Minoan Religion
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MINOAN RELIGION Ritual, Image, and Symbol NANNO MARINATOS MINOAN RELIGION STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE RELIGION Frederick M. Denny, Editor The Holy Book in Comparative Perspective Arjuna in the Mahabharata: Edited by Frederick M. Denny and Where Krishna Is, There Is Victory Rodney L. Taylor By Ruth Cecily Katz Dr. Strangegod: Ethics, Wealth, and Salvation: On the Symbolic Meaning of Nuclear Weapons A Study in Buddhist Social Ethics By Ira Chernus Edited by Russell F. Sizemore and Donald K. Swearer Native American Religious Action: A Performance Approach to Religion By Ritual Criticism: Sam Gill Case Studies in Its Practice, Essays on Its Theory By Ronald L. Grimes The Confucian Way of Contemplation: Okada Takehiko and the Tradition of The Dragons of Tiananmen: Quiet-Sitting Beijing as a Sacred City By By Rodney L. Taylor Jeffrey F. 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Bond Nanno Marinatos A History of the Jews of Arabia: From Ancient Times to Their Eclipse Under Islam By Gordon Darnell Newby MINOAN RELIGION Ritual, Image, and Symbol NANNO MARINATOS University of South Carolina Press Copyright © 1993 University of South Carolina Published in Columbia, South Carolina, by the University of South Carolina Press Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marinatos, Nanno. Minoan religion : ritual, image, and symbol / by Nanno Marinatos. p. cm. - (Studies in comparative religion) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87249-744-5 (alk. paper) 1. Minoans-Religion. 2. Crete (Greece)-Religion. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in comparative religion (Columbia, S.C.) BL793.C7M34 1993 299'.1-dc20 92-11628 To the memory of Sir Arthur Evans CONTENTS Series Editor's Preface / VIII Preface / ix 1 Introduction / 1 2 The Cult of the Dead in Prepalatial Crete / 13 3 The Palaces as Cult Centers / 38 4 The Shrines in the Palaces / 7 6 5 Town Shrines and Nature Sanctuaries / 112 6 The Priesthood / 127 7 Goddesses and Gods / 147 8 Shrines and Rituals / 175 9 The World of Nature / 1 9 3 1 o Ritual Contests, Hunting, and Rites of Passage / 2 0 1 11 Minoan Religion after the Fall of the Palaces / 221 12 Conclusions / 242 Abbreviations / 245 Notes / 249 Illustration Credits / 2 9 7 Glossary / 301 Index / 303 SERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE This book represents a significant extensive experience as a field archaeol- break-through in the analysis and ogist has prevented the project from interpretation of Minoan religious sites, be-coming overly speculative, whereas Dr. artifacts, and symbols. Combining Marinatos's thorough acquaintance with archaeological, historical, semiotic, and comparative religion theory and method cultural anthropological approaches, Dr. has lifted the project far above the merely Marinatos has arrived at a new way of descriptive level of technical scholarship understanding the religious world of on sanctuaries and material culture. In Minoan civilization. short, Minoan Religion is both a technically Perhaps the most important aspect of accomplished book and an accessible this new synthesis is its bold venture of survey of one of the most appealing yet attempting a reconstruction of Minoan difficult topics in the history of Minoan ritual processes within their original studies, the beliefs and ritual practices of contexts rather than by inference from the prehistoric Minoans in the context of classical Greek religion of historical times. eastern Mediterranean culture of the time. This effort would be impossible without the balanced multidisciplinary approach Frederick Mathewson Denny that the author has taken. Her PREFACE The idea of this book was conceived on a recently by eminent authorities in the sunny day in Colorado when Frederick field, I remain unconvinced. Denny invited me to contribute a I wish to thank the Institute for Aegean mono-graph to his series on world Prehistory for providing me with a grant religions. At that time I was not sure I to prepare the line drawings. These were could accomplish the task of writing a made by Lily Papageorgiou. Photographs book on such a large topic, but I ended were provided by the Italian up undertaking the project. One of the Archaeological School in Athens, Mrs. main reasons I did so is that there exists Alison Frantz, Dr. E. Hallager, Dr. A. no other work dealing exclusively with Hirmer, and Prof. P. Warren, all of whom Minoan material which stresses cult I thank warmly. For permission to practice over archaeological data and reproduce illustrations I have to thank makes use of anthropological models. Drs. Y. Tzedakis, A. Kanta, L. Morgan, The greatest challenge has been to W.-D. Niemeier, G. Rethemiotakis, S. present detailed information on the ma- Hood, K. Branigan, and the Managing terial necessary for the argumentation, Committee of the British School at and yet not to make the book incompre- Athens. hensible or boring to historians of reli- The manuscript has profited much gion to whom the series addresses itself. I from the support and encouragement of am not sure I have succeeded, but the my friends and colleagues whose ad-vice attempt to present Minoan religion from in various matters helped me improve the the perspective of ritual process had to book. Editorial assistance was provided be made. by Ms. B. Conrad, especially regarding In my discussion of the iconographical the preparation of the illustrations. sources I have deliberately omitted two Individual chapters were read and important objects, the so-called Nestor commented upon by Drs. S. Diamant and Minos rings, because I believe them and Ch. Sourvinou-Inwood. to be forgeries. Although the genuineness The entire manuscript was read by of these rings has been defended Prof. E. Davis, Prof. W.-D. Niemeier, Ix X PREFACE Prof. K. Kilian and Dr. I. Kilian, to all of taking editing and patience, and Prof W. whom I owe not only valuable corn- Burkert for his moral support, stimulat- ments but a much enriched bibliogra- ing comments, additional bibliography, phy. Most of all I want to thank R. Hagg and feedback on the entire manuscript. for his comments, his meticulous, pains- The errors remain mine. Minoan Religion INTRODUCTION Some Basic Information about the historical reconstruction, parts of which Discovery of Minoan Civilization are now disputed by recent scholar-ship. The problem was, and is, that the Minoan Ever since the discovery of the Palace of script, known as Linear A, re-mains Knossos on Crete by Sir Arthur Evans in undeciphered. Although Evans did some the beginning of our century, the early basic work on the structure and civilization of the island has attracted ideogrammatic meaning of the signs, much attention. Although it lacked the neither the origin of the language nor its monumental buildings of Egypt and the contents is quite understood even now- Near East, its art had a freshness and adays. What is most clear, however, is subtlety that surpassed even those high that it was used for record keeping and for civilizations of the Orient. Evans became dedicatory inscriptions. totally involved with it and gave it the Consequently, if we want to deduce any name "Minoan," after the legendary king historical or social information about Minos. He published the results of his Minoan Crete, we have only archaeology excavations in four richly illustrated at our disposal. It is natural that Evans's volumes with the title The Palace of Minos sociohistorical reconstructions would be at Knossos. questioned. The most common complaint Evans's contribution to our is that they reflect Victorian,models and under-standing of the Minoan culture is ways of thinking. immense and of lasting value. Not only did In the meantime, the picture is becom- he work out the architecture, the pottery ing more complete. Other major palaces sequences, the script, religion, and ico- have been unearthed and published. An nography, but he also devised a chrono- Italian team excavated the palace of logical system based on correlations with Phaistos in the southern part of Crete. the more firmly established Egyptian French archaeologists worked at the chronology. The various destructions that pal-ace of Malia in central Crete, east of the palace of Knossos and the other towns Knossos. In the 1960s the palace of Zak- on Crete had undergone gave Evans some ros in the easternmost part of the island starting points for a was excavated by Greek archaeologists. 1 2 MINOAN RELIGION The discovery of Minoan settlements Historical Outline and cemeteries throughout the island led to a more thorough understanding of What follows is a historical sketch of the pottery sequences, which in turn al-lowed Minoan civilization for the non-expert for a more subtle understanding of the reader.3 various phases. One major aspect of Evans's system has been modified: 2900-2000 BC: Neopalatial chronology. He divided the Bronze Age of or Early Minoan Period (EM III) Crete into three periods, calling them Early, Middle, and Late Minoan. In this he During this period Crete moved out of followed Egyptian historical divisions of the Neolithic stage of culture. It cannot be Old, Middle, and New Kingdom. The decided with certainty whether new starting point is sound and is based on peoples, the Minoan, migrated to Crete correlations between Minoan and Egyp- from Anatolia or North Africa, or whether tian artifacts found together in the same it was the same people that had inhabited deposit either in Egypt or in Crete.