Editing Cercopes (section)

== As monkeys ==
In another myth,<ref>{{Cite book|title=A new classical dictionary of Greek and Roman biography, mythology and geography : partly based upon the Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology.|last=Smith, William, Sir, 1813-1893.|date=2000|publisher=Making of America|oclc=612127868}}</ref> designed to explain their name ("tail-men" in Greek), [[Zeus]] changed the Cercopes into [[monkey]]s. This story inspired modern zoologists to name the genus of monkeys depicted in [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] frescoes as ''[[Cercopithecus]]''.

Monkeys figure in four Minoan frescos at [[Akrotiri (prehistoric city)|Akrotiri]], most famously in the crocus-gathering Xeste&nbsp;3 fresco, where the monkey's ritual aspect, attending an enthroned female, is interpreted by [[Nanno Marinatos]] as servants of the divinity, acting as intermediary between humanity and the divine world.<ref>{{cite book |author=Marinatos, N. |editor1=Hägg, R. |editor2=Marinatos, N. |title=The Function of the Minoan Palaces |place=Stockholm |year=1987 |pages=124–130}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Vanschoonwinkel, J. |url=http://www.therafoundation.org/articles/art/animalrepresentationsintheranandotheraegeanarts |title=Animal Representations in Theran and Other Aegean Arts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011060116/http://www.therafoundation.org/articles/art/animalrepresentationsintheranandotheraegeanarts |archive-date=11 October 2008}} gives a summary of the depiction of monkeys in Minoan and Theran art, with bibliographical references.</ref> Green monkeys appear in Crete itself in the "House of the Frescoes" at [[Knossos]],<ref>{{cite journal |first=M.A.S. |last=Cameron |title=Unpublished paintings from the 'House of Frescoes' at Knossos |journal=BSA |volume=63 |year=1968 |at=pages&nbsp;1–31 and figure&nbsp;13}} shows a restored image.{{full citation|issue=Need full name of journal BSA.|date=November 2019}}</ref> Monkeys are absent from Greek art. In Minoan art, it is assumed that they were exotic pets: "...&nbsp;the monkeys, which were imported to Crete, were pets that would have been placed where they could be seen and used by their owners, rather than simply abandoned in the countryside," concluded Shaw (1993).<ref>{{cite journal |first=Maria C. |last=Shaw |title=The Aegean Garden |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=97 |issue=4 |date=October 1993 |pages=661–685, esp. 668–670|doi=10.2307/506717 |jstor=506717 }}</ref> When Greek mythographers attempted to account for the name ''Pithecusae'' (“Ape Islands”) given to [[Ischia]] and [[Procida]] by the [[Bay of Naples]], where no monkeys had been seen within human memory, they were reduced to alleging that they must have been deceitful men whom Zeus punished by turning them into apes. When scholars attempted to account for this exotic image they have been forced to search farther afield:
<blockquote>The story of Herakles and the Cercopes has been interpreted as a reminiscence of Phoenician traders bringing apes to Greek markets. See O. Keller, ''Thiere des classischen Alterthums'' (Innsbruck, 1887), p.&nbsp;1. The interpretation may perhaps be supported by an Assyrian bas-relief which represents a Herculean male figure carrying an ape on his head and leading another ape by a leash, the animals being apparently brought as tribute to a king. See O.&nbsp;Keller, ''op. cit.'', p.&nbsp;11, fig.&nbsp;2.<ref>{{cite book |first=James George, Sir |last=Frazer |title=Apollodorus, Library and Epitome |at=ii.6.3, note |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022;query=section%3D%23111;layout=;loc=2.6.2 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref></blockquote>

[[Eric H. Cline|Cline]] identified the monkey species in 1991<ref>{{cite journal |first=E.H. |last=Cline |author-link=Eric H. Cline |title=Monkey business in the Bronze Age Aegean: the Amenhotep II faience figurines at Mycenae and Tiryns |journal=Annual of the British School at Athens |volume=86 |year=1991 |pages=29–42|doi=10.1017/S0068245400014878 |s2cid=163960806 }}</ref> as guenons, or [[blue monkey]]s, which have bluish fur over their green skins. Scholars generally assume that the appearance of the blue monkey in Aegean iconography was due to the import of the actual animal from north Africa; they were iconic religious animals in Egypt