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There is a land called Crete In the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair rich land, surrounded by water. (Homer, Odyssey 19.172-3, my translation)
This article focuses on three examples of the Minoan in science fiction,1 two from television, the other from literature. 'The Broca Divide' (1997), the fourth episode of Stargate SG-1 's first season, sees a community of civilized, peaceful Minoans living with the threat of a curse which causes individuals to become animalistic and uncivilized. In the Doctor Who serial, 'The Time Monster' (1972), the Doctor and his companion visit Atlantis, which the series purports to be related to Minoan civilization. Laura E. Reeve's 'Major Ariane Kedros' novels (2008-10) envisage an unfathomable alien race of masked Minoans who enforce a tense peace on the space-faring Hellenic and Terran human civilizations.
It would be simple enough to present the image of the Minoans as portrayed in these works, and compare and contrast that with what we know of Bronze Age Cretan civilization from archaeology and a handful of sources from Egypt and the Levant. But more important than the what is the why: why do these works use the idea of the Minoans? What makes a Minoan? What makes the Minoans good to think with? For their influence in the science fiction and fantasy genres is less pervasive than their more recognizable Iron Age Homeric and Classical successors in the Aegean; thus, when it arises we are unable to dismiss it, even if we want to, as merely part of the genre landscape.
Between 1921 and 1935, Arthur Evans published his multi-volume Palace of Minos, placing his excavations at Knossos within the broader narrative of both Bronze Age Crete and the wider Mediterranean. At Knossos, he had discovered evidence of an extensive Bronze Age civilization. This society was seen as a counterpart to the Greek civilization already known on the mainland from the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann and his successors at Mycenae; Evans termed it Minoan, after the mythical king Minos, son of Zeus and Europa. The mythical Minos is most famous as a lawgiver and for the transgression of his wife Pasiphaë, who had intercourse with the bull of Poseidon. It was in Minos's labyrinth that tribute youths from Athens were...