Minoan religious beliefs and rituals

Résumé du document

Our knowledge of Minoan religion is only based on the ruins and remains of the Minoan culture, such as remains of shrines, cult furniture, votive offerings and pictures of cult scenes. Indeed, we have no scriptures, no prayer books, no books of rituals; all we have are objects and fragments, all of which only hint a rich and complex religious life and symbolic system. The most apparent characteristic of Minoan religion was that it was a goddess religion (devotion to the supreme deity in her original feminine form), but yet, there is still a debate about whether Minoans were monotheistic or polytheistic. As a result, we are led to wonder what were the beliefs and rituals of the Minoan religion and culture.

Extraits

[...] Marinatos, N., Art and religion in Thera. [...]

[...] As a result, we are led to wonder what were the beliefs and rituals of this goddess religion. Thus, we will firstly examine Minoan beliefs and rituals about their Goddess and then we will take an interest to their burial customs since it is one of the rituals which we know the more about. The head of the Minoan pantheon seems to have been an all- powerful goddess which ruled everything in the universe. The deity was a mother deity that is to say that her relationship to the world was as a mother to offspring, that is, a real, biological and close relationship. [...]

[...] However, Geraldine Gesell argues that the snake goddess was seen by the Minoan as a fertility deity and, in a broader view, had the function of Mother or Earth Goddess. She justified her theory by the fact that on the dress's figurine, the pubic triangle was emphasized, which shows the importance of her fertility and suggests that she represents the aspect of cult controlling human fertility. Moreover, on two Early Minoan III figurines from Mallia and Mokhlos, both have their hands under their breasts, which are pierced for pouring liquid. According to Geraldine Gesell, they too belong to the fertility aspect of the cult. [...]

[...] Thus, it seems that offering by worshippers to the goddess was common to give thanks for what they had received or to pray for blessings or relief from pain and sickness. Rituals could also be carried out in private rooms such as cult-rooms and courts of palaces. For instance, the West House seems to have possessed what looks like a shrine and a preparatory room for ritual. Indeed, offering tables, rhyta and other cult vessels found in a one of the West House's room suggest that they formed a shrine complex. [...]

[...] Regarding Minoan beliefs about nature, it seems that the world for the Minoans was suffused with the divine; all objects in the world seem to have been charged with religious meaning. Thus, the Minoan worshipped trees, pillars and springs. The Minoan world apparently had numerous demons as well, who are always depicted as performing some religious rituals. However, their exact nature is difficult to assess since they are always pictured as human being, with the hands and feet of a lion. In regard to Minoan beliefs about death, it seems that according to the way in which they tended their dead that they believed in an after-life. [...]