A Digression on Krete – Part 2
Published: October 10,
2003
The tales of Minos, Daedalus, Theseus and Idomeneus of Spear Fame can be reasonably deduced to
have occurred within what archeologists call "The Post-palace period
(1380BC-1100BC.) These are the tales of the Heroic Age of Greece. This is
Achaean history.
Of the thirteen hundred years of prior Kretan history that are so ineptly called Minoan, we
have nothing. There are no tales or epics of the time before Archedius, Gortys and Cydon and the rest of the Achean immigrants came to Krete to set up their petty kingdoms.
Homer tells us how the inhabitants of Krete were divided into a number of tribes and
mentions that the Eteocretans, the original
inhabitants were there intermingled with the Pelasgian, Kydonian, Achaean
and Dorian immigrants, each group speaking it’s own language.
Throughout known history, peoples have migrated all over the
place, so much that it is difficult to name the migrations. Once an area
had become overpopulated or overused, then the society need to find
better, less exploited, more fertile territory. The axiom that the grass
is always greener somewhere else applies.
About these immigrants: it was a common practice for the
Greeks to relieve the pressures of overpopulation by forced colonization.
If chosen, one had to go or possibly face death!
And wherever invaders go, (once past the initial shock for
both the invaders and the invaded) they tend to absorb or be absorbed by
the culture they have displaced. One way to do this is to make the
cultural gods of the preceeding group into
demons or devils.
Greek mythology is a jumble of stories, most conflicting due
to this process. For example we find out that the Kouretes, nine male gods of Krete are the ones who raise the infant Zeus to
manhood. And it is to Krete that Zeus in the
form of a bull brings Europa. It is worth
mentioning that the Phoenician version of this story is more down to
earth, Kretan sailors abduct the daughter of
King Agenor at the harbor quay and sail off.
But of these legendary tales, the tale of the Minos(s) are the most confusing. Was this a resurgence
on the part of the Eteocretans - the original
inhabitants? Was Minos a title? Or were the
storytellers getting the chronology mixed up and mixing up elements of
Krete's long past with their present? We will
never know.
The image of a peaceful island civilization fails with the
Achaean presentation. Minos was warlike, waging
war on Athens and Megara for tribute. Thucydides
tells us how Minos established naval superiority
throughout the Aegean with the Kretan fleet, and
that he captured and colonized the Cyclades, driving out the Carians, and freeing the seas from piracy. And finally
he fails on a military expedition to Sicily - foreshadowing the Athenian expedition to
Sicily.
Later we have the martial Idomeneus setting sail
for Troy.
But what of Krete before Deukalion’s flood? What records do we have of the
earlier periods? And why should we use that as a marker?
Before doing so, we need to briefly examine the nature of
Krete itself.
Islands, as noted by Fernandez-Armesto, have been condemned throughout history as
places of poverty and insecurity. With a limited surface area, there is of
course restricted local food production. Isolation will threaten supply
from outside. In the case of Krete, two-thirds
of the island is covered by uncultivable mountains.
We have Homer’s assurance that Krete was heavily populated with ninety cities in the
Achaean time. Most of them would be on the coast. It is known that the sea
level has risen over 20 feet in the last five thousand years, and Krete has lost valuable cultivable land and possibly a
few of those famous cities to coastal subsidence.
Krete is now one of the most
barren landscapes of Europe, but we can
safely assume that at one time it was heavily forested, and the forests of
Krete provided the timber for the Kretan fleet.
It was the Kretans, before the
Greeks, and before the Phoenicians who became the first great seafaring
nation of the Mediterranean. To be a
successful civilization they had to be able to escape the limitations of
their geography. Krete was as an ideal a spot as
could be imagined, with Europe to the north, Asia to the east, and
Africa to the South.
I am not able to go further this week. I am waiting upon an
inter-library loan for books of Charles Pellegrino that were published in
the mid 1990's. Even as I speak, the phone is ringing from the library, so
I have some research to do!
Last revised: October 10,
2003
