At the beginning of agriculture in Greece, Vth millennium BC, the abundant precipitation of spring and autumn obviated the need for irrigation. But irrigation eventually does develop in the Greek world. The earliest written reference to it comes from the Iliad:
“As one who would water his garden leads a stream from some fountain over his plants, and all his ground-spade in hand he clears away the dams (blockages) to free the channels, and the little stones run rolling round and round with the water as it goes merrily down the bank faster than the man can follow (.. .)”n
The Mycenaen civilization that develops especially from 1600 BC is the cultural heir of the Cretan civilization. The Acheans are the heroes of the principal Greek myths, myths that are surely the distant echo of a measure of historical reality. Jason and his quest for the golden fleece are the story of a commercial maritime voyage — or of plunder. The adventures of Theseus and the Minotaur reflect the antagonism between the Acheans and the Minoans. The myth of Hercules, who changed the course of a river to clean the stables of Augias, surely echoes the mastery of river engineering that we illustrate further on.
