Minoan religion
Minoan religion was the religion of the
The old view was that, in stark contrast to contemporary cultures in Egypt,
It is generally agreed that the dominant figure in Minoan religion was a goddess, with whom a younger male figure, perhaps a consort or son, is often associated, usually in contexts suggesting that the male figure is a worshipper. The Goddess was also often associated with animals and escorted by fantastic creatures. She seems to have been served by priestesses, and one complicating issue is that some scholars have proposed that these imitated or performed as the deity in the course of rituals, confusing what images in Minoan art represent, for example in the case of the snake goddess figurines, at least one of which may represent "priestesses", which was Sir Arthur Evans' original thought.
Many fundamental questions about Minoan religious practice remain extremely uncertain. 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. Until after the Mycenaean conquest we have no names for deities, nor any real idea of how Minoans thought of them and their relationship with their devotees.
Deities
Arthur Evans thought the Minoans worshipped, more or less exclusively, a mother goddess, which heavily influenced views for decades. 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. There is a considerable diversity of theories. We have no names of deities. Much Minoan art is given a religious significance of some sort, but this tends to be vague, not least because Minoan government is now often seen as a theocracy, so politics and religion have a considerable overlap. The Minoan pantheon featured many deities -- the majority are female, but a young, spear-wielding male god is also prominent.[6]
It is very often difficult to distinguish between images of worshippers, priests and priestesses, rulers and deities; indeed the priestly and royal roles may have often been the same, as leading rituals is often seen as the essence of rulership. It is also possible that religious ritual involved humans performing as deities, further confusing what art shows.
Possibly as aspects of the main, probably dominant, nature / mother goddess, archaeologists have identified a mountain goddess, worshipped at peak sanctuaries, a dove goddess, a snake goddess perhaps protectress of the household, the Potnia Theron goddess of animals, and a goddess of childbirth.[7] Late Minoan terracotta votive figures like the poppy goddess (perhaps a worshipper) carry attributes, often birds, in their diadems.
Some scholars see in the Minoan Goddess a female divine solar figure.
One supernatural type of figure in ancient Crete and later of the Mycenaeans is called as the
Cultic practice
Arthur Evans came to believe that at the peak of the power of
The evidence for priestesses leading rituals is stronger, though there are also men with a special role as priests or priest-kings are identifiable by diagonal bands on their long robes, and carrying over their shoulder a ritual "axe-sceptre" with a rounded blade.
Retrieval of metal and clay
Many very elaborate vessels are made with a hole at the bottom, so are clearly for pouring
The chryselephantine Palaikastro Kouros is the only probable cult image for worship in a shrine that has survived; it seems to have been deliberately destroyed in the Mycenean invasion.[16] Parts of other large sculptures, possibly cult images mostly made of wood, have been found at Knossos: a gold "wig", and clay feet. Many types of smaller terracotta votive images are also thought to represent deities, although others show worshippers. Worshippers often adopt a gesture with the clenched fist held to the forehead, or arms crossed over the chest. Priestess figures, especially when making offerings, extend their arms out and down, with open palms facing up or down, perhaps depending on the deity concerned.
An aspect of Minoan religion interpreted from
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. Kyriakidis interprets these, when floating in the upper parts of seals (whether in stone or metal), as representations of constellations of stars.[19]
Changes over time
Numerous
Minoan religion appears to have changed emphasis in the
After the Mycenaean invasion, inscriptions in
Bull-leaping ritual
A major festive celebration or ritual was the famous Minoan
There is debate among scholars as to whether the athletes actually vaulted over the bull. 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.[24] Nanno Marinatos has asserted that the fresco more likely shows young Minoan people attempting to ride the bull and that the act of catching a charging bull and vaulting over it is unrealistic.[25] Others see the demanding ritual as some kind of rite of passage or initiation test for entry into the Minoan elite.
Whether the bull was then sacrificed is unclear; what is clearly a bull sacrifice (probably as part of a funeral) is depicted on the
Frescos showing bulls and bull-leaping come mainly from Knossos, but the recently discovered
Hagia Triada sarcophagus
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 is presumed to show the funeral rituals for the burial of an important male figure, including the sacrifice of a bull, and other offerings. 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.[27]
Burial and mortuary practice
Like much of the archaeology of the Bronze Age, burial remains constitute much of the material and archaeological evidence for the period. By the end of the Second Palace Period, Minoan burial practice is dominated by two broad forms: beehive tombs or tholoi, located in southern Crete, and "house tombs" in the north and the east. Of course, there are many trends and patterns within Minoan mortuary practice that do not conform to this simple breakdown. Over all, burial was the most popular; cremation does not seem to have been a popular means of burial in Bronze Age Crete.[28] Throughout this period there is a trend towards individual burials, with some distinguished exceptions. These include the much-debated Chryssolakkos complex, Malia, consisting of a number of buildings forming a complex. This is located in the centre of Malia's burial area and may have been the focus for burial rituals, or the 'crypt' for a notable family.
These tombs often evidence group burial, where more than one body is deposited. 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
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. Equally, the introduction of larnax burials emerges, where the body was deposited in a clay or wooden sarcophagus. These coffins were often richly decorated with motifs and scenes similar to those of the earlier fresco and vase painting tradition. However, rock-cut tombs and tholoi remained in use even by the LM III period, including the site of Phylaki.
The distribution of burial sites varies in time and space. 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. Generally, cemeteries tend to cluster in regions close to settled areas. The Mochlos cemetery, for example, would have served the inhabitants of that island who settled in the south of the area. The cemetery itself has been interpreted to indicate a visible hierarchy, perhaps indicating social differentiation within the local population; larger, monumental tombs for the 'èlite', and smaller tombs, including some early pithoi burials, for the larger part of the population.
The German geologist
Human sacrifice
Evidence pointing to the practice of human sacrifice has been found at three sites: (1) Anemospilia, in a MMII (1800–1700 BC) building near Mount Juktas, interpreted as a temple, (2) an EMII (2900–2300 BC) sanctuary complex at Fournou Korifi in south central Crete, and (3) Knossos, in an LMIB (1500–1450 BC) building known as the "North House." (explanation of abbreviations) The subject remains controversial.
The temple at Anemospilia was destroyed by earthquake in the MMII period. The building seems to be a tripartite shrine, and terracotta feet and some carbonized wood were interpreted by the excavators as the remains of a cult statue. Four human skeletons were found in its ruins; one, belonging to a young man, was found in an unusually contracted position on a raised platform, suggesting that he had been trussed up for sacrifice, much like the bull in the sacrifice scene on the Mycenaean-era
Rodney Castleden, discussing the findings, labeled it the remains of a seventeen-year-old boy who was sacrificed.
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.[32]
The positions of the other three skeletons suggest that an earthquake caught them by surprise—the skeleton of a twenty-eight-year-old woman was spread-eagled on the ground in the same room as the sacrificed male. Next to the sacrificial platform was the skeleton of a man in his late thirties, with broken legs. His arms were raised, as if to protect himself from falling debris, which suggests that his legs were broken by the collapse of the building in the earthquake. In the front hall of the building was the fourth skeleton, too poorly preserved to allow determination of age or gender. 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. The jar appears to have contained bull's blood.
Unfortunately, the excavators of this site have not published an official excavation report; the site is mainly known through a 1981 article in National Geographic (Sakellarakis and Sapouna-Sakellerakis 1981.) Not all agree that this was human sacrifice. Nanno Marinatos says the man supposedly sacrificed died in the earthquake that hit at the time he died. She notes that this earthquake destroyed the building, and killed the two Minoans who supposedly sacrificed him. She also argues that the building was not a temple and that the evidence for sacrifice "is far from ... conclusive."[33] Dennis Hughes concurs and argues that the platform where the man lay was not necessarily an altar, and the blade was probably a spearhead that may not have been placed on the young man, but could have fallen during the earthquake from shelves or an upper floor.
At the sanctuary-complex of Fournou Korifi, fragments of a human skull were found in the same room as a small hearth, cooking-hole, and cooking-equipment. This skull has been interpreted as the remains of a sacrificed victim.[34]
Excavations at Knossos uncovered additional mass burials, possibly revealing the practice of child sacrifice as well. The British School at Athens, led by Peter Warren, excavated a mass grave of sacrifices, particularly children. The findings also suggest they were victims of cannibalism.[35][36]
clear evidence that their flesh was carefully cut away, much in the manner of sacrificed animals. In fact the bones of slaughtered sheep were found with those of the children...Moreover, as far as the bones are concerned, the children appear to have been in good health. 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.[37][38]
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. The senior Cretan archaeologist Nikolaos Platon was so horrified at this suggestion that he insisted the bones must be those of apes, not humans."[39]
The bones, found by Peter Warren, date to Late Minoan IB (1580–1490 BC), before the Myceneans arrived (in LM IIIA, c. 1320–1200 BC) according to Paul Rehak and John G. Younger.[40] Dennis Hughes and Rodney Castleden argue that these bones were deposited as a 'secondary burial'. Secondary burial is the not-uncommon practice of burying the dead twice: immediately following death, and then again after the flesh is gone from the skeleton. The main weakness of this argument is that it does not explain the type of cuts and knife marks upon the bones.[citation needed]
Legacy in Mycenaean and classical Greek tradition
However, Μ. Nilsson proposed that the origin of the Greek goddess Athena was the Minoan snake-goddess, citing that Athena was closely related with snakes.[42]
Plutarch (The Intelligence of Animals 983) mentions the horn altar (keraton) associated with Theseus, which survived on Delos: "I saw, the Altar of Horn, celebrated as one of the Seven Wonders of the World because it needs no glue or any other binding, but is joined and fastened together, made entirely of horns taken from the right side of the head."[43]
See also
- Asterion
- Britomartis (Diktynna)
- Eileithyia
- Europa (Mythology)
- Idaea
- Korybantes
- Mount Ida
- Melissa
- Pasiphaë
- Rhea (mythology)
- Talos
- Velchanos (see also Vulcan (mythology))
Notes
- ^ Bury, J. B.; Meiggs, Russell (1956). A history of Greece to the death of Alexander the Great (3 ed.). London: Macmillan. p. 18.
- ^ Burn, A. R. (1988). The Pelican history of Greece. Penguin. p. 38.
- ^ Hammond, N. G. L. (1967). A history of Greece to 322 B. C. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 30.
- ^ Hood, Sinclair (1967). The home of the heroes: The Aegean before the Greeks. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 90.
- ^ Marinatos, Chapter 3; Castleden, 5-7
- ISBN 978-0-674-01517-3– via Google Books.
- ^ Kristiansen & Larsson, (2005) pp 84–86
- arXiv:0910.4801 [physics.hist-ph].
- ^ Marinatos, Nanno (2013). Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
- ^ Marinatos (2004), 29
- ^ Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005: Chapter 3
- ^ Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005: 85
- ^ Vasilakis, 203
- ^ Kerenyi 1976, p. 18; Burkert 1985, p. 24ff.
- ^ C.Michael Hogan, Knossos Fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian (2007) Archived April 16, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Hemingway, Seán, Art of the Aegean Bronze Age, 31, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Spring 2012 Volume LXIX, Number 4
- ^ Marinatos (2004), 25-31
- ^ Marinatos (2004), 32-39
- ^ Kyriakidis, throughout. Conclusion from p. 147
- ^ Vasilakis, 77
- ^ Vasilakis, 126-128
- ^ Vasilakis, 200-203
- ^ In the small courtyard of the east wing of the palace of Knossos.
- ^ Callender, 1987, p. 81
- ^ Marinatos, 1993, p. 219
- ^ Marinatos
- ^ German, Senta, "Hagia Triada sarcophagus", Khan Academy; Brouwers, Josho, "The Agia Triada sarcophagus", Ancient World Magazine, October 2019. "Front" and "back" are non-standard terms, used just for convenience here.
- ^ Sinclair Hood (1971) "The Minoans; the story of Bronze Age Crete" pp. 140
- ^ Dickinson, O (1994) pg. 219
- ^ The Secret of Crete, 1974
- JSTOR 634841.
- ^ Castleden, Rodney. (2012). The Knossos labyrinth: A New View of the ‘Palace of Minos’ at Knossos, pp 121-122.
- ^ Marinatos 1993, p. 114.
- ^ Gessell 1983.
- ^ Rodney Castleden, Minoans. Life in Bronze Age Crete (illustrated by the author), London-New York, Routledge, pp 170-173.
- ISBN 978-1-134-88064-5.
- ^ Peter Warren, "Knossos: New Excavations and Discoveries," Archaeology (July /August 1984): p. 48-55.
- ^ Minoan Crete and Ecstatic Religion: Preliminary Observations on the 1979 Excavations at Knossos. Peter Warren. 1981
- ^ MacGillivray 2000, Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth" p.312-13
- JSTOR 506138.
- ^ Burkert 1985, p. 21.
- ^ Nilsson, M. (1967). Die Geschichte der Griechischen Religion. München, DE: C.F. Beck Verlag.
- ^ "Plutarch – On the Intelligence of Animals (De sollertia animalium): 975C–985C".
References
- Callender, Gae. Antiquity: The Minoans. Sydney: Shakespeare Head Press, 1987.
- Castleden, Rodney. Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete. Taylor & Francis, 2002. ISBN 9781134880645, google books
- Kristiansen, Kristian & Thomas B. Larsson. The Rise of Bronze Age Society: Travels, Transmissions and Transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- Kyriakidis, E. (2005). "Unidentified Floating Objects on Minoan Seals". American Journal of Archaeology. 109 (2): 137–154. S2CID 192949342.
- Marinatos, Nanno. Minoan Religion: Ritual, Image, and Symbol. Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1993.
- Marinatos, Nanno (2004). "The Character of Minoan Epiphanies". Illinois Classical Studies. 29: 25–42. JSTOR 23065339.
Further reading
- Gulizio, Joann; Nakassis, Dimitri (2014). "The Minoan Goddess(es)". KE-RA-ME-JA: Studies Presented to Cynthia W. Shelmerdine. Prehistory Monographs. INSTAP Academic Press. pp. 115–128. JSTOR j.ctt1287gx6.18.
- Tully, Caroline. 2018. The Cultic Life of Trees in the Prehistoric Aegean, Levant, Egypt and Cyprus. Leuven: Peeters, 2018.
External links
- Media related to Minoan religion at Wikimedia Commons