LOCATION...LOCATION...MINOAN!

Bronze Age fresco from Akrotiri, Thera/Santorini, c. 17th c. BC
The island formerly known as Thera (not the same as “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince”) is now called Santorini.  But it had another name once: Kalliste, Most Beautiful (Place).  They say that its name only changed to Thera – “Place of Fear” – when the volcano exploded.  It’s a wonderful story, but who knows for certain whether it’s true?
(On second thought, I do.  Take a look at the gorgeous, green-blue caldera in my earlier blog.  Thera’s still one of the most beautiful places in the world).
To judge by their art, the Minoans – the Bronze Age people who populated Thera, as well as Crete and the other Aegean islands – were a highly developed, extraordinarily photo-op-friendly culture.  Their frescoes explode with color and life.  In them, the people are tall, athletic, and good-looking, with long, rippling, black locks and large, expressive eyes.  To judge by their Toreador Fresco, they didn’t get those muscles from going to the gym.  They weren’t just for show.  These people actually worked out, if you know what I mean.
Modern cartoonists have nothing on the animal forms inhabiting their pottery.  (The Octopus Vase is a particularly good example).  The animals look like something out of Disney’s The Little Mermaid: naturalistic, animated, even humorous.  At any moment, you expect them to break into song.
Anyway, the Minoans started to disappear around 1628 BC, give or take twenty years, if the scientists are correct.  They were replaced by – or absorbed into – the Mycenaean culture.  These are the warlike people who brought you the Iliad.  If you’re more of a recent-film-buff than an ancient-epic-poetry-reader, that’s Troy, with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom.
But, loathe as I am to leave Achilles and Paris, back to the Minoans.  They disappeared.  Or were assimilated into Mycenaean or some other society.  Or a little of both.  Which brings us to…Amazonia.
(Don’t get too excited, here.  We’re not going to Disneyland.  But, it’s still a pretty fun place).  Check it out…tomorrow!

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