From Athens to Crete and Back
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From Athens to Crete and back The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Nagy, G. 2015.09.10. "From Athens to Crete and back." Classical Inquiries. http://nrs.harvard.edu/ urn-3:hul.eresource:Classical_Inquiries. Published Version https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/from-athens-to-crete- and-back/ Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:39666396 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Classical Inquiries Editors: Angelia Hanhardt and Keith Stone Consultant for Images: Jill Curry Robbins Online Consultant: Noel Spencer About Classical Inquiries (CI ) is an online, rapid-publication project of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies, devoted to sharing some of the latest thinking on the ancient world with researchers and the general public. While articles archived in DASH represent the original Classical Inquiries posts, CI is intended to be an evolving project, providing a platform for public dialogue between authors and readers. 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Citing Articles from Classical Inquiries To cite an article from Classical Inquiries, use the author’s name, the date, the title of the article, and the following persistent identifer: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.eresource:Classical_Inquiries. For example: Nagy, G. 2019.01.31. “Homo Ludens at Play with the Songs of Sappho: Experiments in Comparative Reception Teory, Part Four.” Classical Inquiries. http://nrs.harvard.edu/ urn-3:hul.eresource:Classical_Inquiries. Classical Inquiries Studies on the Ancient World from CHS Home About People Home » By Gregory Nagy » From Athens to Crete and back From Athens to Crete and back Share This September 10, 2015 By Gregory Nagy listed under By Gregory Nagy 1 Comment Edit This In my posting for 2015.08.26, I spoke of a “MinoanMycenaean civilization,” not saying “Minoan” and “Mycenaean” separately. That is because, as we saw in the postings for both 2015.08.26 and 2015.09.03, some of the myths that we encounter about Minoan civilization as centered on the island of Crete are infused with elements that are distinctly Mycenaean as well as Minoan. And such an infusion has to do with the fact that Minoan civilization, which had evolved in the context of a “Minoan Empire,” as archaeologists know it, was eventually taken over by a “Mycenaean Empire.” This takeover, as I argued already in the postings for both 2015.08.26 and 2015.09.03, resulted in modifications of myths about the Minoan Empire by way of myths about the Mycenaean Empire. Now we will see that these modifications, taking place on the island of Crete, involved the city of Athens as it existed in the Mycenaean era. Introduction §0.1. In my posting for 2015.08.26, I spoke of a “MinoanMycenaean civilization,” not saying “Minoan” and “Mycenaean” separately. That is because, as we saw in the postings for both 2015.08.26 and 2015.09.03, Classical Inquiries (CI) is an online, some of the myths that we encounter about Minoan civilization as centered on the island of Crete are rapid-publication project of Harvard’s infused with elements that are distinctly Mycenaean as well as Minoan. And such an infusion has to do with Center for Hellenic Studies, devoted to the fact that Minoan civilization, which had evolved in the context of a “Minoan Empire,” as archaeologists sharing some of the latest thinking on know it, was eventually taken over by a “Mycenaean Empire.” This takeover, as I argued already in the the ancient world with researchers and postings for both 2015.08.26 and 2015.09.03, resulted in modifications of myths about the Minoan Empire the general public. by way of myths about the Mycenaean Empire. Now we will see that these modifications, taking place on the island of Crete, involved the city of Athens as it existed in the Mycenaean era. Editor §0.2. I must stress here that the myths stemming from MinoanMycenaean civilization need be studied from a diachronic as well as a synchronic perspective. The terms synchronic and diachronic, as I use them here, come from linguistics.[1] When linguists use the word synchronic, they are thinking of a given structure as it exists in a given time and space; when they use diachronic, they are thinking of that Keith Stone structure as it evolves through time.[2] [email protected] A missing link: the Athenian connection §1. In speaking about a Mycenaean “infusion” into Minoan mythmaking, I have concentrated in the postings Search for: for 2015.08.26 and 2005.09.03 on Athenian myths and rituals concerning the hero Theseus. But I have not Search yet made it clear why these myths and rituals concerning Theseus, which are of course Athenian myths, are also Mycenaean myths. Here I return to the concept of an “Athenian connection.” Subscribe Now! §2. I introduced this concept at §§6 and 48 in the posting for 2015.08.26. As I already argued there, the myth about the Ring of Minos, recovered by Theseus from the depths of the Aegean Sea, must have aetiologized the idea of a transition from a Minoan thalassocracy to an Athenian thalassocracy. But such an Subscribe to this site to receive email idea did not start with the likes of Herodotus and Thucydides in the classical period of the late fifth century updates about the latest research—just BCE. The mythical construct of a connection between the Athenian and the Minoan thalassocracies one or two notices per week. originated not in the classical period. No, in terms of my argument, this myth existed already in the Mycenaean period of Crete. This was the time when the Minoan civilization of that island, which had EU/EEA Privacy Disclosures evolved in the context of a Minoan Empire, was being taken over by Greekspeaking elites of the Mycenaean Empire. These elites came from the mainland of what we call Greece today, yes, but I would be suffering from a “blind spot” if I thought of these Greekspeakers simply as “Mycenaeans”—as if they all came from the Mycenaean acropolis of Mycenae. As we will now see, some of these “Mycenaeans” came from other places in Greece, and one of those places was the Mycenaeanera acropolis in Athens. That is what I mean when I speak of an Athenian connection. Now Online §3. Evidence comes from the Linear B tablets found in the socalled Room of the Chariot Tablets at Knossos in Crete. At §§16–23 in the posting for 2015.08.26, I have already spoken about the administrative unit that was in charge of the recordkeeping as reflected in the contents of the tablets stored in this room, which can be dated at around 1400 BCE. At §22, I noted with special interest the “Mycenaean” cultural agenda reflected in the written records of the Linear B tablets that are linked to the administrative zone represented by this particular room in the context of the overall administration in the “palace” at Knossos. I quoted the apt formulation of Thomas Palaima, who notes that the administrative unit responsible for keeping written records at the Room of the Chariot Tablets in Knossos was using these records “mainly for the monitoring and distribution of military equipment (chariots, body armo[u]r, horses) to a Greek dominated military élite.”[3] And I already said back then, at §22, that the Mycenaean Greek name for such a military élite would have been Akhaioí ‘Achaeans’. But now I will also say that some of these ‘Achaeans’ were Athenians. To say it another way, at least some of the “Mycenaeans” who were running the administration of the labyrinthine “palace” at Knossos around 1400 BCE must have been Athenians. §4. For me the “smoking gun” that proves the Athenian provenience of at least some of the “Mycenaeans” who ran the administration of Knossos around 1400 BCE is the name of one of the divinities listed in one of the Linear B texts found in the socalled Room of the Chariot Tablets. The text is written in the Knossos tablet V 52, and the name of the divinity in line one of that text is atanapotinija. An article published in 2001 by Joann Gulizio, Kevin Pluta, and Thomas Palaima argues persuasively that the name of this divinity is to be read as Athānās potnia and needs to be interpreted as ‘[our] Lady of Athens’, not as ‘our Lady [the goddess] Athena’.[4] §5. If it is true that the goddess who is featured so prominently in the pantheon of divinities recorded in Knossos tablet V 52 is ‘our Lady of Athens’, then we see here a direct reference to the goddess of the acropolis of Athens in mainland Greece, specifically, in Attica.