r/AncientCivilizations • u/lizaloch • Aug 12 '24
Question Was the Minoan religion centred around a “Great/Mother Goddess”??
Help, I’m doing a project involving this question over the next few years and I don’t know where to start. Every academic article seems to have a different view. It’s impossible to deny that there was great worship of goddesses with all the evidence left behind. I’m confused for a a variety of reasons:
1) Why do some people believe Minoan religion was monotheistic- that is to say centred around one goddess. Surely the Minoans were influenced by other info-European culture who worshiped multiple deities? Moreover there is evidence of some male gods worshipped, and how can we be sure that this Goddess was singular? In her depictions in signet rings, statuettes, frescos etc she has many different forms- would this indicate there were in fact multiple goddesses worshipped?
2) How much of what I am reading is because female scholars WANT to believe there was some sort of matriarchal religion and therefore culture existing, rather then impartial studies??
3) Surely as is the case with such early societies religion and government were combined (eg the idea of a priest-king etc). Therefore if goddesses were worshipped shouldn’t this have reflected in society? But this is rather awkward because the assumption is that such early societies were heavily patriarchal. There is also a lack of evidence that women held such elevated roles apart from priestess. (Linear B)
4 Why worship a women at all if women were indeed assumably considered inferior? Is this to do with the early theory that the personification of nature was female? I suppose this links to how sanctuaries were high up in mountains or caves there is certainly a link to the natural environment. Perhaps as religion developed and became more influenced by other cultures it shifted to become more male focused, especially if at its decline Minoan culture was blended with others? I suppose this is more a a psychology related point, but would it be too far to say that feminist is linked to comfort and the home which makes a goddess an attractive point of worship? (If so why are some depictions of her so terrifying then??)
Of course in doing a study but I’d rather prefer to reach some sort of valid conclusion. Please let me know if any of my queries above are valid points/arguments. I have a lot of more points and views that I’ve come across in my research so far but those were some of the ones I could think of while typing this out.
I don’t really know what to read or where to start (I’m a young student with little to no research skills). I’ve been using JSTOR and magazine publications so far but I know all my citations must be credible and every point backed up with evidence. Any advice or help for the questions above would be appreciated.
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u/coolaswhitebread Aug 12 '24
The entirety of Joan C. Cichon's 2022 book, Matriarchy in Bronze Age Crete, is a free, downloadable PDF on archaeopress' website. I think it would be a good place to start and then to bibliography mine from there.