6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri1 Crete History and mythology

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri2 Outline  Introduction  Part I. First European civilization  a. The Minoan culture  b. King Minos  Part II. The Minotaur  a. Who is the Minotaur?  b. Theseus  Conclusion  References

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri3 Introduction  Very little was known about Minoan Crete before the great excavations of Greek by foreign archaeologists around 1900  Its history had passed into the realm of legend and remained a distant memory in Greek tradition and mythology  The ancient authors speak mainly of Minos, the king who had his capital at Knossos, and was a wise lawgiver and a fair judge (who therefore judged souls in Hades after his death)

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri4 Part I. First European civilization

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri5 a. The Minoan culture  Sir Arthur Evans a British archaeologist gave the name "Minoan" to the Cretan civilization, from King Minos' name (A.D. 1900)  In 1900, he began his excavation of Knossos and brought to light an unknown civilization, possibly the oldest in Europe  The Minoan culture ( B.C.) flourished on the island of Crete (Kríti)  The Minoan culture reached the height of its prosperity in the 18th - 16th centuries B.C.

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri6 b. King Minos  Legendary king of Crete, son of Zeus and the Phoenician princess Europa  Androgeos, the son of King Minos, games in Athens  Victorious in all events, murdered through envy by other contestants  Minos attacked Athens to avenge his death  Peace on one condition: every nine years Athens should send seven of their finest young men and young maidens to Crete, as sacrifice to the Minotaur

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri7 Part II. The Minotaur

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri8 a. Who is the Minotaur?  Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of approval by the gods for his reign  He promised to sacrifice the bull, but he didn’t  When Poseidon learned about the deceit, he made Pasipha, Minos' wife, fall madly in love with the bull  The offspring was a monster called the Minotaur  The creature had the head of a bull on the body of a man  Minos ordered the architect Daedalus to build a gigantic, intricate labyrinth from which escape would be impossible

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri9 b. Theseus  Theseus king of Athens, volunteered to be one of the victims, to kill the Minotaur, and to free Athens from this grizzly duty  Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, falls in love with Theseus and helps him defeat the Minotaur  She gives him a magic sword and a ball of thread so that he could easily find his way out of the labyrinth  They went to the island of Naxos and Ariadne was left there asleep, while the ungrateful Theseus pursued his way home without her

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri10 Theseus fighting the Minotaur

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri11 Conclusion  The destruction of the Cretan palaces about 1450 BC was followed by the decline of the Minoans and the subsequent rise of the Mycenaeans  In 1900 the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans discovered at Knossos, Crete, a huge palace complex that he associated with King Minos and the labyrinth  Linear A, language of Minoan Crete, has not yet been deciphered  The discovery of Linear B on Crete supported the conclusion that the mainland people, the Mycenaeans, gained ascendancy over the Minoans

6/18/2015Dr. Montoneri12 References     search=greek+mythology  search=crete 