Minoan Religion - Which Gods did the Minoans believe in?

Did the Minoans believe in Zeus? Who was the Minoan Snake Goddess? In this episode, we dive deep into the mysteries of the Minoan religion and hypothesize possible origins of some of the famed gods of the Greek pantheon.

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[HistorywithCy]

Great video! Man, Minoan religious is so mysterious. I'm just fascinated with how griffins, bulls and cows are appear in a lot of art and are sacred to so many ancient cultures - Minoan, Egyptian, Hittite, Harappan and later Indian, Persian and I'm sure many others I can't think of off the top of my head. Thanks for posting this!

[RFmath_]

I'm surprised you didn't mentioned Demeter in relation to the Minoan Snake Goddess - from Wikipedia
" In Cyprus, "grain-harvesting" was damatrizein. Demeter was the zeidoros arοura, the Homeric "Mother Earth arοura" who gave the gift of cereals (zeai or deai).[32][33]

Most of the epithets of Demeter describe her as a goddess of grain. Her name Deo in literature [34] probably relates her with deai a Cretan word for cereals."

Great video as always! - Also, I would love to know your take on Sanchuniathon's writings!

[redcapetimetraveler]

5:37 why did we call her only the "snake goddess" while she gets a weasel on her head ? snakes and weasel get a common feature : eating mice ! that could make sens for an old version of Demeter protector of wheatfields...

[tek.s]

I think it's important to approach Minoan religion, though it is our connection to it from a distance by Greek mythology that allows us to still remember it faintly, "backwards", so to speak. For example, when we approach a god like Velchanos and then equate him with Zeus we are perhaps putting ourselves on the wrong foot already. It is reminiscent of the romanization of Gaul, and the compelled fusion of their gods; Sulis, god of the baths, gets merged with Minerva, god of wisdom, law, art, trade, etc. In the creation of "Sulis-Minerva" you do technically still remember the original god, but the product is now something different, a convenient fusion for the powers that be. I think that's the same case with a being like Velchanos, and I would renege on the idea that Velchanos had much to do with Zeus in his time. There isn't much evidence for him being a storm god, male deities often do not showcase in seals as being in positions of worldly authority like Zeus (I can think of only one seal that showcases what is likely to be a masculine entity, or just a king, lording over a landscape, otherwise they are usually all feminine in form), and he also does not originate in a culture that elevates patriarchal spiritual dominance. Where Zeus reigns supreme on a court of gods subservient to him, where El is chief among them in Canaan, where Odin and Dagda are considered all-father, Velchanos was likely something more like a divine prince--perhaps even something like a protagonist to the human subjects of this land. An entity more recognizable as flesh and blood than the incredibly abstract personage of his mother. It is why when we see entities like the 'snake goddess' (which I would say is something more like a 'snake priestess') it is important to highlight the symbolism rather than the literal. Snakes are associated with many symbols--eternity, change, life and death, they represent the uncanny, they slither out from holes in the ground as if birthed from the earth itself, they remind one of Potnia Theron and her dominion over animals.

My understanding of Velchanos is that he represents an inherent duality in Minoan religion. The mother goddess is the giver of life, Velchanos perhaps represents life given. She is the sun that shines, she is an entity who permeates through all of nature, every creature and every being. I think when you have a goddess so abstract as to be considered the mother of all things, the mother of Velchanos, the mother of the birds and the bees and the mountains and the trees, and the fish in the stream, and the snakes that slither, and the humans who walk this planet trying to figure it all out--there's going to be an element of ineffability. It is why I do not see the 'snake goddess' figurine as a representation of any one goddess and more becoming of a priestess or queen trying to invoke her nature. How could you distill that ultimate, cosmic substance of life-giving motherhood into one figurine? While it is unclear exactly what Velchanos' relationship is with her, most sources and experts seem to believe that he was her Divine Son so to speak. There may have been a consortship between them, or it simply could've just been a mother-son relationship. Likely these two were also expected to be represented in the kings and queens of this land. After all, in the bronze age it was not uncommon for kings and queens to be synonymous with the position of high priest/high priestess. Though indeed we lack many concrete sources on Minoan religion, there are some that attempt a really admirable look at it. I highly recommend Nanno Marinatos' "Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine" for anyone interested. It attempts to use context clues of the various behaviors, rituals, gods, traditions, etc. of Crete's neighbors like Egypt, Hatti, Ugarit, Sumeria, etc. to gauge how the Cretans may have assembled their own culture and develop a "near eastern koine".

It is also important to remember that Zeus is an Indo-European construct, let us not forget that Zeus was once Dyeus, and that it was not until the end of the Early Minoan period that Indo European migrations would've made their way into Greece--where as Crete was chiefly populated by a local population mixed with Anatolians who would've arrived with their own novel beliefs more equitable with the beliefs of pre-Indo European "Old Europe". All that being said, and going along with the notion of looking "backwards", I would not be surprised if the Minoans ended up influencing some of Greece's spirituality after their absorption. It is indeed possible to be the source of entities like Demeter, Dionysus, Persephone, Ariadne, and more. I just don't think we should approach it expecting Minoan gods to come anywhere close to 1:1 or equitable with Greek gods. Like I said, it is metaphorically like expecting ancient Celtic motifs to gel with the ancient Roman motifs, and in doing so we water down what exactly these entities may have represented to their people and equate them more so with the values and beliefs of their subduers.

[azwris]

Zeus Zagraios was also worshipped. A linguistic theory claims that Zagros and Zeus both mean the same thing. That Zeus is actually Zagros under a different name. I didn't know about Potnia though. Nice little video. Thank you!

[Ennea]

The posture of the snake goddess reminds me the symbol of Tanit (phoenecian and carthage later). Perhaps goddess of fertility

[MorsArt_]

Minoan religion was one of the hardest for me to learn about, especially on my own. Thanks a lot for sharing more of this aspect of their civilization with us!

[unakanasi]

I find it kind of interesting how when referring to linear A (being undeciphered) in YouTube videos very often the tablet HT17 is shown - a tablet with more or less clear evidence that it represents cretan and non- cretan place names called iruja (not cretan?), duja (not cretan??), tanati (not cretan), dare (cretan) and tetu (not cretan???) and the name of the scribe (?), qeti.
Great video!!

[OVTraveller]

I am a little surprised that the Thaistos Disk did not get a mention, which some scholars regard as a hymn to a Minoan God/ Goddess.
Would it be possible to trace the Minoan religion after the Minoan population dispersal post the explosion of Thera to the Levant coast and the subsequent large coastal trading towns, like Tyre. Were the gods maintained by the Mycenaeans? Please keep publishing your Minoan material which is of great interest. Finally, is the image of the double headed axe also a religious symbol? Last visited Crete 19 years ago and explored all the major palace/ temple sites with Zacros the final site. Arrived there after a fierce thunder storm which washed the remnants clean of dust making it possible to discern axe signs on many stones

[odysseus]

Amazing video! The Talos connection is the most interesting I think.

[emeraldknight]

Looking forward to watching this video!

[willmosse]

Just watched this and your video on What Language did they speak in Troy? Both great. Subbed. Regarding Minoan religion, what do I know, but it looked quite plausible to me that the versions of Zeus and other Greek gods shown from later periods may well represent the merging of Greek gods with other local Cretan deities that were thought to have similar characteristics/functions? We know that happened elsewhere in the Greek world later on.

[Diogolindir]

I wish someone could decipher the words of the Minoans :(

[kerneywilliams]

The Hymm to Demeter from Eleusis from Classical times mentions her coming from Crete. Artemis also has myths set on Crete and Britomatis who is local to Crete seems 'Artemis like'. All of these suggest Minoan origin.

[LuciusQuinctiusCincinnatus]

It’s difficult to talk about such a topic, because there is very little material about it, I propose to make a video about the forgotten Mycenaean gods: Paean, Daedalus, Enyalius

[lenasoderkvist]

This video was a nice introduction. As far as I know, the Keftiu (minoan) people used to have trade connections with Egypt. Both nations worshipped gods with partly animal features. They must therefore have influenced each other. My idea is that the undeciphered linear A should be searched for in the context of the names of the deities. Such a work could also help to identify the ancient minoan gods.

[InAeternumRomaMater]

I love your channel, hopefully you will make a video about Ancient Latium and the Latin cities, culture, language, mythology and the foundation of Roma, plus the Latinii tribes. I love to watch your videos👏🏻👍🏻

[fSt]

So excited but don’t get mad, I’m betting you won’t be able to tell me much on this because it’s not possible to know.

[crazyviking]

If Zeus is the beardless youth portrayed in the one statue then it would potentially follow that the snake goddess was Rhea, the mother of Zeus.

[JohnDickerman]

The idea of a Cretan "Snake Goddess" was an ideological construct of the archeologist Arthur Evans, and once his predilections were known the locals happily sold him many forgeries to bolster his theory. Today the notion is supported by only two authentic finds, both of which were found as fragments and extensively "reconstructed" by Evans. One of those figurines seems to have genuinely been covered in snakes. The other, whose reconstruction is shown in this video, holds two objects with spiral markings unlike any real snake. To me they look more like skeins of yarn. None of the frescoes or other archeological finds support the idea of a snake goddess.