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Year 12 HSC - Ancient History Greece: The Bronze Age – Society in Minoan Crete Religion, Death and Burial
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Religion and rites in Minoan society
Evans
Problem: gaps in evidence and knowledge – we don’t really know!
Arthur Evans discovered the Minoan society – gave it it’s name
Evans’ primary interest was in what local women in Crete called ‘milk stones’ – seal stones which often depict religious images or icons – pictures used by the people
He ‘bought the biggest hill in town’ – Knossos was underneath – first day discovered the ‘throne room’
Major Minoan religious icons
Bull – sacrifice / fertilise cows – cheese + milk Labrys – double headed axe Horned altar – offerings / art – horns / hills – Mt Juktas Flowers – lilies + crocuses = goddesses – aphrodisiacs
/ saffron Maze patterns – labyrinth / Theseus = Minotaur Sea Creatures – dolphins / octopus Birds –in air / messengers of God The Pillar / Column – pillar crypt where the pillars
don’t reach the ceiling – libations at base = stable / strong – Crete 5 or 6 earthquakes per year
Labrys / Pillar cult
Minoan legend
The importance of the bull in Minoan legend and the physical evidence of bull iconography – Theseus and the Minotaur
Importance of women and religion – evidence and legend
Similarity of religious links between Minoan artefacts and Mycenaean
Evans, Nilsson and others saw them as being the same
Horns of consecration / Libation jug
The bull
Bull leaping fresco
Legends in
common
Zeus is present in Linear B texts –
Knossos / Pylos
Story of Europa and the White
Bull (Zeus in disguise) Zeus born
on Mt Juktas – near
Knossos
Minoan religion evidence
Minoans worshipped a ‘goddess’ or female god: Linear A texts refer to Dameter (same as Greek) Chief of Myc. + Greek goddesses – mother /
cereal growing – link between Linear A + B texts Great goddess – fantastic mixed creatures / lion
and deer / snakes / labrys – “Mistress of the Animals” – seal stone from Knossos
Statues – Syria and Sumeria – origin of Pop.? Armed goddess – ideas taken from Near East and
adopted by Greeks at Athena – Potnia (Linear B)
Goddess
Represented several goddesses – hunt / poppy / snake / mistress of the animals (Thera)
Portrayed as superior because she is bigger
Demeter? Sacrifice
Mistress of the Animals fresco - Thera
Worship
Rites Offerings /
statues / nature settings / ecstatic dancing / worshipped near trees
Scholars suspect drugs?
Poppies?
Late-Minoan gold ring: Minoan priestesses, a man, and two altars. These rings are lively miniatures depicting the sacred rites.
Tree worship / cult: Late-Minoan gold ring (Archeological Museum, Athens), three priestesses, the double-axe, and a tree representing the Goddess
Archanes ring
Crocus
Saffron crocuses originated as sacred flowers of Crete.
A Minoan fresco found at Thera in 1973 shows women dressed in yellow & orange-red, gathering saffron stigmas from crocuses, & offering them to a seated goddess or high priestess.
This was found decorating a lustration chamber where cultic activity surrounded menstruation, childbirth, & young girls coming of age ceremonies.
Crocus used in worship?
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