By Dimosthenis Vasiloudis

The Mycenaean Linear B script, a precious linguistic legacy dating back to around 1450 BCE, provides a rich historical record of the Late Bronze Age Mycenaean civilization in ancient Greece. This intriguing syllabic writing system, an evolution of the enigmatic Linear A used by the Minoan civilization, represents the earliest deciphered form of Greek. Thanks to the groundbreaking work of British architect and cryptographer Michael Ventris in the 1950s, Linear B opened up a hitherto unknown window into the intricacies of Mycenaean administrative, economic, and socio-religious practices. Its complexity and the important role it played in documenting everyday affairs attest to the advanced nature of the civilization that created and utilized it.

An ancient Greek word for "tribe chief, lord, or (military) leader" is anax (Greek: ἄvαξ; from earlier ϝάναξ, wánax). It was also carried over from Mycenaean Greece and is one of the two Greek names that are generally interpreted as "king," the other being Basileus. Homeric Greek makes notable use of it, including for Agamemnon. Anassa, or "queen," is the feminine form (from wánassa, which comes from *wánakt-ja).

The word anax, which is represented in Linear B script in Mycenaean Greek as wa-na-ka and in the feminine form as wa-na-sa (later ἄνασσα, ánassa), derives from the stem wanakt- (nominative *ϝάνακτς, genitive ϝάνακτος). Eastern Greek dialects (such as Ionic Greek) deleted the digamma, which was pronounced /w/, fairly early on, even before the Phoenician script was adopted. Other dialects kept the digamma until well after the classical era.

The Sanskrit word vanij, which means "trader," has been used to equate the Greek title to that of Indra, but it was originally employed as a title in the Rigveda. If so, the word might have sprung from Proto-Indo-European *wen-a-, which roughly translates as "carrier of spoils" (compare the etymology of lord, "giver of bread"). Robert Beekes contends that the phrase is most likely from the pre-Greek substrate and that there isn't a clear IE derivation.

Mycenaean civilization was distinguished by the construction of palaces and walled villages during the Mediterranean Bronze Age. It is generally acknowledged that the wanax in the Mycenaean social structure serves as a king, although he has a number of tasks that go beyond administrative responsibilities. With the decline of Mycenaean society during the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the name "wanax" is thought to have finally changed into the homeric term "anax." Basileus would take on the Greek title of king, which is thought to have been a subordinate position during the Mycenaean era, comparable to chieftains and regional authorities.

As the pinnacle of Mycenaean culture, the wanax presided over a powerful hierarchical state government that was centralized, a pattern that was widespread in the Bronze Age Mediterranean and Near East. Because of this hierarchical comparison to a king, many of the wanax's responsibilities had to do with governance, conflict resolution, diplomacy, economics, and religion.