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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 .
Many of the Greek deities are known from as early as Mycenaean (Late Bronze Age) civilization. This is an incomplete list of these deities [n 1] and of the way their names, epithets, or titles are spelled and attested in Mycenaean Greek, written in the Linear B [n 2] syllabary, along with some reconstructions and equivalent forms in later Greek.
At some point, the Mycenaean civilization came in contact with the Minoans and identified their own god Zeus with the Cretan god. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] This religious syncretism led to Zeus obtaining some of Velchanos' traits, with his mythology also being affected; henceforth, Zeus was stated to have been born in Crete and was often represented as a ...
Minoan-manufactured goods suggest a network of trade with mainland Greece (notably Mycenae), Cyprus, Syria, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia and westward as far as the Iberian Peninsula. Minoan religion apparently focused on female deities, with women officiants. [89]
However, Martin P. Nilsson noticed that in the Minoan religion the snake was the protector of the house, [16] as it later appears also in Greek religion. [19] Within the Greek Dionysiac cult it signified wisdom and was the symbol of fertility. [17]
Cyprus, Crete (Minoan civilization): Minoan religion. Crete (and Mainland Greece) (Mycenaean Greece): Mycenaean religion; Ancient North Africa (Ancient Libya, Mauretania, Numidia): Traditional Berber religion; The earliest sources, from c. 2500 BC, allow glimpses of Sumerian religion and ancient Egyptian religion.
However, Nilsson asserts, based not on uncertain etymologies but on religious elements and on the representations and general function of the gods, that many Minoan gods and religious conceptions were fused in the Mycenaean religion. From the existing evidence, it appears that the Mycenaean religion was the mother of the Greek religion. [6]
Fragment of a Hellenistic relief (1st century BC–1st century AD) depicting the twelve Olympians carrying their attributes in procession; from left to right: Hestia (scepter), Hermes (winged cap and staff), Aphrodite (veiled), Ares (helmet and spear), Demeter (scepter and wheat sheaf), Hephaestus (staff), Hera (scepter), Poseidon (trident), Athena (owl and helmet), Zeus (thunderbolt and staff ...