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Background

The Hymn to Minoan Solar Deity is a proto-myth originating from ancient Minoan culture of Crete, Greece. The myth's contents are exclusively derived from an artifact discovered in Crete known as The Phaistos Disk. The Phaistos Disk was discovered in the early 1900s by an Italian researcher named Luigi Pernier, who published his findings in 1909.^[1] For the last one hundred years, the symbols of the disk belonged to an undeciphered script, and possibly a language associated with the Minoans. Various scholars have attempted to translate the contents; consequently, the myth is labeled with the proto designation. The American-Hungarian computer scientist Peter Z. Revesz published an article in 2016 wherein he transliterated and translated the contents of the disk.^[2] Since that time, Revesz has published other compelling evidence to support his computational linguistic interpretation.^[3]

According to Revesz' rigorous methodology, the symbols on The Phaistos Disk are Cretan Hieroglyphics and statistically similar to other known scripts; consequently, Revesz has argued that the associated language may be Proto-Hungarian or Proto-Finno-Ugric.^[4] Unlike some prior ad hoc attempts, Revesz' work utilized a methodology based on identifying similarities in ancient scripts.^[5] The author, moreover, has openly shared his methodology on his own YouTube page, wherein he published the basis of his translation in a recorded lecture delivered in May 2019.^[6] The description of the video reads thus:

"A presentation of the decipherment of two Minoan scripts, Cretan Hieroglyphs and Linear A, based on considerations of script similarities, grammar, and etymology. This lecture was given in the Computational Linguistics class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Spring 2019.; References: Revesz, P. Z., Establishing the West-Ugric language family with Minoan, Hattic and Hungarian by a decipherment of Linear A, WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications, 14 (1), 306-335, 2017." ^[7]

More work by Revesz and other scholars is needed in order to establish academic consensus.

The Phaistos Disk: a sun-related poem (disputed)

Revesz' translation of The Phaistos Disk suggests that the disk contains a poem dedicated to the sun. For this reason, the association with a Minoan Solar Proto-Deity is possible (Revesz himself has not made this claim). This interpretation draws support from other scholars: Sir Arthur J. Evans, Marianna P. Ridderstad, and notably Nanno O. Marinatos. Other scholars have argued against the existence of a Minoan solar deity, notably Martin P. Nilsson.^[8] Jerome M. Eisenberg has even argued that the artifact itself is a forgery and academic hoax.^[9]

Minoan Solar Proto-Deity (disputed)

Marinatos argued in her 2010 book on the matter that there was indeed a 'Solar Goddess' worshiped in Crete around ca. 1500 BCE,^[10] the period when The Phaistos Disk was likely created.^[11] Marinatos' 2010 book was predicated on a 2009 journal article she wrote in favor of a 'Solar Goddess' (Minoan Solar Proto-Deity), wherein she argued that the Minoan deity was inherited from Egyptian culture and its affinity for solar religion.^[12] In a videotaped seminar given in 2018, Marinatos cited new artifact evidence which explained the relevance of the 'Solar Goddess' in Minoan culture.^[13] Her main reference point was an artifact called the Divine Couple Ring of Poros,^[14] first published by Giorgos Rethemiotakis in 2017.^[15]