The same evidence that rules out the Minoans being Indo-European also rules out their being Semites like the Phoenicians. Some scholars suggest a relationship with the Etruscans and Rhaetians in an "Aegean" language family, but until Linear A is deciphered that is pure speculation and impossible to prove. A better potential relationship is to the Eteocypriots, but the Eteocypriots themselves are so unknown that that doesn't help much even if true. The Minoans are best regarded as "lacking sufficient evidence to say they were related to anyone but with enough evidence to say they were neither Greek nor Phoenician." And no, the Greeks certainly didn't regard the Minoans as unrefined; if anything they viewed the Minoans as a model culture to aspire to. Their admiration for the Minoans is readily apparent in Homer, whose oral history of the Minoans has been proven remarkably accurate by archaeology. Sadly, with no deciphered language and no named leaders, the Minoans remain too unknown to be a viable candidate for Civilization except as a Knossos city-state. Here's hoping they get added to Humankind as DLC.
As I pointed out over in the Games2gether forum on
Humankind after the first time they revealed it, their "Mycenean" Promachoi Emblematic Warrior is actually holding a Labys, which was a sacred Cretan symbol, and so neither Mycenean nor a weapon. Also, the artwork for their Emblematic Citadel looks an awful lot like Evan's reconstruction of the Palace at Knossos, so they actually have the artwork for Minoans done, and just incorrectly attributed to the wrong Faction!
The Labyrinth was the Greek perception of the ornate Minoan palaces, such as the one at Knossos. But yes, the Sacred Bull seems to have been religiously important to the Minoans, doubtless imported from the Afroasiatic peoples they traded with (see also the Sacred Bulls in Egyptian and Canaanite religion, of which the Golden Calf might also be a reflection).
All the "Palaces" on Crete have a basement/ground floor composed of a maze of storerooms, so in that respect the 'labyrinth' did exist. In fact, though, it indicates that the structures were as much storehouses for goods to be redistributed by the Leadership as required - there is a distinct parallel to similar 'palaces' with similar mazes of storerooms on the mainland Middle East, as at Beyce Sultan in southwestern Anatolia, where the 'maze' actually predates the Cretan structures by a few hundred years. They have also found skeletons of people in the foundations of the palaces, indicating that Human Sacrifice was part of the dedication of the buldings. The Sacred Bull appears in surviving altars in the Cretan Palaces, artwork, and of course, the famous Cretan Bull Dance - which, though, we can't be sure was entirely religious. I suspect, like modern American Christmas, it may have started as completely religious and wound up as more of an entertainment than a religious ceremony - but in fact, we are guessing or speculating here. The Bull was important to them, but it was also a religious symbol all over the Middle East and in religions as late as the Mithra Cult of the late Roman Empire, so it is by no means "Cretan" alone.
Bear in mind that the Iliad was written down centuries after the events it depicted. The Iliad properly suggests the importance of chariot combat but fails to understand how chariot warfare actually worked.
Archeological evidence added to the Iliad's possibly anachronistic depiction indicates a Mycenean 'military' consisting of Aristocratic or Oligarchic 'Big Men' with bronze armor, weapons, chariots, etc, followed by infantry with spears, shields (bull hide) and very little armor: except for the lack of iron weaponry and substituting chariots for horses, very similar forces to those that trailed behind the kings of Europe 2000 years later! The key point is that the Big Men seem to have primarily used javelins as their missile weapons but been so well equipped with melee weapons (maces, axes, short swords, spears) that they probably dismounted from the chariots and fought primarily on foot. The social structure indicated by the archeology and the Iliad is strictly Feudal with the mass of the army being of relatively little importance or effect compared to the well-equipped 'spearhead'. This is borne out by the numerous citadels and fortresses all over Mycenean Greece, indicating a lot of warriors with the ability to defy any higher authority at will - and, of course, the Iliad is all about Agamemnon's inability to impose his will on the 'Leading Warriors" of his army even when they are all together in the field.
The Chariot Warfare depicted in the Iliad, in fact, bears more resemblance to much later Celtic chariot warfare, in which the Chiefs rode into battle, dismounted, dueled, and jumped back into the chariot to bounce away at will, rather than the massed charges of the Hittites or mounted archery of the Egyptians. This either means it was pretty primitive and archaic compared to the near-contemporary Middle East, or possibly it indicates the earlier chariot warfare of the steppes (and remember, that's where the Greeks came from, not that many centuries before the Iliad is estimated to have originated) and less sophisticated 'Imperial' armies.
