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According to Greek mythology and the prehistory of the Aegean world reflected in literary accounts of legendary material, the Minyans were an autochthonous group inhabiting the Aegean region. Before World War II, archaeologists sometimes applied the term "Minyans" differently, to indicate the very first wave of Proto-Greek speakers in the 2nd millennium BCE, among the early Bronze Age cultures sometimes identified with the beginning of Middle Helladic culture. Gray "Minyan ware" is an archaeologist's term for a particular style of Aegean pottery associated with the Middle Helladic period (ca. 2100-1550 BCE). Thus the beginning of the Middle Helladic period would be marked by the immigration of these "Minyans". According to Emily Vermeule, this was the first wave of true Hellenes in Greece. More recently, however, archaeologists and paleoethnologists find the term "Minyan" to be questionable: "To call the makers of Minyan ware themselves 'Minyans' is reprehensible", remarked F. H. Stubbings. "Deriving ethnic names from pottery styles is one of the most deplorable habits in archaeology," F. J. Tritsch asserted in 1974. "We cheerfully speak of the 'Minyans' when we mean a population that uses pottery we call 'Minyan'," although he was mistaken in saying that the Greeks themselves never mention the 'Minyans' as a tribe or as a people.

The Mycenaean Greeks reached Crete as early as 1450 BCE. Greek presence on the mainland, however, dates to 1600 BCE as shown in the latest shaft graves, if material culture can be securely linked to language-based ethnicity. Other aspects of the "Minyan" period appear to arrive from northern Greece and the Balkans (tumulus graves, perforated stone axes). It is unknown whether Proto-Greeks were present from as early as EH III, and thus bearers of the "Minyan" culture, or if they arrived as late as 1600 BCE displacing Minyan/Middle Helladic culture.

Classical Greek uses of "Minyans"

Greeks did not always clearly distinguish the Minyans from the Pelasgian cultures that had preceded them. Greek mythographers gave the Minyans an eponymous founder, Minyas, perhaps as legendary as Pelasgus (the founding father of the Pelasgians), which was a broader category of pre-Greek Aegean peoples. These Minyans were associated with Boeotian Orchomenus, as when Pausanias relates that "Teos used to be inhabited by Minyans of Orchomenus, who came to it with Athamas." and may have represented a ruling dynasty or a tribe later located in Boeotia.

Herodotus asserts several times that Pelasgians dwelt in the distant past with the Athenians in Attica, and that those Pelasgians driven from Attica in turn drove the Minyans out of Lemnos.

Heracles, the hero whose exploits always celebrate the new Olympian order over the old traditions, came to Thebes, one of the ancient Mycenaean cities of Greece, and found that the Greeks were paying tribute of 100 cattle (a hecatomb) each year to Erginus, king of the Minyans. Heracles attacked a group of emissaries from the Minyans, and cut off their ears, noses and hands. He then tied them around their necks and told them to take those for tribute to Erginus. Erginus quite understandably made war on Thebes, but Heracles defeated the Minyans with his fellow Thebans after arming them with weapons that had been dedicated in temples. This appalling and blasphemous behavior showed that Bronze Age rules of social decorum were over: Erginus was killed and the Minyans were forced to pay double the previous tribute to the Thebans. And Heracles was credited with the burning of the palace at Orchomenus: "Then appearing unawares before the city of the Orchomenians and slipping in at their gates he burned the palace of the Minyans and razed the city to the ground."

The Argonauts were sometimes referred to as "Minyans" because Jason's mother came from that line, and several of his cousins joined in the adventure.

Archaeological evidence

In his article entitled The Early Helladic Period in the Argolid, J. Caskey outlined the results of his excavations at Lerna from 1952 up until 1958. He states that the hallmarks of Middle Helladic (i.e. Gray Minyan ware and the fast potter's wheel) originated from Early Helladic III. Caskey also states that Lerna (along with settlements at Tiryns, Asine in the Argolid, Agios Kosmas near Athens, and perhaps Corinth) was destroyed at the end of Early Helladic II. He suggests that the invaders of these Early Helladic II settlements may have been Greeks speaking a prototype of the later Greek language. However, there is evidence of destruction at the end of the Early Helladic III period at Korakou (near Corinth) and Eutresis in Boeotia.

References

1. Stubbings, reviewing Albert Severyns, Grèce et Proche-orient avant Homère in The Classical Review New Series 11.3 (December 1961:259).
2. Tritsch, "The 'Sackers of Cities' and the movement of populations", in R. A. Crossland and A. Birchall, eds. Bronze Age Migrations in the Aegean: Archaeological and Linguistic Problems in Greek Prehistory (Proceedings of the First International Colloquium on Aegean Prehistory, Sheffield, 1973) 1974:236.
3. Pausanias, vii.3.6.
4. Herodotus, Histories i.57; ii.51.7 and 12.
5. A. G. Laird, "Herodotus on the Pelasgians in Attica" The American Journal of Philology 54.2 (1933:97-119) addressed the issue as a matter of philology.
6. Bibliotheke ii.4.11 records the origin of the Theban tribute as recompense for the mortal wounding of Clymenus, king of the Minyans, with a cast of a stone by a charioteer of Menoeceus in the precinct of Poseidon at Onchestus; the myth is reported also by Diodorus Siculus, iv.10.3.
7. Diodorus Siculus, iv.10.5.
8. Ovid. Metamorphoses, vii. The Minyans were stark with fear.
9. Hood, p. 8-9. "In an article on 'The Early Helladic Period in the Argolid' (Hesperia 29 (1960), 285 ff.), J. Caskey outlines some of the more important results of his excavations at Lerrla from 1952-1958: The settlement here (including the palatial 'House of the Tiles') was destroyed by fire, apparently by invaders, at the end of Early Helladic II (Lerna III). The Early Helladic III settlement (Lerna IV) belonged to these invaders. It was from this Early Helladic III horizon that the embossed bone plaque and the clay anchor ornaments came (Hesperia 23 (1954), 22 pl. 9 g; 25 (1956), pl. 47 1-p; 26. (1957), pl. 42 e). It seems that the Middle Helladic period (Lerna V) began without any violent break, although it was marked by the appearance of new features, such as matt-painted pottery and the custom of burial inside the settlement. What is most important is the fact that certain features, which have hitherto been regarded as hallmarks of Middle Helladic, notably Gray Minyan ware and the use of the fast potter's wheel, had their origins in Early Helladic III. Caskey notes that the settlements at Tiryns and Asine in the Argolid, Ayios Kosmas near Athens, and perhaps Corinth, were all apparently destroyed at the end of Early Helladic II like Lerna. It is suggested that the invaders responsible for the destruction of these Early Helladic II settlements may have spoken a prototype of the later Greek language-may, that is, in a general sense have been the Greeks. There is, however, evidence for another destruction at the knd of the Early Helladic III period at Korakou (near Corinth) and Eutresis in Boeotia."

See also

• Pelasgians
• Pre-Greek substrate

Sources

• Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities
• Valerius Maximus, Factorum et dictorum memorabilium iv, ix.
• H. J. Walker (translator). Memorable Deeds and Sayings: One Thousand Tales from Ancient Rome By Valerius Maximus. Rome: Hackett Publishing, 2004, p. 146-149. ISBN 0872206742
• Hood, M. S. F. "Archaeology in Greece". Archaeological Reports, No. 7 (1960), pp. 3-35.

• Greek mythology
• Mythological peoples