in assassin's creed odyssey you play as
a legendary warrior following mythic
heroes like heracles and perseus
it's fitting considering that in ancient
greek society myths played a powerful
role and often influenced real life and
vice versa
a perfect example of this is on the
island of crete in the masara and pefka
regions
where you may have noticed they're
somewhat fond of bowls
more specifically minotaurs
but where exactly did this iconography
come from and why is it primarily
concentrated in crete
as it turns out greece has a long
history before the classical period of
cassandra and alexios and many of the
myths popularized during their time have
roots in greece's bronze age
when it comes to the minotaur look no
further than the palace of kanasos just
south of heraklion
the palace dates back to around 1700 bce
meaning that by the time cassandra and
alexios visit it the runes are already
over 1300 years old
discovered by archaeologists sir arthur
evans and his team in the 20th century
the site was believed to be the palace
of the mythical king minos
evans decided to name the bronze age
civilization after the fabled king and
dubbed the people as the minoans
but how exactly did evans link king
minos to the palace of kanasos
well as the myth goes minus rules the
island of crete
after angering poseidon minos's wife
gave birth to a half-man half-bull known
as the minotaur
with the help of the architect daedalus
minos constructed a labyrinth to house
the beast and used it to punish his
enemies until an athenian named theseus
came to slay the creature
when evans uncovered konasas he and his
team discovered a massive amount of bull
iconography
you can find examples of this all over
the regions of masara and pefka
believed to represent bull horns the
ornamental decoration on top of the
building became known as the horns of
consecration
evans uncovered the famous bull leaping
fresco which led him and many others to
believe that minoans clearly
incorporated bulls into some sort of
dangerous ritual
you can find reproductions of this
fresco and minoan ruins all over
odyssey's greece
kanasos especially in its ruined state
was not easy to navigate
in fact it was rather maze-like
couple this with a dangerous bull
leaping ritual and suddenly the myth of
king minos condemning people to death by
feeding them to a minotaur hidden inside
of a labyrinth begins to take shape
with more than 1300 years separating the
minoans from cassandra and alexios it's
easy to see how the myth of the minotaur
could seep into their culture become
twisted and maybe even take physical
form
[Applause]
visit kanasos today and you'll be
greeted by a network of ruins
what remains standing was rebuilt by
evans and his team
as a civilization that precedes
classical greece by more than a thousand
years the minoans were incredibly
advanced as the palace of kanassas
featured buildings four stories tall
with built-in plumbing and rudimentary
climate control
minoan ruins are easy to spot in game
thanks to their unique columns which
were actually thinner at the base
made of wood no original columns
survived to this day
much of what we know of the minoans was
learned by studying what they left
behind since archaeologists are unable
to read their language
frescoes like these are all that
archaeologists have left to decipher and
can be seen in various underground ruins
in-game
given that they were the only form of
communication we're able to interpret
from the minoans they provide insight
into minoan culture ritual and clothing
like the legendary theseus you'll have
the opportunity to explore the labyrinth
and slay the mythical minotaur
but remember like nearly all myths the
minotaur is grounded in the reality of
the real-life minoan civilization
[Music]
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