MINOS

”Minos” is often interpreted as the Cretan word for ”king”,[1] or, by a eu-
hemerist interpretation, the name of a particular king that was subsequently
used as a title.
There is a name in Minoan Linear A mi-nu-te that may be related to
Minos.
According to La Marle’s reading of Linear A,[2] which has been heavily
criticised as arbitrary,[3] we should read mwi-nu ro-ja (Minos the king) on a
Linear A tablet.
The royal title ro-ja is read on several documents, including on stone
libation tables from the sanctuaries, where it follows the name of the main
god, Asirai (the equivalent of Sanskrit Asura, and of Avestan Ahura).
La Marle suggests that the name mwi-nu (Minos) is expected to mean
’ascetic’ as Sanskrit muni, and fits this explanation to the legend about Minos
sometimes living in caves on Crete.[4]
If royal succession in Minoan Crete descended matrilinearly from the
queen to her firstborn daughter the queen’s husband would have become
the Minos, or war chief.
Some scholars see a connection between Minos and the names of other
ancient founder-kings, such as Menes of Egypt, Mannus of Germany, and
Manu of India,[5][6] and even with Meon of Phrygia and Lydia (after him
named Maeonia), Mizraim of Egypt in the Book of Genesis and the Canaanite
deity Baal.[7]