The monograph examines those aspects of the life of Minoan society in Crete (the time of the formation and further heyday of the Knossos sea power) and Mycenaean society in mainland island Greece (up to the destruction of Achaean centers), which remained little studied until recently. Analysis from a new angle of view of the data of the ancient historical tradition makes it possible to deal in detail with such subjects as: the influence of natural disasters and natural disasters on the living conditions and representations of the inhabitants of the southern Balkans in the Middle and Late Bronze Age, the state-political structure of Crete during the "thalassocracy of Minos," signs of a full-fledged person among the Greek Achaeans, the continuity of many traditions that have come from the distant Mycenaean past to archaic and classical Hellas.