The young men are singing. We see some overlapping, alluding to three-dimensional space. The pitchforks are diagonal. Overall, the style is naturalistic — even emphasizing muscles and ribs.

In Crete, no temples survive. They may have been built in wood, but we have no evidence. But, as noted earlier, there were some shrines that appear in the palace. Likewise, no large sculptures of gods, goddesses, kings or queens seem to have been made — unlike the Egyptians and some of Mesopotamian cultures.

What we do have are some small pieces of sculpture. This example of the so-called "Snake Goddess" is approximately one foot high. It is made of fired, glazed clay termed faience. This woman has prominently exposed breasts. She is holding two snakes, with a leopard balanced on her head. When discovered, the head and one arm were missing — these have been reconstructed based on evidence of other pieces — but this is a guess. The flounced skirt appears to be a costume that Minoan women wore.

We do not have a text explaining who she is — she may be a goddess or she may be a woman probably associated with fertility. Also, some believe that the Minoan society may have been a matriarchy, one that was peaceful and which place an emphasis on power of women.

Around 1500 B.C., there was a dramatic change in the palace culture of the Minoans. They were conquered were the Myceneans — we think.