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How Did Greek Culture Influence The Minoan Civilization

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The Minoans, located on the island of Crete, existed during the middle Bronze Age and flourished from approximately 2000 BC to 1500 BC. During this time, the Minoan civilization was successfully able to create unique artistic style as well as architecture. Heavily influenced by tradition, their art included many famous archeological discoveries, including the famous “Bull Leaping Fresco”, as well as statues of the “snake goddess”. Crete was also the location of the mythical labyrinth from the Minotaur myth. The civilization relied on trade with other cultures on the Aegean and the Mediterranean, and thus lived relied on the sea. As a seafaring culture, the civilization was influenced by each civilization they visited, and this influence is …show more content…

During this excavation, he discovered a great deal of ruins, including a labyrinth running beneath the site, which led him to consider the myth of King Minos as a possible lead to identifying the civilization.
According to Greek legend, Minos was a powerful king, who was strong and feared. One day, Poseidon sent a powerful white bull to Crete, and demanded that Minos sacrifice it in his honor. When Minos refused to sacrifice the bull, the god became angry and made Minos’s wife fall in love with the bull. Mad with desire, she went to the genius Daedalus and had him construct a mechanical cow with which she could consort with the bull, and as a result she bore a child with the bull, which was the Minotaur. Wisely, Minos decided to contain the Minotaur within a labyrinth beneath his palace, which was Knossos.
After a war with the Athenians, Minos was angry with the death of his son, and demanded that fourteen Athenians each year be sacrificed to the Minotaur, which had grown into a mighty beast. Angry at this proposition, Theseus, prince of Athens, swore to go into the labyrinth and slay the Minotaur. Ariadne, daughter of Minos, fell in love with Theseus, and gave him a magic twine to lead him through the Labyrinth, and so Theseus slayed the Minotaur and rescued the thirteen other Athenians trapped within the

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