Mythology
An ethnic identity, the Tjeker must have formed during a long period of common residency, polity and language. The tradition offers basically two candidates for a homeland: Crete or the Greek mainland, especially Attica. There is no sign of them in Attica beyond the words of a few late mythographers. Cretan mythology is intertwined with their story.
Minoan archaeology would do very well as evidence except that it is not ethnic-specific. The Minoan language remains unknown. Cretan mythology is not tied to any one people. No Tjeker are mentioned in Linear B and possibilities in Linear A depend on the brand of partial "decipherment"; i.e., there is no real decipherment and therefore no reference to the Tjeker.
As a last resort the early scholars in the field turned to modern names; specifically, it was probably Flinders Petrie who proposed a linguistic relation to Zakro. On the one hand there is no evidence whatever to support the connection. On the other, nothing prevents such a speculation; in fact, a Minoan community and palace has been found at Zakro, the name has the right consonants, modern names do appear in Linear B (though not Zakro), and the eastern Crete location faces the Levant. Some modern scholars do accept the association.
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Famous quotes containing the word mythology:
“One memorable addition to the old mythology is due to this era,—the Christian fable. With what pains, and tears, and blood these centuries have woven this and added it to the mythology of mankind! The new Prometheus. With what miraculous consent, and patience, and persistency has this mythus been stamped on the memory of the race! It would seem as if it were in the progress of our mythology to dethrone Jehovah, and crown Christ in his stead.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the United States there’s a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past.... Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)