Cretan religion differed from that of classical Greece in that the
chief deity worshipped was a goddess, Mother Nature or Earth-Mother,
some at least of whose characteristics we find embodied in the Rhea
of Greek mythology. Matriarchal religion seems to have been specially
characteristic of very early times; through it primitive man expressed
his veneration of womanhood. The Cretan Mother Goddess held an exalted
position. She had supreme power over all Nature; was associated with
doves, which symbolized her power in the air; was accompanied by lions,
the strongest animals of the earth; brandished snakes, that live under
the earth. Among the various “cult objects,” or ritualistic forms
used in worship, that have been found in her shrines are included
representations of cows with calves, goats with suckling kids, and the
like.
There was a god as well as a goddess in Minoan religion, but he was
of relatively little importance. Velchanos, the Cretan Zeus--if we
may assume that the Minoan god was the original of this figure of
the Greek legends--was represented as both the son and the husband of
Mother Nature. He was suckled, so the tradition ran, by Amalthea the
goat in the cave of Dikte, and brought up by his mother Rhea on the
slopes of Mount Ida. His insignificance in comparison with the goddess
appears from the fact that he was drawn on a smaller scale whenever
represented in her company. The two deities probably constituted, as
Mr. Hogarth has suggested, a “Double Monotheism”--a double godhead,
that is, worshipped to the exclusion of all minor deities. If this was
the case, the various Cretan prototypes of later Greek divinities must
be regarded as variant forms of the Mother Goddess herself. Aphrodite,
for instance, the goddess of Love, was worshipped generally in the
Levant, being known in Canaan as Ashtaroth-Astarte, and in Egypt as
Hathor; her Cretan name is unknown. The Greek Artemis, goddess of the
Wild Beasts, was foreshadowed in the Cretan Dictynna.
One great difference between the Cretan and the Hellenic Zeus was that
the Cretan Zeus was mortal, and was said to have died on Mount Juktas.
The mortality of their gods was one of the striking conceptions which
differentiated the Southern peoples of the Near East from the later
Greeks, who came from the North. The Egyptian Osiris, for instance,
could die, but not any of the Greek gods. The Cretan Mother Goddess is
depicted on seal stones and rings dressed like an earthly queen, while
Velchanos is seen descending from the heavens to the earth, a young
warrior with a spear and an enormous shield.
Another difference between Cretan and classical Greek religion was
that, as far as one can see, Cretan religion did not give rise to any
great temples, nor left behind any more substantial traces of its
activity than the small figures of the Earth Goddess to whom I have
referred. It may be sound to regard the palace of Knossos as itself
a temple, and it is true that legend makes of Minos a High Priest as
well as a King. There seems, however, to be little room for doubt that
the only places set aside specifically for worship were small private
shrines used for family worship. All the evidence tends to indicate
that it was the family idea that predominated in Cretan worship.
Private houses had their shrines, and the Knossian palace-temple
itself had its lesser family shrines. These sanctuaries were always
distinguished by a sort of sacred pillar, a sign which in Minoan art
is often used as the only indication of a sacred place. There is an
example of it on a fresco painting found at Knossos. Another emblem
associated with the cult is that of sacred trees, which on rings and
seal stones usually form the background for the “choros,” or dance. The
actual dance, no doubt, would be performed in sacred groves.
Many cult-objects have been found in the shrines, the commonest being
the mysterious Double Axe. The fact that this emblem was also specially
associated with the Carian Zeus at Labraunda has led to a generally
accepted theory that the Cretan “Labyrinth” corresponds to the Carian
“Labraunda,” or place of the “Labrus” or Double Axe; for the Knossian
palace must have been, in fact, the chief seat of the cult.
Side by side with the Double Axe one finds the constantly-recurring
sign of the Bull, an animal which was sacred not only because of its
physical strength, but of its use in sacrifice. A sarcophagus or
coffin of terra-cotta, found at Hagia Triada, contains a picture of a
sacrificial bull following a procession of women priests. In view of
the prominence given to the Bull in Minoan worship, one need not seek
far for an explanation of the Cretan legend of the Minotaur, a monster
half man, half bull, which lived in the labyrinth and exacted its human
victims. Nor is it impossible that the dangerous and cruel sport of
bull-fighting formed part of the same cult. Bulls’ heads were made in
pottery, and sometimes of gold, and used as votive offerings. The horns
of the bull--Horns of Consecration--are found in shrines among ritual
objects.
Cult-objects were usually of a rude and inartistic kind. A striking
exception is found in some brilliantly-coloured figures of ware which
if it were modern would be called “faïence,” belonging to the Middle
Minoan III period. Perhaps the best example of this ware is a group
consisting of the Snake Goddess and her votaries, which was found by
Sir Arthur Evans in 1903, and which was used in a shrine of the royal
household.
There was a specially important element in Cretan religion reserved for
the cult of the dead.
It is obvious from the many tombs that have been excavated, that in
very early times it was the practice to bury the body of the dead in a
doubled-up position, the knees being drawn up to the breast. In later
times the body was laid out at full length. It is not clear whether or
not there was any particular significance in this choice of position.
There were various kinds of tombs and graves, all of which were used
contemporaneously, and of which, perhaps, the most interesting were
the “Tholoi.” The word “tholos” properly means a domed building or
rotunda, and the particular kind of tomb to which it is applied is a
vaulted chamber to which entrance is effected through an underground
tunnel, or “dromos.” It is likely that in form these “tholoi” were
based upon the huts used--at some period--by the living. There are
both round and square “tholoi” found in Crete. The “tholos” of Hagia
Triada has a circular ground plan, while the Royal Tomb at Isopata and
other elaborate tombs of the great palace-periods are rectangular. The
principle of the tholos-tomb was most in use in Mycenæan times, on
the mainland of Greece, where the “beehive tombs” almost all retained
in the original round formation. The hilly character of Crete led the
people to cut out their “tholoi” in the side of the rocky hills, the
“dromos,” or tunnel, in this case being driven into the hillside almost
horizontally.
Another style of grave was the shaft or pit-grave, which consisted of a
pit sunk into the ground, at the bottom of which was the grave itself,
closed over with slabs of stone. Still another kind was a combination
of the first two, and is known as the “pit-cave.” This was made by
first sinking a pit and then cutting out the tomb in the form of a
side-recess from the bottom of the pit. A simpler form of burial, known
as the “pot-burial,” was effected by trussing up the body, placing it
under an inverted jar, and then burying it in the earth. A sixth form
was that of the simple grave, like our own. Cremation was not practised
in Minoan times, although it was introduced into Crete from Greece in
the Iron Age. Clay coffins were first used in the Middle Minoan period,
being made in the form of deep boxes with sloping tops resembling the
roofs of houses.
Such were the physical conditions of burial. We knew practically
nothing of the cult of the dead until 1913-1914, when Sir Arthur Evans
published some important disclosures (_Archæologia_, 2nd series, vol.
xv, 1913-14). It was known before that the dead in their spacious tombs
were honoured with gift-offerings, which included weapons, jewellery,
and objects closely associated with them in their life; that food and
drink offerings were made and coal fires lighted, possibly with the
naïve or symbolic object of cheering the traveller on his mysterious
way. Now, however, a new series of tombs has been found at Isopata, one
of which, called by Sir Arthur Evans “the Tomb of the Double Axes,”
is proved to be not only a tomb, but a shrine of the Minoan Great
Mother. In this tomb were found libation vessels, including a “rhyton”
(or drinking-cup) in the shape of a bull’s head made of steatite, and
a pair of double axes; the grave which received the body is cut out
in the form of a double axe. “The cult of the dead,” says Sir Arthur
Evans, “is thus brought into direct relation with the divinity or
divinities of the Double Axes, and we may infer that in the present
tomb the mortal remains had been placed in some ceremonial manner under
divine guardianship.”