So, in addition to demonizing #Matriarchal societies, #Homer took a stab at the survivors of the #BronzeAgeCollapse on #Crete by turning them into the #Cyclops! Not a surprise! I noticed that #Odysseus eyed the "Cyclops Island" as prime #RealEstate (like a typical #Colonist!). Of course the so-called "civilized" #AncientGreeks had to demonize peoples who had lived under female rulers or NO RULERS!

Were the Odyssey’s #Cyclopes Actually #Minoans?

By Caleb Howells, January 6, 2026

Excerpt: "Drawing on his experience sailing a replica of an Ancient Greek galley, Severin estimated that Odysseus would have reached the coast of Libya, specifically near the site that later became the Greek colony of Cyrene. This was the Land of the Lotus Eaters. From there, Odysseus resumed his journey back to Ithaca, logically sailing north toward Southern Greece. Along this route, he would likely have arrived at the southwestern corner of #Crete, where the peninsula of #Paleochora was once separated from the main island, forming a small offshore island.

"This scenario closely matches the Odyssey’s description of Odysseus arriving at a small island situated just beside the island where the Cyclopes lived.

How the Cyclopes match the Minoans of Crete

"Severin’s argument that Crete was the island of the Cyclopes is highly compelling. But how do the Minoans fit into this theory? Regarding the Minoan city of Kommos in southern Crete, Severin noted its abandonment in the Late Bronze Age and asked:

" 'What had happened to the survivors of Kommos and the other Minoan settlements along this coast? Could they have fallen back to the barest subsistence level, living in caves and practicing the sort of simple pastoral farming that Ulysses found among the Cyclopes?'

"In essence, Severin suggested that the Cyclopes of the Odyssey may have been Minoans who, after the collapse of their magnificent #BronzeAge civilization, returned to a #simpler, more primitive way of life. While Severin did not explore this idea in depth, a closer examination reveals there is substantial evidence for this."

Read more:
https://greekreporter.com/2026/01/06/odyssey-cyclopes-minoans/

#AncientHistory #Crete #Histodon #BronzeAgeCollapse #Colonialism

The Drugs Used by the #AncientGreeks and #Romans

November 26th, 2021

"Many of us living in the parts of the world where marijuana has recently been legalized may regard ourselves as partaking of a highly modern pleasure. And given the ever-increasing sophistication of the growing and processing techniques that underlie what has become a formidable #cannabis industry, perhaps, on some level, we are. But as intellectually avid enthusiasts of #psychoactive substances won’t hesitate to tell you, their use stretches farther back in time than history itself. 'For as long as there has been civilization, there have been #MindAlteringDrugs,' writes Science’s Andrew Lawler. But was anyone using them in the predecessors to western civilization as we know it today?

"For quite some time, scholars believed that unlike, say, Mesoamerica or north Africa, 'the ancient Near East had seemed curiously drug-free.' But now, 'new techniques for analyzing residues in excavated jars and identifying tiny amounts of plant material suggest that ancient Near Easterners indulged in a range of #psychoactive substances.'

"The latest evidence suggests that, already three millennia ago, 'drugs like cannabis had arrived in #Mesopotamia, while people from #Turkey to #Egypt experimented with local substances such as blue water lily.' That these habits seem to have continued in ancient Greece and Rome is suggested by archaeological evidence summarized in the video above.

"In 2019, archaeologists unearthed a few precious artifacts from a fourth-century Scythian burial mound near Stavropol in Russia. There were 'golden armbands, golden cups, a heavy gold ring, and the greatest treasure of all, two spectacular golden vessels,' says narrator Garrett Ryan, who earned a PhD in Greek and Roman History from the University of Michigan. The interiors of those last
'were coated with a sticky black residue,' confirmed in the lab to be #opium with traces of #marijuana. 'The #Scythians, in other words, got high' — as did 'their Greek and Roman neighbors.' Ryan, author of Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans, goes on to make intriguing connections between scattered but relevant pieces of archaeological and textual evidence. We know that some of our civilizational forebears got high; how many, and how high, are questions for future scholastic inquiry."

Source:
https://www.openculture.com/2021/11/the-drugs-used-by-the-ancient-greeks-and-romans.html

#MysteryCults #Rituals #RomanHistory #GreekHistory #AncientHistory #BlueLotus

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