His Worship Possibly Predates That Of The Ancient Greeks

In Greek mythology, Hephaestus (Hephaestos) is the god of fire. The first of 10 interesting facts about the Greek God mentioned in this article is that his worship possibly predates the ancient Greeks. Archaeological excavations on the island of Crete in Greece from 1900 to 1970 discovered the city of Knossos, now considered the oldest city in Europe. The city was the political center of the Bronze Age (c. 3300-1200 BC) Aegean civilization, which we call the Minoan civilization, and may have stimulated the growth of the Mycenaean civilization.

In the excavated city of Knossos, an inscription showing the worship of Hephaestus was found. This inscription is written in Linear B, the syllabary used by the Greeks of the Mycenaean civilization. This is centuries before the Greek alphabet. Therefore, the Greek deity Hephaestus may belong to a group of Pre-Indo-European languages spoken in Pre-Indo-European languages, indicating worship of pre-Greek gods.