1.10 Minoans and Mycenaeans
To the west, during the Bronze Age, the first distinctly Greek civilizations arose: the Minoans of the island of Crete and the Mycenaeans of Greece itself. Their civilizations, which likely merged together due to invasion after a long period of coexistence, were the basis of later Greek civilization and thus a profound influence on many of the neighboring civilizations of the Middle East in the centuries to come, just as the civilizations of the Middle East unquestionably influenced them. At the time, however, the Minoans and Mycenaeans were primarily traders and, in the case of the Mycenaeans, raiders, rather than representing states.
Both the Minoans and Mycenaeans were seafarers. Whereas almost all of the other civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean were land empires, albeit ones who traded and traveled via waterways, the Greek civilizations were very closely tied to the sea itself. The Minoans ruled the island of Crete in the Mediterranean and created a merchant marine (i.e. a fleet whose purpose is primarily trade, not war) to trade with the Egyptians, Hittites, and other peoples of the area. One of the noteworthy archaeological traits of the Minoans is that there is very little evidence of fortifications of their palaces or cities, unlike those of other ancient peoples, indicating that they were much less concerned about foreign invasion than were the neighboring land empires thanks to the Minoans’ island setting.
The Minoans built enormous palace complexes that combined government, spiritual, and commercial centers in huge, sprawling areas of building that were interconnected and which housed thousands of people in some cases. The Greek legend of the labyrinth, the great maze in which a bull-headed monster called the minotaur roamed, was probably based on the size and the confusion of these Minoan complexes. Frescoes painted on the walls of the palaces depicted elaborate athletic events featuring naked men leaping over charging bulls – Minoan frescoes have even been found in the ruins of an Egyptian (New Kingdom) palace, indicating that Minoan art was valued outside of Crete itself.
The Minoans traded actively with their neighbors and developed their own systems of bureaucracy and writing. They used a form of writing referred to by historians as Linear A that has never been deciphered. Their civilization was very rich and powerful by about 1700 BCE and it continued to prosper for centuries. Starting in the early 1400s BCE, however, a wave of invasions carried out by the Mycenaeans to the north eventually extinguished Minoan independence. By that time, the Minoans had already shared artistic techniques, trade, and their writing system with the Mycenaeans, the latter of which served as the basis of Mycenaean record keeping in a form referred to as Linear B. Thus, while the Minoans lost their political independence, Bronze-Age Greek culture as a whole became a blend of Minoan and Mycenaean influences.
The Minoans were, according to the surviving archaeological evidence, relatively peaceful. They traded with their neighbors, and while there is evidence of violence (including human sacrifice) within Minoan society, there is no indication of large-scale warfare, just passing references from the Mycenaeans about Minoan mastery of the seas.
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In contrast, the Mycenaeans were extremely warlike. They traded with their neighbors but they also plundered them when the opportunity arose. Centuries later, the culture of the Mycenaeans would be celebrated in the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, describing the exploits of great Mycenaeans heroes like Agamemnon, Achilles, and Odysseus. Those exploits almost always revolved around warfare, immortalized in Homer’s account of the Mycenaean siege of Troy, a city in western Anatolia whose ruins were discovered in the late nineteenth century CE.
Exploration: Greek Myths and Minoan Origins
Myth plays an important part in the formation of ancient Greece. The extensive pantheon of gods and goddess—some 6,000 distinct personalities—form a framework for the structured values, social roles and norms of behavior among the Greeks. In this exploration, you will learn about some of the major figures among the Greek gods and goddess, the myth of the Golden Apple—a key event that leads to the Trojan War and the destruction of ancient Troy—and the relationship of myth to historic events as we look at 19th Century discovery of what is believed to be ancient Troy in the context of ancient Minoan culture.
The Myth of the Golden Apple
According to this myth, Eris, the goddess of strife, threw down an apple with the words “for the fairest” upon it at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (the parents of Achilles). The goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena then began squabbling over the question of to whom the apple referred. Seeing no way to win, Zeus refused to act as judge or mediator. Thus, Paris, a poor shepherd (but really a prince of Troy abandoned at birth due to a prophecy), is chosen as the judge. The three goddesses offer Paris rewards if he will rule in their favor. Aphrodite’s bribe is the most appealing as she offers Paris the most beautiful human woman in the world—Helen, the wife of King Menelaos of Sparta.
Who is Zeus and why would goddesses squabble over a compliment or offer another man’s wife as a prize for flattery? Watch the videos below and think about the array of gods and goddesses as representatives of human characteristics; what do the various characters tell you about how the Greeks saw the natural world displayed in themselves? How are the divine characters related? What form of government do they follow? How do ideas of good and evil differ from today and in what ways are they same?
“Eris: Goddess of Discord and Strife.” Ares and Eris: Quarrels of the Gods. Films on Demand. 1995. 1:28.
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Corrected transcript for Eris: Goddess of Discord and Strife
The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships
Paris, an abandoned son of Priam, the king of Troy, establishes his legitimacy as King Priam’s son before traveling to Sparta to meet Menelaos, king of Sparta; while there, Paris kidnaps Helen, the wife of the Menelaos, and sails back to Troy; this, in turn, angers Menelaos’ brother, Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, who gathers forces from the Greek mainland and surrounding island kings and sails to Troy with a thousand ships. Nestor and Odysseus attempt to negotiate Helen’s return, but their mission fails and the war begins. There is question about the culpability of Helen in her abduction, but Homer’s rendition points to Helen’s betrayal of Menelaos seeming to indicate that Helen fell in love with Paris as well and willingly participated.
The Illiad depicts events 10 years into the Trojan War. Achilles is the greatest of warriors. He has no known vulnerability because his mother, Thetis, a goddess dipped him into the River Styxx (the river leading to Hades, the underworld) upon his birth; however, she was holding him by his ankle and thus he is not protected in this spot. This will prove his undoing when he is later killed when Paris, guided by the god Apollo, shoots an arrow into the unprotected spot, but this is not depicted in The Illiad. In fact, The Illiad ends with the death of the Trojan warrior and Paris’ brother, Hector by Achilles hand.
The climax of the Trojan War, and ultimate victory for the Greeks rested with trickery. The Greek hero, Odysseus (subject of Homer’s The Odyssey), inspired by the goddess Athena, proposed sailing away and leaving behind a large horse on the beach. Thinking this was a gift of surrender, the Trojans brought this gift inside the walls of Troy; however, inside the hollow horse rested Greek soldiers. Upon nightfall, the Greek soldiers exited the horse and laid siege to Troy, defeating her.
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From their ships, the Mycenaeans operated as both trading partners and raiders as circumstances would dictate; it is clear from the archeological evidence that they traded with Egypt and the Near East (i.e. Lebanon and Palestine), but equally clear that they raided and warred against both vulnerable foreign territories and against one another. There is even evidence that the Hittites enacted the world’s first embargo of shipping and goods against the Mycenaeans in retaliation for Mycenaean meddling in Hittite affairs.
The Mycenaeans relied on the sea so heavily because Greece was a very difficult place to live. Unlike Egypt or Mesopotamia, there were no great rivers feeding fertile soil, just mountains, hills, and scrubland with poor, rocky soil. There were few mineral deposits or other natural resources that could be used or traded with other lands; as it happens, there are iron deposits in Greece but its use was not yet known by the Mycenaeans. They thus learned to cultivate olives to make olive oil and grapes to make wine, two products in great demand all over the ancient world that were profitable enough to sustain seagoing trade. It is also likely that the difficult conditions in Greece helped lead the Mycenaeans to be so warlike, as they raided each other and their neighbors in search of greater wealth and opportunity.
The Mycenaeans were a society that glorified noble warfare. As war is depicted in The Illiad, battles consisted of the elite, noble warriors of each side squaring off against each other and fighting one-on-one, with the rank-and-file of poorer soldiers providing support but usually not engaging in actual combat. In turn, Mycenaean ruins (and tombs) make it abundantly clear that most Mycenaeans were dirt-poor farmers working with primitive tools, lorded over by bronze-wielding lords who demanded labor and wealth. Foreign trade was in service to providing luxury goods to this elite social class, a class that was never politically united but instead shared a common culture of warrior-kings and their armed retinues. Some beautiful artifacts and amazing myths and poems have survived from this civilization, but it was also one of the most predatory civilizations we know about from ancient history.
“European Origin: The Minoans.” The Beginnings: The Greeks and Romans. Films on Demand. 1997. Through “Mycenaean and Persian Wars.” The Beginnings: The Greeks and Romans. Films on Demand. 1997. 6:12.
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