XIII – PREHISTORIC CRETE AND THE CYCLADIC ISLANDS

XIII – PREHISTORIC CRETE AND THE CYCLADIC ISLANDS

The natives of Crete

Crete is the largest Greek island in the eastern Mediterranean. Its terrain is rough and mountainous with Eida (2456 m) being the highest mountain. In previous times Crete was called “Kaptar” (Assyrian-Babylonian origin) and Keftiu (Egyptian origin). It is believed that the Neolithic tribes that inhabited Crete and the Cycladic Islands were settlers from Asia Minor (Kartsi, Lelegi and Lidiani) and from Libya, i.e. from Africa, during the pre-dynastic age of the Aegean. When the Phoenicians settled the island their ethnic name became Minoi in honour of the mythical king Minoi, oldest son of Zeus and Europe. Europe was the daughter of the Phoenician king Agenor and sister to Cadmus, king of Thebes in Boeotia.

Minoi lived during the heroic age. He was adopted by Asterion, king of Crete, after Asterion married Europe, Zeus’s lover. Besides Minoi, Asterion also adopted Zeus’s other children, Radamont and Sarpedon. Minoi was a glorious and righteous king, a good legislator and together with his brother Radamont and Eak, judged the souls of the dead in the underworld.

Besides Asterion, as the first ruler of the island, there is also mention of “Kret”, son of Geia, the eponymian hero of the Island. The residents of the island at that time were called “Eteokriti” i.e. “Real Kriti”. Kret was a well known legislator and judge and there was word that he hid Zeus, when he was little, in the “Dikteiska” Cave to save him from being swallowed up by his father Cronus. Here, Zeus was looked after by the nymphs Adrastia and Ida in a golden cradle and fed with milk and honey. This was illustrated by the many toponyms on the island which relate to Zeus’s birth and childhood. According to tradition “Tal”, a bronze giant, was the son of Kret and guardian of the island. Tal was Radamont’s grandfather.

Phoenician colonists

Minoi became king of Crete after Asterion’s death. Because his opponents contested his place on the throne, Minoi had to prove that it was the will of the gods for him to become king. To prove himself, Minoi publicly called on Poseidon to send him a bull from the depths of the sea so that he could sacrifice it. However, when the beautiful bull emerged from the sea, Minoi’s wife Pasifaia insisted that it not be harmed. So in its place, Minoi sacrificed one of his own cattle. After this the Kretians accepted Minoi as

their king. The fake sacrifice, however, angered Poseidon who then turned the bull into a mad animal which ravaged the island.

As further punishment, Poseidon enchanted Pasifaia, Minoi’s wife, and awakened in her passionate love for the beautiful bull. In desperation, Minoi hired the exceptionally gifted artist, inventor and architect Daedalus, nephew of the Athenian king Erehtei, who had earlier fled to Crete, to build him a labyrinth. Daedalus built the labyrinth for the bull and turned it into a palace with numerous interlocking corridors. Ariadne, Minoi’s daughter, however, discovered a way to traverse the labyrinth and escape from it. Daedalus made a hollow, wooden cow, covered with skin, for Pasifaia which she could enter and which helped her passion for the beautiful bull calm down.

Born out of this odd relationship between Pasifaia and Poseidon’s bull was the Minotaur who created many hardships for Minoi, the Cretan king. Because the Minotaur ate human flesh, Minoi had him locked up in the maze. Poseidon’s beautiful bull was overpowered by Hercules who took him to Mycenae. King Evristei then freed the bull and let it run loose. The bull fled and ran through Argolida, crossed over Istam and after that entered Marathon where later it was killed by king Tezei. Before this incident with Tezei, Androgei, Minoi’s son with Pasifaia, who was good at all athletic skills, went from Crete to Athens to participate in the Pan-Athenian games, where he was declared winner, then continued on to Thebes where he participated in local festivities. According to legend, Egei, king of Athens, ordered Androgei to kill Poseidon’s bull at Marathon because it had ravaged Attica. Androgei failed to kill it and lost his life attempting to subdue the animal.

When Minoi learned of the sad news, he quickly prepared a large fleet and a strong army and set out to punish the Athenians. The siege was long and Athens was struck with famine and plague. Then, after lengthy negotiations, the Athenians accepted Minoi’s terms to send seven boys and seven girls to Crete once a year as food for the Minotaur. But, with Ariadna’s help, Tezei, our young Athenian hero, killed the monstrous Minotaur and rescued the Cretan children from this great scourge.

While Minoi was besieging Athens he had Daedalus and his son Ikar locked up in the labyrinth because he did not want Pasifaia’s secret to come out. But after his son was killed and the Minotaur died, Daedalus fled and went to Sicily. Here, in the city Kamik, he was warmly received by king Kokal and his daughters, where his artistic and building skills received great affection. Meanwhile Minoi, having solved his problems with Athens, started looking for the fugitive in all countries and when he found out that he was in Sicily, Minoi assembled a fleet and headed for the city Kamik where he found Daedalus in the court of king Kokal. But Minoi did not get the chance to exact his revenge because, while in the bathroom, he was killed by Kokal’s daughters. Kokal then informed the Cretan soldiers that their king Minoi had slipped and fell in a bath full of hot water and drowned.

The Cretans wanted to sanctify their king but after five years of trying to take the city they failed because Daedalus had it well fortified. According to Diodorus (Diodorus Scilus, Bibliotheca historica, Fr. Vogel, IV, 79, III, Leipzig, 1896, and on), his companions solemnly buried Minoi in Sicily and founded the cities Minoi and Engion, which were built by the first Cretan-Phoenician colonies in Sicily. After the Trojan War, the famous Cretan hero and assassin, Marion, who was brought to Sicily by a storm and taken in by the Cretan colonists, took Minoi’s remains back to Crete where they were properly buried.

Minoi was a contemporary of Perseus, Asclepius, Tezei and other heroes of the prehistoric age. He ruled Crete for three generations before the start of the Trojan War, which was confirmed by Herodotus (Hesodotus History, VII, 171, Matica Srpska Beograd, 1988) who said: “… and three generations after Minoi’s death came the Trojan War, during which the Cretans helped Menelai and showed themselves to be great heroes…”

According to Thucydides (Thucydides Povijest Peloponeskog installment, p. I, 4, Dere, Belgrade, 1991), “… Minoi was one of those for whom, from tradition, we know that, as the eldest, he bought himself a number of ships and took over most of the current Hellenic Sea. He then mastered the Cycladic Islands and was first to settle a large number of his own people, while expelling the Karani (the residents of Karia). He then put his own sons in charge. He chased the pirates from the sea, as far as he could, in order to expand his own wealth.”

Because Crete was a matriarchate, the women had many great functions. They were engaged in athletics and martial arts with the bulls (tauromahia), acrobatics, hunting, racing games and more. They were also involved in the production of materials, especially ceramics, and it is thought that they were the first to have initiated the production of clay amphorae.

One of the Cretan sacred symbols was the “two-sided ax” - labris and the “Minoi horns”, which were brought to Crete from Asia Minor.

The greatest contributor in the field of Cretan archeology was Arthur Evans (1903) who discovered the splendor and size of the “Minoan civilization”. With the help of his discoveries, readers can follow the history of Crete. According to Evans the prehistory of Crete begins around 14,000 BC. However, Evans’s Minoan epoch is divided into three main periods: Early-Minoan 3000-21000 BC, Mid-Minoan 2100-1600 BC and Late-Minoan 1600 to 1200 BC when the Cretan-Mycenaean Aegean Culture died out.

The Early-Minoan period is characterized by monuments of architecture (rounded and rectangular houses), casket graves, family tombs, weapons, ceramics, jewelry and written symbols. The Middle-Minoan period is characterized by the magnificent palaces built on the floor with numerous chambers in the form of mazes with no fortifications. After that are pillars (often with the symbols of the double ax “Labris”, hence the labyrinth), frescoes with polychromatic images that represent fish, dolphins, “saffron pickers”, “lady in blue” etc. followed by graves, round and rectangular, coffins, shrines, baked pottery, stone vases and lamps, pots, swords etc. The Late-Minoan period is characterized by the changes that had occurred as a result of the great earthquake in 1450 BC and the invasion of new populations.

What is most important about Evans’s and later research is the discovery of the 1600 or so pieces of clay tablets with three forms of Minoan writing on them. The first form was a hieroglyphic alphabet brought there from Egypt (“religious pictograms”) and from Luvi, Asia Minor. This form of writing was used during the Middle-Minoan period (2100-1850). This was followed by Linear A writing which lasted from 1650-1400 BC, which was then followed by Linear B writing, lasting from 1450-1200 BC, during the era when Cretan dominance in the Aegean world ended, when Crete was occupied by Mycenae.

Archaeologists believe that the “Minoi palace” in Knossos was built during the Middle-Minoan period and was the capital city of the legendary king Minoi. This palace served as a model for the Festos, Malei, and Zakar palaces. Minoi’s palace survived several destructive attacks, earthquakes and the eruption of the Tera volcano. The palace was abandoned around 1400 BC.

The Minoans belonged to the cult of the Great Mother and worshipped a supreme female deity. She was brought there from Luvi and Kar from a matriarchal society in Asia Minor. Their symbols were the double ax “Labris” (of Lubian origin) and the “Minoan horns” of the sacred bull “taurokerat”. Zeus, as a religious figure, was brought to Crete from Asia Minor by the Neleidi colonists from Pannonia and by the Lapiti. Zeus’s arrival to the island was embodied in the myth (Apollodori, Bibliotheca (I-II век пред Христа), I, 1, 6 и Diodorus Sicilus: Bibliotheca historica, V, 70, Fr. Vogel, vol II, Leipzig, 1896) of his birth when his titan mother Reia saved him from being swallowed by his father Cronus. It was foretold that Cronus would be dethroned by one of his sons. On the advice of Uranus and Geia, Reia hid Zeus in Crete in a cave on Mount Ida or Dikta, where he was looked after by the nymphs Adrastea and Ida, in a golden cradle and fed milk and honey.

A second story about Zeus’s arrival to the island comes from the Phoenician colonization of Crete, where Zeus came to the island, as a bull, with princess Europe, the Phoenician king Agenor’s daughter.

In prehistoric times Crete was linked to events surrounding the Trojan War from 1193 BC. After Minoi’s death, the throne was passed to his son Katrei, whom he had with his wife Pasifaia. Katrei had had three daughters, Aeropa, Klimena and Apemosina and a son named Altemen. Aeropa was married to Atrei, Pelop’s son, king of Mycenae. She was mother to Agamemnon and Menelai from the Lydian or Frigian tribes originating from Asia Minor. Klimena was married to Nauplei, a famous navigator, who founded the city Nauplei in the Peloponnesus and populated it with descendants of Egyptians who sailed to Argolida with their grandfather Danai, i.e. was Danaean.

On the advice of the prophetess, Altemen and his sister Apemosina fled to the island of Rhode. In his old age Katrei wanted to relinquish his throne to his son and because of that he wanted to bring him to Rhode. Unfortunately, on his way to Crete he was killed, being mistaken for a pirate. Katrei was solemnly buried in Crete and funeral games were held every year in his honour.

One time Paris, the Trojan prince, the youngest and handsomest son of Priam and Hekabin from the Afroditian order, took a ship to Crete to participate in the funeral games on the occasion of king Katrei’s death. Paris, with his beautiful and luxurious clothing, with his large ship and with the rich gifts he brought, was quick to win the love of the beautiful Helena, wife of Menelai, king of Sparta. Helena, enchanted by Paris, voluntarily took her slave, her husband’s wealth and, leaving her husband, fled with Paris to Kranai Island. After spending some time traveling they eventually sailed to Troy. There the Trojans gave them an official welcome and were captivated by the beautiful Helena. Menelai and Odysseus insisted that they return Helena but the Trojans refused. After that they declared war on Troy, which lasted ten years.

Included among the Cretans who participated in the Trojan War was king Idomenei, Deukalin’s son, king Minoi’s grandson. He was a powerful ruler and master of hundreds of towns, cities and kingdoms all over Crete. He participated in the Trojan War with eighty ships and fought bravely. This was confirmed by Homer (Homer, Iliad and Odyssey, II, 645, Novi Sad, 1985. (Prev. MN Gjurigj)) when he said: “… there were many people from more than a hundred Cretan cities, whose leader was Idomenei… They sailed in eighty black ships…” After the war, Idomenei was happy to return to his homeland but was soon cruelly exiled. He sailed from Crete to Calabria where he built several cities. After his departure the Mycenae suppressed the native Phoenicians at the east and west ends of the island. During the Hellenic expansion in the X century BC, they founded the town of Gort and then began the “Dark Age”, which returned the region to primitive life. (Papastavrou, I.: Istoria tis Arhaias Ellados, p, 55, Hiotelli, Athinai, 1972.)

The Cycladic Islands are a group of about 220 islands located on the archipelago in the southern Aegean Sea between Asia Minor, the Balkans and Crete. They are the remnants of the old Aegean land. Most of them are mountainous. The archipelago lies around the sacred island Del, which is the homeland of the Hyperborean gods Apollo and Artemis. This was a holy place where ceremonies and celebrations were held every four years in honour of Apollo, Artemis and their mother Leta. The Cycladic Islands have been inhabited since Neolithic times by the Neolithic peoples from southern Asia Minor, such as the Kari, the Lelezi and later the Aeolians and Phoenicians. The cultures here flourished during the early Bronze Age because of the favourable position they were in to control the sea routes which carried an abundance of raw materials such as marble, copper, gold and silver.

Here archaeologists have discovered a rich necropolis, with various tools, various idols of marble female figures, dishes and other items from the maritime trade. Well known are also the figurines of musicians playing harps and other instruments, painted vases and other items. After the devastating eruptions on the Island Tera (Sandorini) in 1450 BC, the Cycladic culture fell under the influence of the Mycenaean culture. Recent archaeological research done in Tera and Crete revealed a new “Pompeii”, which is a mine of material culture for archeologists to dig out in the future. Preserved from the houses buried by lava and ash are the ground floors with their full height and often parts of the floor construction. Most

rooms were decorated with frescoes of exceptional beauty, motifs of Mediterranean landscapes and genre scenes.