Editing Greeks (section)

===Mycenaean===
{{Main|Mycenaean Greece}}
In {{circa}} 1600 BC, the Mycenaean Greeks borrowed from the [[Minoan civilization]] its syllabic writing system ([[Linear A]]) and developed their own [[syllabic script]] known as [[Linear B]],<ref name=Britannica>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Linear A and Linear B|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.|access-date=3 March 2016|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Linear-A|archive-date=6 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406094711/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Linear-A|url-status=live}}</ref> providing the first and oldest written evidence of [[Greek language|Greek]].<ref name=Britannica/><ref>{{harvnb|Castleden|2005|p=228}}.</ref> The Mycenaeans quickly penetrated the [[Aegean Sea]] and, by the 15th century BC, had reached [[Rhodes]], [[Crete]], [[Cyprus]] and the shores of [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]].<ref name=Sutton/><ref>{{harvnb|Tartaron|2013|p=28}}; {{harvnb|Schofield|2006|pp=71–72}}; {{harvnb|Panayotou|2007|pp=417–426}}.</ref>

Around 1200 BC, the [[Dorians]], another Greek-speaking people, followed from [[Epirus]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hall|2014|p=43}}.</ref> Older historical research often proposed [[Dorian invasion]] caused the collapse of the [[Mycenaean civilization]], but this narrative has been abandoned in all contemporary research. It is likely that one of the factors which contributed to the Mycenaean palatial collapse was linked to raids by groups known in historiography as the "[[Sea Peoples]]" who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean around 1180 BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Chadwick|1976|p=176}}.</ref> The [[Dorian invasion]] was followed by a poorly attested period of migrations, appropriately called the [[Greek Dark Ages]], but by 800 BC the landscape of [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] and [[Classical Greece]] was discernible.<ref name=Castleden2>{{harvnb|Castleden|2005|p=2}}.</ref>

The Greeks of classical antiquity idealized their Mycenaean ancestors and the Mycenaean period as a glorious era of heroes, closeness of the gods and material wealth.<ref>{{harvnb|Hansen|2004|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Podzuweit|1982|pp=65–88}}.</ref> The [[Homer|Homeric Epics]] (i.e. ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'') were especially and generally accepted as part of the Greek past and it was not until the time of [[Euhemerism]] that scholars began to question Homer's historicity.<ref name=Castleden2/> As part of the Mycenaean heritage that survived, the names of the gods and goddesses of Mycenaean Greece (e.g. [[Zeus]], [[Poseidon]] and [[Hades]]) became major figures of the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian Pantheon]] of later antiquity.<ref>{{harvnb|Castleden|2005|p=235}}; {{harvnb|Dietrich|1974|p=156}}.</ref>