Minoan Religion

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Minoan Religion
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Minoan Crete Map
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Cave of Eileithyia

• MM cult centers
• Baetyl
• Animal Bones
• Animal Figurines
• Bronze artifacts

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Peak Shrines

• Link to MM protopalatial elites through artifacts
• Linear A, Kamares Ware
• Ash layer, no bones
• Many figurines

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Tripartite Shrine
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Domestic Shrines

• Town, Palace, House
• Bench Sanctuary
• Lustral Baisin
• Pillar Crypt

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Snake Goddess/Priestess
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Goddess of the MountainGoddess of the Beasts
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Goddesses
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Minoan Pantheon
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The Male Consort
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Male Divinity?

• Male figures rarer
• Usually smaller stature
• Lesser Male Divinity?
• Rural Matriarchy?
• Urban Patriarchy?

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Ayia Triadha SarcophagusLMIIIA (14thC)Painted
Plaster over Stone
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Celestial vs Chthonic Gods

• Chthon
• earth

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Sacrifice
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Human Sacrifice

• Anemospilia
• Near Archanes Heraklion
• Bound male on altar
• 2 others killed in room by earthquake
• 1 killed in anteroom with krater (of blood?)

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Child Sacrifice Cannibalism?

• Childrens bones with butchering marks in North
  House, Knossos
• Caravaggio

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Child Sacrifice in Myth?

• ?

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Theseus the Minotaur

• Athenians send human tribute to bull crazy
  Minoans
• Palace at Knossos like Labyrinth to simpler
  Mycenaean Greeks

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The Labyrinthine Palace

• Note dismembered bodies

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Hero Story

• Miraculous Conception/Birth Aegeus/Poseidon
• Hiding of/Threat to Child Troezen, with Aethra
• Medea?
• Societys Desire for Change No more sacrifice!
• Withdrawal Initiation Ummmm
• Resistance of Hero Role Ummm
• Search for Lost Father Trip to Athens
• Quest Killing Minotaur
• Magical Tools/Weapons Club, thread, sword
• Impossible Adversaries Numerous
• Journey to Underworld Rape of Persephone
• Return (in Disguise) to Save Beloved Ummmm

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Early Exploits

• Fathers Tokens
• Heroic Journey
• Periphetes Club
• Crommyonian Sow
• Sinis tree
• Scirons turtle
• Procrustes bed
• Daughters?
• Herculean hero

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Aegeus, Medea, Theseus

• Medea the Colchian witch
• Murderer of brother children by Jason
• Marathonian Bull

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Marathonian/Cretan Bull

• Brought to Greece as one of 12 labors of
  Herakles
• Bull of Poseidon
• Pasiphae Bull
• Minotaurs father!
• Good Credentials for facing Minotaur

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Revenge of Minos

• Androgeos at Panathenaic games
• Victorious Cretan murdered by envious Athenian
  athletes or by Aegeus
• Athenian compensation
• 7 boys 7 girls every 9 years

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Cretan Games
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Theseus trip to Crete

• Theseus as 1 of 7 boys
• White Sails for Success
• Black/Red Sails for Failure (death of Theseus)

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Theseus edge Inside Woman
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Victory!

• Theseus slays Minotaur
• Theseus Ariadne sail off into the sunset

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Homeymoon on Naxos
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Dionysus to the Rescue

• Dionysus finds Ariadne
• They drink happily ever after

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Theseus sails home to celebrate victory freedom

• Aegeus watches for beloved son
• Ooops - black sails
• Aegeus leaps to death
• Oh well, Theseus becomes king of Athens

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Theseus Herakles Fratboy Heroes

• Herakles 12 labors
• Girdle of Hippolyte
• Theseus Pirithous
• carry off Antiope/Hippolyte

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Amazon Invasion of Attica

• Amazons defeated, Antiope slain fighting beside
  Theseus
• Amazonomachy artform comparable to contemporary
  Miller Lite commercial tastes great less
  filling

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Theseus, Phaedra Hippolytus

• Child of Antiope
• Stepmother Phaedra
• False accusation of rape
• Bull from Poseidon causes death of Hipploytus in
  chariot crash
• Phaedra hangs herself

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More bad behavior

• Theseus abducts 12 year old Helen
• Theseus Pirithous go to underworld to abduct
  Persephone
• Trapped in Chair of Oblivion
• Rescued by Herakles

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Death of Theseus

• Helen rescued by her brothers, the Dioscuri
  Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux)
• Theseus in exile
• Murdered/fell of a cliff