King Minos was thought to be a mythical Minoan king from the island of Crete. But the palace of Knossos, the legendary home of Minos, contains a very real throne surrounded by frescoes fit for a king.

Who were the Minoans? The archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who excavated the royal palace at Knossos on the island of Crete, named them after the legendary King Minos. Legends aside, archaeologists date the beginnings of Minoan culture to about 2800 B.C.E. Some 800 years later, the Minoans had advanced to the point where they had developed a form of writing and amenities such as drains, stoves, and bathtubs.

In the time of the Minoans, the Aegean Sea was widely traveled, and various groups traded goods and artistic styles with one another.

Instead lighthearted, colorful paintings decorate their walls. Their paintings portray humans and animals moving in a vibrant, enjoyable world. In royal buildings, such as the Palace of Knossos on the Mediterranean island of Crete, and in the houses on the island of Thera (modern Santorini), the Minoans covered their walls with scenes not only of men and women in religious processions, but also of children boxing, fish flying, women dancing, and antelopes running gracefully.

The ash from a volcano preserved the ancient city of Akrotiri on the Island of Santorini as well as their beautiful frescoes from the 16th century B.C.E.

Like their Egyptian contemporaries living 500 miles southeast of them, the Minoans illustrated figures with legs standing in profile and eyes, in profiled faces, staring at the viewer. So, the Minoans were not entirely revolutionary painters. Minoan artists did, however, figure out how to show torsos in profile. They drew bodies as working wholes, not as figures awkwardly twisted in the middle. More importantly, the outlines of their figures are rounded and lively. By comparison, the figures in Egyptian scenes appear stiff and uncomfortable.

The Minoans executed paintings in a technique called "fresco," which may have contributed to the liveliness of their works. Derived from the Italian word for "fresh," fresco describes paintings made by applying water-based paints to wet plaster. When dry, the plaster bonds with the color, making the painting extremely durable. The colors are vivid: red, blue, yellow, and green, as well as black and white. They are applied without shading, in flat, bright designs that are easily identifiable, even from a distance.

While the frescoes endured for 3500 years, the Minoan civilization did not. Scholarly debate rages (yes, rages) over whether the Minoan civilization was destroyed by the eruption of Thera's volcano, its aftermath, or if its fall was due to some completely different cause.

Whatever the cause of the Minoan's destruction, their palace and its throne room at Knossos were rebuilt around 1450 B.C.E. by the martially minded Mycenaeans, who came to Crete from the Greek mainland. A fresco in the throne room provides an interesting contrast between the Mycenaean frescoes and earlier Minoan frescoes. Mirror-image griffins (bird-headed lions) and plants arranged in strict symmetry flank the throne.

The Minoan octopus vase, known as the Dendra Vase, is a famous example of the naturalistic, fluid, style that characterizes Minoan painting.

The Mycenaean octopus vase is highly stylized, unlike the more naturalistic Minoan vase.

This Mycenaean preference for the stiff and symmetrical can be seen even in minor arts such as vase painting. A Minoan vase with an octopus and a Mycenaean vase of the same subject are immediately distinguishable: the Minoan octopus appears to be a living creature swimming through the water, while the Mycenaean one is simply a decorative pattern.

That two starkly different styles could exist within the Aegean area, among peoples using the same techniques and colors, is a reminder that materials don't determine an artist's style or subject.

This fresco, Three Minoan Women, looks so fresh that it could almost be a modern painting instead of a 3500-year -old artifact.

Much of Minoan thought and history is lost to us, but their art abides. Paintings of necking partridges, swaying palmetto leaves, and boxing children are the enduring legacy of a people who saw the world as a pulsating, colorful place.

Starting in about 700 B.C.E., Greek paintings would display an explosion of movement and color, a direct descendent of the Minoan innovations. More importantly, the Greeks would follow the Minoan example of creating art for the sake of beauty, and not for any other particular reason.

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