Editing Miletus (section)

====Minoan period====
The earliest Minoan settlement of Miletus dates to 2000 BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Steadman |first1=Sharon R. |last2=McMahon |first2=Gregory |title=The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE) |date=15 September 2011 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=978-0-19-537614-2 |page=369 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TY3t4y_L5SQC |language=en}}</ref> Beginning at about 1900 BC artifacts of the [[Minoan civilization]] acquired by trade arrived at the site.<ref name=crouch183/> For some centuries the location received a strong impulse from that civilization, an archaeological fact that tends to support but not necessarily confirm the founding legend—that is, a population influx from [[Crete]]. According to [[Strabo]]:<ref>Book 14 Section 1.6.</ref><blockquote>Ephorus says: Miletus was first founded and fortified above the sea by Cretans, where the Miletus of olden times is now situated, being settled by Sarpedon, who brought colonists from the Cretan Miletus and named the city after that Miletus, the place formerly being in possession of the [[Leleges]].</blockquote>According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], however, Miletus was a friend of Sarpedon from [[Crete]], after whom the city was named.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 7, chapter 2, section 5 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D5 |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> Miletus had a son named Kelados, and the [[Heroön|heroon]] of Kelados has been found at Panormos, a port of Miletus near [[Didyma]].<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Herda |first=Alexander |title=Burying A Sage: The Heroon Of Thales In The Agora Of Miletos |date=2013 |work=Le Mort dans la ville |pages=67–122 |url=https://doi.org/10.4000/books.ifeagd.2156 |access-date=2025-03-08 |place=İstanbul |publisher=Institut français d’études anatoliennes |doi=10.4000/books.ifeagd.2156 |isbn=978-2-36245-009-9}}</ref>

The legends recounted as history by the ancient historians and geographers are perhaps the strongest; the late mythographers have nothing historically significant to relate.<ref>The late fantasy fiction of [[Antoninus Liberalis]], ''Metamorphoses'' XXX 1–2 after Nicander, can be safely disregarded as being in any way history. His entertaining tales have the imaginary character named [[Miletus (hero)|Miletus]] fleeing [[Crete]] to avoid being forced to become the [[eromenos]] of King [[Minos]]. He founds the city only after slaying a giant named Asterius, son of [[Anax (mythology)|Anax]], after whom the region known as Miletus was called 'Anactoria', "place of Anax". [[Anax]] in Greek means "the king" and [[Asterius (mythology)|Asterius]] is "starry".</ref>
{{wide image|The Theater of Milet (48879177211).jpg|700px|align-cap=center|A panoramic view of The Theatre of [[Miletus (mythology)|Miletus]], [[Didim]]}}