Minoan religion

In the absence of readable texts from most of the period, modern scholars have reconstructed it almost totally on the basis of archaeological evidence such as Minoan paintings, statuettes, vessels for rituals and seals and rings.

Prominent Minoan sacred symbols include the bull and the horns of consecration, the labrys double-headed axe, and possibly the serpent.

The old view was that, in stark contrast to contemporary cultures in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Syria, Minoan religious practice was not centred around massive formal public temples.

These include: the extent to which it, and its "priests", were tied into the political system; the amount of centralization or regional divergence; the changes over time, especially after the presumed Mycenaean conquest around 1450 BC; the depth of borrowings from Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia, and the degree to which it influenced later Ancient Greek religion.

Recent scholarly opinion sees a much more diverse religious landscape although the absence of texts, or even readable relevant inscriptions, leaves the picture very cloudy.

[8][9] Károly Kerényi believed that the most important goddess was Ariadne, daughter of King Minos and mistress of the labyrinth who is identified in Linear B (Mycenean Greek) tablets in Knossos.

These figures (often pairs or multiple ones are shown) appears as an attendant and supporter of deities, and may have played a role as a protector of children, related to fertility.

Despite this, and the debunking of some of Evans' claims, such as his reconstruction of the so-called Priest-King Fresco (or Prince of the Lilies), many scholars still think that some form of theocracy existed on Crete.

[14][15] Within the palace complex, no central rooms devoted to a cult have been certainly recognized other than the centre court, where youths, perhaps of both sexes, perhaps performed the bull-leaping ritual.

Many very elaborate vessels are made with a hole at the bottom, so are clearly for pouring libations, probably of the blood from animal sacrifices, as well as wine and other liquids or grains from agriculture.

[17] Parts of other large sculptures, possibly cult images mostly made of wood, have been found at Knossos: a gold "wig", and clay feet.

[19] These and similar types of epiphanic scenes very often include what E. Kyriakidis calls “Unidentified Floating Objects on Minoan Seals", many, like the snake or labrys, found in other contexts and accepted as having religious significance.

The figurines depict squatting women with an emphasis on large parts of the female body from the breasts to the thighs, and they often have small heads and no feet.

[22] Minoan religion appears to have changed emphasis in the Neopalatial Period, shifting away from maternal and fertility elements in the main female goddess, and introducing the cult of the "young god", possibly her son, but probably her partner (or both).

[citation needed] After the Mycenaean invasion, inscriptions in Linear B give the names of some deities, also found from mainland Mycenean Greece.

Sir Arthur Evans argued that the Bull-Leaping Fresco depicts acrobats literally seizing the bull by the horns and leaping over the creature's back.

Many scholars believe the central courts of the Minoan palaces were where the bull-leaping took place, but Nanno Marinatos doubts this, because there was too little safe space for spectators, and the stone paving would make the bulls slip.

This virtually unique painted stone sarcophagus is mostly in good condition, and was a much grander version of the pottery larnax ash-chests that had become common by this late period.

It dates to about 1400 BC or the following decades, well after the presumed Mycenaen conquest of Crete, and the extent to which what it shows reflects pre-conquest practices is one of the many questions it raises.

Apart from what is presumed to be the standing corpse of the deceased (at right on the "front"), the most important figures leading the ritual are female (very possibly the same woman repeated), with men limited to carrying offerings and playing music.

These may represent the burial crypts for generations of a kin group, or of a particular settlement where the individuals are not closely related and shared in the construction of the tomb.

The house tomb at Gournia is a typical example, where the construction consisted of a clay and reed roof, topping a mud-brick and stone base.

[30] In later periods (EM III) a trend towards singular burials, usually in clay pithoi (large storage vessels), is observed throughout Crete, replacing the practice of built tombs.

Some functional demands may have influenced the decision to locate a cemetery: the Late Minoan rock-cut tombs at Armeni utilise the geography of the area for structural support, where chambers are dug deep into the rock.

His ankles had evidently been tied and his legs folded up to make him fit on the table...He had been ritually murdered with the long bronze dagger engraved with a boar's head that laid besides him.

Nearby 105 fragments of a clay vase were discovered, scattered in a pattern that suggests it had been dropped by the person in the front hall when he was struck by debris from the collapsing building.

Startling as it may seem, the available evidence so far points to an argument that the children were slaughtered and their flesh cooked and possibly eaten in a sacrifice ritual made in the service of a nature deity to assure an annual renewal of fertility.

[38][39]In the "North House" at Knossos, the bones of at least four children (who had been in good health) were found which bore signs that "they were butchered in the same way the Minoans slaughtered their sheep and goats, suggesting that they had been sacrificed and eaten.

[citation needed] Walter Burkert warns, "To what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and Mycenaean religion is a question which has not yet found a conclusive answer".

Minoan religion has not been transmitted in its own language, and the uses literate Greeks later made of surviving Cretan mythemes, after centuries of purely oral transmission, have transformed the meager sources: consider the Athenian point of view of the Theseus legend.