The Origins of Greece: Minoan, Mycenaean and Egyptian Influence
Greece was a child that had many midwives, born from a mother that resided in foreign lands.
Recently, much has been made about the tradition and influence of Western Civilization on the world. However, Western Civilization did not originate in Western Europe, but instead, in the eastern part of the continent and stands on the shoulders of older civilizations in Africa and the Middle East.
The debate over the origins of Greek civilization began in earnest with the release of two seminal works: Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop’s (pronounced Jope) The African Origins of Civilization, Myth or Reality (1974) and Dr. Martin Bernal’s Black Athena thesis composed in three volumes: The first was The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785–1985 published in 1987. The second: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence (1991) and the last: The Linguistic Evidence (2006), In addition to these three volumes he wrote, Black Athena Writes Back (2001), which was a response to his critics. Their works were heavily scrutinized by scholars and Hellenophiles that sharply disagreed with their rendition of history.
A cursory investigation into the origins of Greek culture will trace its steps back to a much earlier non-Greek culture. One of the most prominent legends of the Greeks is about their hero Theseus who tied a cord to the entrance of the Cretan labyrinth and encountered the flesh-eating Minotaur in the middle of the labyrinth and slew him; thereby, freeing his fellow Greeks from the tribute of flesh demanded by the king of Crete.
However, in reviewing the history of Greece, we find another cord that freed them from their maze of ignorance and brought civilization to Europe. This cord could be traced, sometimes through the Phoenicians and other maritime nations, back to its source which was Ancient Egypt and Middle Eastern civilizations in existence thousands of years before the emergence of Greece.
In the myths of the Greeks, we find the origins of its existence. The myth of the labyrinth on Crete, from which the Greeks trace their roots may lay in the legends of the great labyrinth of pharaoh Amenemhat III of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom.
The Middle Kingdom was founded by Mentuhotep II and reigned from around (2050–1710) and was the most dominant nation in the region. It stretched from Ethiopia to the Levant. Furthermore, the Middle Kingdom was the nexus between the Old Kingdom (2666–2181) that erected the pyramids and the New Kingdom (1550–1069) which further expanded Egypt’s dominance in the region. Between the kingdoms, Egypt was ruled by foreign interlopers.
The second millennium BCE witnessed two extraordinary cultures that were the precursors of Greek civilization. They were the Minoans on the island of Crete and Mycenae on the mainland. These two civilizations have left indelible traces across Greece and a nexus to earlier civilizations of Africa and the Near East. The Cretan culture was called Minoan from the legendary king of Crete Minos and the Mycenaean culture earned its name from the town of Mycenae in the Peloponnese.
When studying the history of Greece, a clear migration pattern from the Minoans to the Mycenaeans to the Greeks is readily apparent. Although the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures were both influenced by more sophisticated cultures to their south and east, the impact of the Minoans on the Mycenaeans can be seen in the imitation of Minoan culture and products.
There is no doubt that Greece is the cornerstone of the Western world and there is also no doubt that the Greek accomplishments were significant. However, such accomplishments should not be viewed in isolation nor should we view the Greeks as a race of geniuses without any reference to those antecedent civilizations that laid the foundation for Greece. We often start our history of Greece with Homer, Hesiod (c. 750 BCE) and the Archaic period (800–500 BCE).
The Archaic period, however, was an era of transformation; and the Greeks of that period looked back to the Mycenaean era (between 1600–1200 BCE) for their history and legends. For example, the Trojan War is believed to have been fought toward the end of this period around 1200 BCE. The pyramids and sphinx of Egypt were over 1000 years old and Egypt was in its 18th dynasty.
In Greek myth, the primogenitor was Hellen the man who should not be confused with the female Helen of Troy (The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships) and she was the cause of the Trojan War. He had three sons Dorus, Aeolus and Xuthus from which the main Greek ethnic groups originated. They were the Dorians, the Aeolians, the Achaeans and the Ionians. The Greeks became known as Hellenes and Greece as Hellas. According to the Greeks, the original inhabitants of Greece were the Achaeans and the Ionians, who fought in the Trojan War. The descendants of Dorus and Aeolus the Dorians and the Aeolians arrived just before the Dark Ages at the fall of the Mycenaean civilization.
The Ionians later migrated across the sea to settle the Aegean islands and found Ionia. Therefore, the Athenians could boast that they were the descendants of the first inhabitants of Greece. It is most apparent that Greek myths represent distorted memories of the Greek Mycenaean era. Before the rise of the Mycenaean civilization in mainland Greece, the Minoan civilization flourished on the large island of Crete from around 2000–1400 BCE.
Although the legend of Troy had been around for millenniums, it was the excavation conducted by Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) that linked Mycenae to Troy. From childhood, Schliemann was fascinated by the Trojan War, and he dedicated his life to proving that the Greek legendary war was more than a myth.
Much of what we know about the Minoans could be attributed to the hard work and diligence of one man, Sir Arthur Evans (1851–1941). Like his predecessor Schliemann, Evans followed Homer and Theseus’ Cord back to the island of Crete. Evans was not a professional scholar, however, like Schliemann, he was guided by the Greek tradition of recording the history of Crete in their legends. He was fascinated by clay tablets with deciphered script and he began to excavate Knossos located in central Crete.
In 1900 CE, Evans came upon a building with nearly twelve hundred rooms. The similarities of the Minoan palaces to palaces in the Near East along with the sudden appearances of palaces around 1900 BCE strongly suggest cultural diffusion from the Near East and Egypt to the island of Crete. The objects found during excavations, such as seals, scarabs and rings show that the Cretans were in contact with Egypt. Between 1900 BCE and 1500 BCE, Crete was the western-most segment of the European Bronze Age world and was connected to the entire eastern Mediterranean. The inhabitants of this island were the first literate Europeans and are genetically close to the Myceneans.
Furthermore, the noted archeologist, Eduard Meyer, while excavating tombs in Thebes (Waset) in Upper Egypt, came upon paintings amazingly like those in the palace of Knossos. Meyer contends that the name Minoan assigned to the denizens of Crete is a misnomer and the real name of those inhabitants is Keftiu. Edward’s name and assumptions were based on the trail of the Mycenaeans to the Minoans and their myths.
Meyers, however, was the exact opposite, leading from the Egyptians directly to the Minoans (Keftiu). In Meyer’s paradigm, the cultural diffusion from the Egyptians to the Minoans is more direct and pervasive. For example, he cites the Greek legend that Daedalus, the builder of the Knossan labyrinth modeled his structure on the then famous labyrinth of Amememhet III of the 12th Dynasty. Although this labyrinth was in complete ruins by the time of the Victorian Egyptologist, it was described by Strabo (Book XVII, I, 37 Bohn) and by Herodotus 448 BCE.
There has been a tendency to draw a distinct line between the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures, from which the Greek culture originated, and Ancient Egypt. However, Egypt’s conservatism can serve as a link between the evolution and cultural diffusion of its great empire — to the rising age of the Greeks. Because of Egypt’s conservatism, time seems to culturally standstill thus providing an excellent reference to compare and discern the evolution of the Hellenistic culture. Although it is well accepted that the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures were the primogenitors of the Greeks, they are also linked to the continuous cultural and linguistic streams of Ancient Egypt.
For example, the frescos found on Crete show the importance of cult games in Minoan life. This was a tradition that migrated to Greece in the form of religious festivals in honor of their heroes. This Minoan tradition can also be found in Mycenaean Greece in the mystery plays and festivals. Ancient Egypt also had mystery plays that outdated the Minoan plays. One significant difference between the Egyptian drama and Greek theater is that the Egyptians concentrated on the life of the god, and Greeks on the life of the hero.
Some theories link the King of Crete Minos to Menes (sometimes referred to as Narmer) the first Pharaoh of Egypt. It is interesting to note that Diodorus Siculus distinguishes Minos I from Minos II. Now there are not less than 200 years between Minos I and Minos II, which infers a dynasty not a single ruler. Furthermore, Diodorus Siculus claims that the Minotaur lived in the labyrinthos, a term which he also applies to an Egyptian tomb which he claims Daidalos saw in Egypt and imitated in Crete for Minos.
Since the Egyptians did not use vowels Minos and Menes are structurally the same. Just as Kaiser and Czar have their entomological roots in the great Roman emperor Caesar, Menes and Mino may have a similar relationship as Menes undoubtedly was the Caesar of his day.
Now it is important to note that Minos is the son of Zeus begotten in Crete by Princess Europa. In other words, he is the son of god just as all Egyptian pharaohs were the embodiment of the son of god. A tradition that dates to the Old Kingdom. For example, the true name of the sphinx is Hor-am-Akhet (Horus on the Horizon). Horus was the son of the god Osiris. According to Egyptian myth, he was the first pharaoh.
There is also evidence that strongly suggests that the denizens on the island of Crete may have been in contact with the Egyptians as early as the Old Kingdom. Isis was the mother of Horus, the pharaoh of Egypt and likewise, Europa (from which Europe derives its name) was the mother of King Minos. She was raped by Zeus in the form of a bull. In Egyptian mythology, the holy bull, Apis, was linked with Osiris.
Moreover, according to Greek myths, the founders of Mycenae were the progeny of Princess Andromeda who was the daughter of an Ethiopian king. Both Minoan and Mycenaean primogenitors are princesses from foreign nations. What do these myths tell us about the origins of their civilizations? Thanks to the work of Evans and others, we now know that the Minoans were the predecessors of the Mycenaeans, and we can date their civilization to approximately 1450 BCE. The most active years of the Early Mycenaean Age are those from Egypt’s New Kingdom from the rise of Thutmose III to the end of Amenhotep III about 1380 BCE.
The Minoans were a maritime nation traveling to Egypt, the Near East, the islands of the Aegean and Southern Greece. It is during these travels that the Minoans came in contact with the Mycenaeans on the mainland. The Minoans did not speak Greek but had extensive contact with Egypt and the Near East, particularly the Phoenicians who were also maritime people, and they passed this culture to the Mycenaeans. In this regard, they were conduits of culture and knowledge of the Egyptians and Near East providing indirect cultural diffusion to the Mycenaeans.
The deep influence of the Minoans on the Mycenaean culture is now clear. In 1954 CE, Michael Ventris demonstrated that the Linear B script was a form of Greek. When the Cretan places were destroyed around 1450 BCE, only the one at Knossos was rebuilt. The records from Knossos during the last excavation were recorded in Linear B, not in Linear A which indicates that Greek-speaking Mycenaeans occupied Crete in its last phase. These were Greeks from the mainland that occupied Crete for three generations and during that time absorbed, as the Romans would do later: the knowledge of a greater civilization now in decline.
The myth of Theseus’ cord may be an allegory for the triumph of the mainland Mycenaean Greeks over the Minoans. This does not, however, exclude direct cultural diffusion as Mycenaean artifacts were discovered in Egypt by Sir Flinders Petrie (1853–1942). His breakthrough was helpful in the dating of the Mycenaean culture. Minoan and Mycenaean cultures ultimately became part of the oral tradition of the pre-Archaic Greeks. Legends such as those mentioned by Homer and Hesiod and possibly of Theseus on the island of Crete
Some of the legends, particularly the ones told by Hesiod, resemble the stories previously told by the Phoenicians. Historians and scholars have often pondered if the legends delineated in Homer’s two epic poems were myth masqueraded as history or true events. It is believed by most historians that the Trojans were not Greeks, but vassals of the Hittites to the east of modern-day Turkey. However, to the Greeks and later the Romans, the Trojan War was real history of a Heroic age.
Also, part of Greek legend is the presence of Ethiopians at the battle of Troy and the reverence for Ethiopia during the Heroic period. In fact, Ethiopia was the place where the gods came to feast, and the Greeks often referred to them as the blameless race. An example from the Iliad states: “Only yesterday Zeus went off to the Ocean Riverto feast with the Aethiopians, loyal, lordly men, and all of the gods went with him.”. Iliad 1.423–4 (Thetis is speaking to Achilles.)
Also recorded are noble warriors such as Memnon, the Ethiopian king, who was memorialized in art and poem. “To Troy no hero came of nobler line; Or if of nobler, Memnon it was thine.” [Odyssey Book XI] So much so that centuries later, the twin statues of pharaoh Amenhotep III located in Egypt were named the Colossus of Memnon by the Greeks.
The word Ethiopian is the combination of two Greek words burnt and skin and thus does not only refer to a specific nation but rather to an ethnic or racial group located in other lands. During the Trojan War, Ethiopians (black people) may have lived in the vicinity of Troy. The Colossus of Memnon demonstrates that the Greeks, on occasion, associated Egyptians with Ethiopians. Furthermore, Herodotus wrote in his history centuries later:
“The Egyptians said that they believed the Colchians to be descended from the army of Sesostris (Senusret). My own conjectures were founded, first, on the fact that they are black-skinned and have woolly hair.” Sesostris was a pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom who led a military expedition into Europe. The presence of Ethiopians at the Trojan War may shed some light on the demographics during the Mycenean era. One may ask the question: Why would Ethiopians travel thousands of miles to fight a war in Troy when they had no skin in the game?
The Greeks celebrated this age in the poems of Homer and in the oral tradition prevalent before the Greeks learned how to read and write from the Phoenicians. It is also important to note that during the Mycenaean period, the Phoenicians were under the Egyptian sphere of influence which gave them access to Egyptian expertise and products that they modified to make goods of which the Greeks emulated.
Furthermore, the Greeks associated papyrus paper and rope made from the stem of papyrus with the Phoenician city that was a port. The city of Byblos (which traded cedar for paper) was closely linked to papyrus, so much so that when the writings of the Hebrew prophets were translated into Greek, the city’s name, Byblos, was given to the Bible. Both products were uniquely Egyptian, yet they entered Greece, not from the Egyptians, but through the Phoenicians.
Since the Egyptians have never been maritime people, they relied on vassals such as the Phoenicians to be the conduit of their goods to what they viewed as the frontier. Moreover, it was a practice of the Egyptians to raise the son of the king of their vassals in Egypt, thus, molding its future leaders in the image of the Egyptians. Besides, princesses from other lands were also sent to Egypt and it is important to note that the Egyptians did not export their princesses to foreign lands.
Also significant is the profound influence that the Egyptians had over the entire Mediterranean region particularly the Levant during the Mycenaean era. During this time, the Phoenicians represented Egyptian power in the Levant. However, they were powerful in their own right and masters of the sea. This aspect of the Phoenicians was beneficial to Egypt and the region. However, for reasons unknown but often speculated, the Mycenaean culture collapsed around 1200 BCE and the period between 1200 BCE and about 800 BCE is often referred to as the Dark Ages of the Greeks.
The most common theory for the rapid collapse is a cataclysmic event such as a volcanic eruption. However, it could have also been an internal collapse or an external military invasion. It is also interesting to note, that the collapse of the Mycenaean culture corresponds to an overall decline in the eastern Mediterranean and the first mention of the state of Israel. However, this time also corresponds with the rise of the sea people some of which were the Philistines mentioned in the Bible from which the name Palestine emerged. As in the case of the Canaanites (Phoenicians), it is hard to obtain an unbiased opinion of the Philistines by reading the Bible because of the disdain that the Hebrews had for them.
The connection between the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, the Trojan War and the rise of Israel (or the possibility that the Philistines were perhaps responsible for the decline of the Canaanites) is seldom mentioned. During this decline, Israel produced three great kings, Saul, David and Solomon. The greatness of David and Solomon may have been attributed to the incorporation of ideas that they inherited from the Philistines, who in turn inherited some of them from the Canaanites.
There is perhaps a nexus between the Mycenean myths told by the Greeks, the stories in the Bible and history as recorded by the Egyptians. According to (Exodus 12:41) the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for 430 years. Many historians associate Hyksos with the Jews in Egypt at the time of Joseph and the Exodus. Many historians interpret the phrase in the Bible: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1:8): as the end of the Hyksos domination and the rise of the New Kingdom under Ahmose I.
The Hyksos were expelled from Egypt in 1546 at the start of the New Kingdom. If you subtract 430 years from 1546, it equals the year 1116 BCE which is very close to the historical date of the establishment of the state of Israel, the decline of Mycenae and the New Kingdom. Toward the end of the New Kingdom, Egypt’s influence and interest in the Levant waned, which created a vacuum of power in the region.
Although there is no Egyptian historical record of Jewish slaves in Egypt, the biblical narrative could reflect the suppression of the Hyksos in Egypt and their presence in the Levant. In the top painting below, those on the right are Egyptians, and on the left foreigners entering into Egypt: a consistent theme of the Intermediate Periods. This theme is consistent with the biblical narratives of Abraham and Joseph.
In the Levant, Solomon’s greatest skill may have been his diplomacy which may also account for the worship of Canaanite gods in Israel. Some scholars believe that Israel was able to establish a temporary state because of the chaos and the weakness of its surrounding neighbors. Once their neighbors came out of this decline, Israel went into decline and was eventually divided and conquered by outside nations. After this time, there was a resurgence of an independent Phoenician state that established colonies all over the Mediterranean.
The collapse of Mycenae around 1200 was the end of the age of Greek legend. Yet their influence was remembered in the Homeric poems that have lasted for ages. The Iliad and the Odyssey, however, are only two parts of an eight-part known as “the Epic Cycle” of the Trojan War that emanates from a much older oral tradition.
The others are as follows: the Cypria, which focuses on the first nine years of the war; the Aethiopis, which focuses on Troy’s alliance with Ethiopia, the Little Iliad on the Trojan Horse, the Iliupersis, on the sack of Troy, the Nortoris, on the return of the Greek heroes and the Telegony a continuation of the Odyssey. Although the Iliad ends with the killing of Hector by Achilles, we learn of Achilles’ death by Paris through other parts of the Epic Cycle.
The Greek City-States (polis) would emerge from the groundwork laid during the Heroic Age and the influence of non-European nations on Greece. Rome would later follow in the footsteps of the Greeks and bring civilization to the Western part of Europe. Thus, the pillars of Western Civilization stand on the foundation laid in foreign lands millenniums before.
The story of civilization is the story of humankind; Western Civilization, although sometimes used as a euphemism for European superiority, is just one piece of this evolving story.
