The most advanced of these early societies was the Minoan civilization, based on the island of Crete. Though their language remains largely undeciphered and much of their history mysterious, the Minoans left behind evidence of remarkable sophistication. Archaeologists named them after the mythological King Minos, associated with the labyrinth and the Minotaur. Their cities featured paved roads, indoor plumbing, and earthquake-resistant architecture—unheard of in Europe at the time. Their vibrant pottery, intricate jewelry, and elaborate palaces testify to a flourishing culture rooted in trade, artistry, and engineering.
Their end came about by the invasion of the fierce warriors, the Myceneans, who adopted and adapted much of Minoan culture. They inherited their art, architecture, and perhaps most importantly, their writing system. The Mycenaeans transformed the Minoan script (Linear A) into Linear B, an early form of the Greek language—making them the first people to speak Greek and, therefore, the first true Greeks (40:00).
Their influence was so enduring that their age became the foundation of Greek legend. This period, known as the Mycenaean Age of Heroes, was later immortalized in epic poetry by Homer, through the legendary tales of Achilles, Agamemnon, Helen of Troy, and Odysseus. These epic poems were written during the Greek Dark Ages, after the systematic collapse of the Mycenaean Greeks. A hallmark of such collapse is that the generations who come after look back and mythologize what was lost—telling stories of a time “when men were men.”
These tales, passed down orally for centuries, elevated the Mycenaeans from a historical people to mythic status in the cultural memory of Greece. In The Odyssey, even Odysseus, while in disguise, claims to hail from Crete—an echo of how the grandeur of earlier civilizations like the Minoans endured in collective imagination. Fragments of Homer’s works found in Egypt, written on papyrus centuries after his lifetime, show how deeply these stories resonated across the ancient world.