Minoan religion was the religion of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization of Crete. 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. Minoan religion is considered to have been closely related to Near Eastern ancient religions, and its central deity is generally agreed to have been a goddess, although a number of deities are now generally thought to have been worshipped. 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. However, it is now thought the Minoan "palaces" and perhaps also the smaller "villas", were themselves the temples, and the performance of religious rituals were one of their main purposes.Marinatos, Chapter 3; Castleden, 5-7 There were also rural peak sanctuaries and many sacred caves. There is a question as to how much the palace religion that seems to be shown in Minoan painting and seals was followed or even understood by most of the population.
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 there are no currently understood 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.
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.Kristiansen & Larsson, (2005) pp 84–86 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. 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.
One supernatural type of figure in ancient Crete and later of the Mycenaeans is called as the Minoan Genius, alternatively as a "demon", although they seem to be mostly benign. This was a fantastic creature with similarities both to the lion and the hippopotamus, which implies a connection with ancient Egypt. 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. They probably did not receive worship themselves. The griffin also appears, for example drawing a chariot on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus. The bull-headed man, perhaps the precursor of the Minotaur that the Greeks later located at Knossos, does not appear on seals until after the Mycenean invasion.
Cultic practice
Arthur Evans came to believe that at the peak of the power of Knossos it was ruled by a priest king and his consort, a priest queen, who led elaborate rituals, and also controlled much of the palace economy of Crete, collecting, storing and redistributing agricultural produce. As he recognised, the evidence for this is slim. In contrast to neighbouring mainland civilizations there is a notable absence of clear depictions of monarchs, and few grand royal tombs. 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. This would align Crete with contemporary Egypt and Mesopotamia, where kings were usually regarded as having close relations with the gods.Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005: Chapter 3
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.Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005: 85 These increase in the Neopalatial Period, when there may be evidence of men dressing as priestesses, possibly to evade gender restrictions.Vasilakis, 203
Retrieval of metal and clay votive figures, double axes, miniature vessels, models of artifacts, animals, and human figures has identified sites of cult, such as numerous small shrines in Minoan Crete, with peak sanctuaries, some among the very numerous sacred caves of Crete. Over 300 of these have been explored; they were the centres for some cult, but temples, as the Greeks developed them, were unknown.Karl Kerenyi, Dionysos: Archetypal image of indestructible life, part I iii: The Cretan core of Dionysos myth (Princeton University Press, 1976), 18.Walter Burkert, Greek religion (Harvard University Press, 1985), 24ff. 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. At Phaistos excavations have revealed basins for animal sacrifice dating to the period 2000 to 1700 BC.C.Michael Hogan, Knossos Fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian (2007) Whether human sacrifices were made is controversial, as discussed below. It has been suggested that both saffron and honey had a religious role. The bull-leaping ritual is so prominently depicted that it is assumed it had a religious significance. Bulls, especially their heads, are very prominent in palace art, but they were probably not worshipped. The very late Agia Triada Sarcophagus shows a bull sacrifice, but it is not clear if this was typical of earlier cult practices. Whether sacrifices were burned is unclear.
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.Hemingway, Seán, Art of the Aegean Bronze Age, 31, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Spring 2012 Volume LXIX, Number 4 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 Minoan seals and gold rings is the epiphany or theophany, where (according to art historians) a deity appears, or even is summoned, by a worshipper. One type of these scenes is where a worshipper apparently reaches the female deity by shaking or holding a tree.Marinatos (2004), 25-31 Another type of epiphany scene shows the devotee lying down on an oval rock, perhaps asleep. This has been interpreted as a mourner lying on a grave, but Nanno Marinatos suggests the rock represents a special place, or rock, believed to be where the deity may become manifest; what is called a baetyl in later Mediterranean cultures. This and the tree-shaking scene can appear together, but unlike the tree-shakers, those lying on rocks can face the deity.Marinatos (2004), 32-39
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.Kyriakidis, throughout. Conclusion from p. 147
Changes over time
Numerous terracotta figurines from the pre-Minoan Neolithic period have been excavated, mostly around houses. 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. These are interpreted as associated with fertility, but the uses of these feminine figures in homes and who they were intended to represent is unclear.Vasilakis, 77 The female "ritual dress" appears in art from the Protopalatial Period, and from that point on the religious rituals in the newly-built palaces probably developed considerably.Vasilakis, 126-128
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).Vasilakis, 200-203 The peak sanctuaries may have declined in importance during the Neopalatial Period.
After the Mycenaean invasion, inscriptions in Linear B give the names of some deities, also found from mainland Mycenean Greece. The extent to which Crete retained a distinctive religion in this period is a complicated question; the ruling elite were probably immigrants, but the mass of the population were probably descended from Minoan Cretans. However, as previously mentioned, the extent to which the majority of the population understood the Minoan religion is uncertain.
Bull-leaping ritual