Greek mythology mythology to the indigenous pre-Greek societies: Crete, Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes and Orchomenus. Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient configurations of myth connected with Crete (the god as bull, Zeus and Europa, Pasiphaë who yields to the bull and gives birth to the Minotaur, etc.). Martin P. Nilsson asserts, based on the representations and general function of the gods, that a lot of Minoan gods and religious conceptions were fused in the Mycenaean religion. and concluded that all great classical Greek myths were tied to Mycenaean centres and anchored in prehistoric times. Nevertheless, according to Burkert,
Melissus of Crete Melissus of Crete In Greek mythology, Melisseus (Ancient Greek: Μελισσέως means "bee-man"), the father of the nymphs Adrasteia, Ide (or Idothea or Aega, according to Hyginus) and Althaea who were nurses of the infant Zeus on Crete. Melisseus was the eldest and leader of the nine Kuretes of Crete. They were chthonic "daimones" of Mount Ida, who clashed their spears and shields to drown out the wails of infant Zeus, whom they received from the Great Goddess, Rhea, his mother. The infant-god was hidden from his cannibal father and was raised in the cave that was sacred to the Goddess