MINOAN Civilization | Part 2: Minoan Religion | Nanno Marinatos | Tiny Epics
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In the second part of my interview series about the Minoans, prominent scholar and author Nanno Marinatos shares her insights into Minoan religion and how it relates to the symbolism of neighboring civilizations during the Bronze Age such as the Egyptians and Hittites. We discuss the iconic symbols known as "Horns of Consecration" and the double axe, and we also talk about Minoan society in general. Were the Minoans a peaceful, matriarchal culture ruled by great queens? Or something else entirely? Find out now!
Intro 0:00
Who did the Minoans worship? 1:07
Were the Minoans matriarchal? 4:20
Goddess on earth 5:44
Ritual and sacrifice 6:14
Parallels with Egypt and Near East 7:09
Minoan vs Greek religion 8:53
The Double Axe 10:11
Religious abstraction 12:35
Life in Minoan Crete 14:01
Warlike or peaceful? 15:02
Outro 16:45
#goddess #bronzeage #crete
There are a number of things in Crete that have a parallel in Thrace. First, Thracians in the tombs of the kings have openings that allow sunlight at the Solstice[winter]. The liquid libation altar of Phaistos is like the one in Seuthopolis. Thracians had the griffin appear on many artefacts. There is a Griffin on the wall behind the throne in Knossos. The griffin also appears in Scythia and in Persia. All three are iranic/aryan[Thracians too]. Thracians also share the double axe or Labrys; a man holds one in a fresco in the tomb of King Seuthes. The excavation of Perperikon in Thrace was triggered by shards with linear A on them found at the base of Perperikon hill. Clearly Thracians worshipped Dionysus also associated by myth with Crete. Linear B was inspired by Linear A, but A is not Greek.
Bronze Age queens and goddesses… sigh… this was made for me 👑
Well hello there Persephone! 👋 How are things in the Underworld? Or are you on your way out to give us some beautiful spring weather? 😉
The Sanctuary of Parța[partsa]in SW Romania has elements seen in Crete. I m not positive that what appear to be bull horns are two mountains. The buhai in Romania is an instrument used for winter solstice celebration and it imitates the bull sound. Besides there is bull leaping painted in the Knossos palace. The language on the ring of Ezerovo is the same as that found on 3 inscriptions on the island of Samothrace. There are Sanskrit words remaining in Romanian, that is a Romance language.Samothracian is being compared to Anatolian languages and Hittite is not to be forgotten that it is indo-european...Lycian was deciphered as well and is studied. All these populations west of the Caspian were Vedic according to Frits Staal.
I admire Nanno Marinatos' works on Crete and Akrotiri so much, being a tour guide, so happy to hear her voice and passion about these bits of history! thank you!
My pleasure and happy to hear you enjoyed it! She has done some incredible work and I’m excited to see what’s coming next from her.
@@TinyEpicsShe doesn’t know what she’s talking about,
Getting fame on the tale coat of here father
Delighted with your interview of Nanno Marinatos: I enjoyed her book "Art and Religion in Thera", and it was fascinating to hear her discuss what we know of the Minoan civilization, and how it compared to other societies of the era.
So glad you enjoyed the interview! She has such an impressive knowledge, and also interesting personal history with her father's discoveries. I think her work is really helping to shed a lot of light on the Minoans.
Prof.Marinatos has a more logical approach in that she looks at cultures contemporary to the Minoan and not to later Greek after the cataclysm of Crete. The linear A shards of Perperikon were there for a good reason. I d say refugees from Crete brought them there. Crete served as an initiation place for Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato. Orpheus was the son of Oeagros a Thracian king.
Quality. Gratitude 😊
Interesting, fascinating, very well done!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Have been wondering when the next upload would be, as usual you fail to disappoint. 💯
Thank you so much! I’m so happy you enjoyed the interview 😊
Thank you for such a beautiful interview! Nanny is adorable and I shall be looking more of videos with her.
You are very welcome! I am delighted you liked it. Thanks for watching.
Man, I was waiting for part 2 for the longest time! Really glad to see this!
Sorry for the delay but happy it’s here for you to enjoy now! 😉
Gosh, this video was so good. I'm gonna watch again
❤️ 😊
Very interesting discussion thank you.
Well done 👍
Great vid you keep growing 💪💪👍👍🔥
Thanks Beck! 😎
The Labrys is equivalent to the red Disc of the Life Force, sometimes called the Aten disc, which appears cradled within of the horns of Goddesses like Isis. Why I say it's the same is that it is the Labrys which is also found between the horns of the Minoan Bull. The Labrys symbolises equal yet opposite forces, like the Yin and Yang. They join together in the center, which is a shaft. If we compare the imagery of the caduceus, the parallels become clear in the mind's eye. There is no doubt that the Sun was given the same importance as the Moon by our early ancestors, as both planetary bodies regulate life on earth and indeed make it possible. However in my opinion the physical sun was symbolic of the generative Life Force. It wasn't the Sun or the Moon which was worshiped but rather the unseen forces behind them, which in turn were personified as the God and the Goddess.
As far as the original Minoan culture being warlike there isn't much evidence of mass warfare or fortifications there or in other in earlier cultures such as those mentioned in the video. So while I agree that in every culture there's a need to maintain order and guard against threats, the later warrior cultures such as the Dorians and Achaeans introduced large standing armies and focused on conquest and slavery which again doesn't feature in pre-patriarchal society. After all where there is balance and equality, there isn't any racism either, as is apparent from the wonderful nature centered artworks of Crete. Patriarchal, warlike culture always dismisses or devalues the Divine Feminine and by extension, woman, which causes a fundamental imbalance and has proven to be a big mistake if you look at the problems we face in the world of today
Thank you so much for the video ~ really much appreciated.
Oustanding video! Thank you :-)
Thank you very much for your kind words. Happy you liked it!
The girls ran the whole show, and they ran it well.
I would like to hear this lady her opinion about the Pillars of Crete. (not the same as Minoan pillars)
That Minoan Axe... The LAUREL... I feel the handle is like the Egyptian Reed. And like the Egyptian Measuring Reed, between the Horns of Consecration, is the Measure of the Rays of the Protracting Sun. Center the Protractor is the Ruler whose rays point at Solstice or Equinox. Put the Cubits of Egypt, centered around (12) Solar, or the Palestinians Cubit, (13), Meta or lunar, 27 days x 13 months...
Nin or Nine, the measure of all cycles to "Phoenician's Teth" Point ot BULLSEYE.
Like the Sun Analemma figure 8.
9 and the Fibonacci Spiral
All Disks, with GLYPHS, read in a spiral or orbit of season cycles…
Inside is Out. Like a Bowl to a Ball.
Or the Turtle shell and 13 Polygonal patterns of the moon cycle in Hexagon Pockets like the Bee that buzzes to fly makes its Honey nectar, that nutrients life but also does not rott… A Great natural preservative for "Mummies" or "Raisins…"
To preserve till added later to the Yeast that rises like the Mastaba or Mana Bread.
So….
Yeah..
To conclude..,
and of course, the Tarot Belt… Astronomy and Astrology/ Cosmology…
Ooh. Thanks dude.
No problem bro 😎
your job good , nice , important for me . thank you my super good friend , you goodly .
Thanks so much! 😊 Glad you enjoyed it.
In ancient times the Minoans weren't called Minoans they were called Pelasgians. Which we do have allot of written sources for.
Yes, their main diety was a goddess Eurynome (not to be confused with the Oceanid Eurynome). She was the creator of the universe and created the cosmic egg. Her partner was Ophion the giant snake.
She also created the first man called Pelasgus. She created the first men out of the "people who lived in caves" .
She could have been the model or precursor of Giaia and Uranus of the hellenic Greek pantheon.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing. I have heard the term Keftiu used for the Minoans, as this is how they were referred to by the ancient Egyptians.
Interesting although I don’t think entirely accurate, specifically when deciphering the meaning (& cultural connections) of the iconic double-bladed labrys, which has been linguistically linked to ancient Anatolia & mirrored in the naming of the sanctuary of Zeus in Labranda (🇹🇷 Mugle Province). ;)
Very interesting!!! Thank you! I have just returned from three weeks in Crete and visited most of the major Minoan sites. Phaistos was wonderful and much more interesting than Knossos. (Evans, what a horrible man he was.) The new archaeology museum in Chania is a must!!!
I would disagree on two points with the professor. The Minoans were not that peaceful. They went through terrible periods of warfare between city states, and also note the house that was presented. It has almost no openings on the ground floor. As well, concerning famines. Although a large island Crete was often wracked by famine.
In any case, I look forward to reading her books! What a delight she is!!!
The mother goddess is Gia in Greek myths
💙
Long live the Goddess.
Is that Alexa chatting in the background?
Because the axe is depicted with Sun in the picture it would make no sense to deciphering the axe as Sun as well. I would not depict the same object in the same picture in two different ways because its logical that it might cause confusion for the interpreter.
I don't want to uproot your thesis that the axe symbolises the Sun but as I personally would interpret it as something signifying cutting, dividing or chopping which is the main purpose of axe despite this version is 'war axe' it just adding another layer to the coded message involving wars which are part of human existence and all cultures.
So basically not to bend out too much from the topic. The axe for me means dividing one's soul, splitting the personality in dualistic way which the Sun supports as light and darkness.
Its was their way to depict lets say equivalent of Chinese yin yang monada.
Axe symbolism of separation of good & evil, peace from war.
Axe in hands of ruler means divide and rule approach.
Axe on the bottom of the ocean again for me means separation of land from the waters by God as depicted in Bible & you must understand that the timelessness of Gods timelines don't necessarily need to proof itself by aligning the dates of these discoveries because the 'mosaic' been spread out trough out not only cultures but also ages of times.
It says in the bible that those who expect to go first will go last and those who believe to be last will be the first.
Timelines are good for human only but the Highest is above time. Other words we might receive discovery pointing event in future or something which we will discover latter in time but it will explain something from the past which did not made sense till that point.
A very interesting commentary, though of course professor Marinatos takes a different approach to interpreting this symbol.
The double axe sometimes morphs with various plants and other symbols like the ankh. Sometimes it “grows” out of the “horns”. This makes me feel that it was a regenerative symbol, and not a destructive or “conquer/divide” symbol. Though certainly any object with two equal halves makes one think of division, as you point out. There seems to be a paradox, but I feel like the ancient mind often seems paradoxical to the modern mind. A division of something can be a poetic way to imply unity through the joining of its pieces, just like the yin/yang symbol which you mentioned.
Another argument in favor of the duplication and morphing of the same symbol in one pictorial setting is with the “horns of consecration” or “twin mountain” symbol. I personally feel the Minoans did intend for this symbol to become mixed with the sacred bull (also a sun symbol) and the gate-like mountains which held their peak sanctuaries. The two peaks also represented perhaps the two ends of the earth from which the sun appears to rise and set from east to west. The Egyptians mentioned Kefti (Crete) as the land where the sun went, as far as I remember.
The doubling up of a symbol and its repetition in an image reinforces its meaning but also leaves abstraction for the worshipper to contemplate. In the end it is all a dance of energy eminating from a single source. Everything we know is a fractal of that whole. It seems humans are often talking about the same thing but through different perspectives. I imagine even Minoans had personal interpretations that deviated somewhat from public worship. Perhaps they too offered various interpretations in private company? We can only ever be in our own minds though we are part of a community as well. Some of course claim that through worship or in taking certain substances that those walls dissolve and one is rejoined with the source. But I am just a guy interested in ancient culture.
Also worth noting: Marinatos does mention the double axe as a symbol of duality (light/dark, day/night)..
I don’t think the depiction of the sun and the double axe are exactly the same. They are perhaps related but signify another shade of meaning. I think you’re right that the axe denotes a certain authority (the royal representative of the godhead on earth). I see it as a picture of descending or hierarchical layers:
the “actual” sun: the supreme godhead
the goddess: anthropomorphic sun diety
the queen/high priestess: the goddess’s representative. Perhaps she “becomes” the goddess during worship?
the double axe: the symbol held up referring back to the godhead and its divine authority on earth. As above, so below.
…
Just a theory though.
@@TinyEpics Yes we are on same page & that is that we don't know for sure whatever the truth might be & we might not even find out every single minute detail but one thing is sure that these arts serve us as a great spring board & inspiration to engage our brain in conscious way which is the most sophisticated device out of all we know so far, the 'mind' that is.
Just the mere exploration of the meanings of these secret, while we are blindfolded leads to its own potentiality of new discovery because we dwell deep inside the secrets of mind by doing so & did you know that the 'Staff of Hermes' a.k.a the Caduceus with two serpents was in reality a secret private artistic depiction of his occasional escapades with two high end luxury prostitutes at that time considered divine, definitely by me anyways. The staff being his penis & the serpents the prostitutes & the people along the cultures interpreted it in all different ways & making up a whole new philosophies out of this little dirty secret. Well a nice joke there for you 😆👍
@@resurrectionx5952 I like your spirit and your commentary gave me a lot of food for thought! All the best to you.
@@resurrectionx5952 ps-The caduceus has always seemed phallic to me, so that interpretation you shared makes me chuckle. I’m also reminded of those phallic sculptures of Hermes (the Herma). He always struck me as a rather naughty deity.
Thanks for these forays into Minoan Crete. But Marinatos is virtually alone arguing for a familiar form of "kingship" there, and her latest book reflects the total lack of clear evidence for it. There are also real problems assuming Minoans were so much like their patriarchal neighbors. Here is Janice L. Crowley's 1989 "The Aegean and the East" (pp. 282, 278) on how carefully selective the eclectic Minoans were:
"...Where motifs are accepted, the very changes made in their iconography to Aegeanize them show a high level of cognizance about the original usage of the motif in its home tradition….The Aegean accepts fully only those motifs whose symbolism strikes a chord…and neither the striking nature of the design, nor the popularity of the motif in its own tradition, can force on the Aegean a motif which is symbolically incompatible.
"The Smiting Figure is a bold eye-catching motif, extremely popular in both the Egyptian and the Syrian-Anatolian traditions, and powerful in meaning, since for each tradition it represents the most important personage. The visual impact and the popularity, however, are as nothing to the Aegeans, who never take up the motif. The rejection cannot be because they already have satisfactory symbolic representations of the overpowering might of a God-King or of the Weather God wielding thunderbolt or lightning flash. There are none….It must be that neither eastern symbolism of the Smiting Figure has any deep meaning in the Aegean sphere. The exalted position of the Egyptian Pharaoh has no parallel in the west….
"The Winged Sun Disk is another widely used, distinctive eastern motif. By the 14th and 13th centuries it was recognized not only as the ancient symbol of Pharaoh, but also as the sign of the great king of the Hittites. Again, one concludes from the total Aegean embargo on the motif that such a symbol of god-protected monolithic royal power is not required, in Minoan Crete or Mycenaean Greece. In summary, Aegean acceptance depends on compatible symbolism, because these two motifs would surely have migrated if the striking effect and its widespread use were the only criteria."
I’m still on the fence about some of these topics. I read a paper recently about how the power was perhaps in the hands of men, but that their very power was conferred upon them by the high priestess/queen who represented the chief Minoan goddess (ja-na-na-sa the author called her), and only with her blessing and approval did they wield any power at all..
@@TinyEpics It may be more helpful and less fraught to think "matriculture" instead of "matriarchy": a society centered on the sources and powers of life (#1, woman) and the practices that foster them, with plenty of room and need for male roles: that's what we see. Marinatos' comparative studies are landmarks but, because there's no Minoan evidence for familiar "kingship," she leans on foreign examples to make room for assumptions. As Graeber/Wengrow's new "The Dawn of Everything" suggests, it would be odd to argue kingly facts based on all kinds of representations (in Egypt for ex.) but assume that Minoan arts tell us the reverse of what they show. If Minoan goddesses/powerful women ("wanassa") were "only figureheads," then by the same logic we'd have to say that Christian icons actually show that Mary ruled their world. Ancient linguist John Younger shows that "wanassa" precedes the derivative for "king" ("wanax").
In "Calendar House" at Ancientlights.org, the great majority of Minoan evidence and expert opinion points to a lunar/solar cycle used to strictly police who held power and for how long: a "heterarchic" sharing of power among Minoan centers taking turns in a ceremonial/festival year and longer cycle ("Minos" was uniquely limited by 8-9-year term that demanded he answer for/renew his powers or, like many Native American sachems, be replaced). Time was "the labyrinth built to contain the Minotaur," i.e., the worst of human nature, suggesting how/why Minoans endured so successfully for so long in mostly peace. And this is the system built into the later Antikythera Mechanism, which names cities taking turns as hosts of Olympic games and other peace-promoting activities.
Would be happy and grateful to explore this with you and viewers as I have on other podcasts (Karen Tate's "Voices of the Divine Feminine" for ex.). What the Minoans still have to teach us seems incredibly important if we're going to straighten out the sad debacle to which omnipotent kingship has brought us.
Please consider my last comment as the first...that s the order in which they were typed.
What was there dna.from my mom I'm cretan
Interesting,the small gold figure of a Box with 2 Eagle is their representation of the Ark of the Covenant,if I am not wrong is at Greece and this demostrate the existence of the Ark by a different society out of Israel, so bad she don't note it because all mainstream archeologists don't want to accept things in front of their faces
Interesting. I’ve heard this comparison made before. The Minoans I believe are mentioned in the Bible in the book of Genesis as a division of Egyptians called the Caphtorites of Caphtor (Crete). But it is debated among scholars if Caphtor was meant to refer to an area of Egypt called Pelusium… or if it was Cilicia, Cyprus or Crete.
All she does is diminish Elenik History,
Where did the people from Akrotiri go miss expert,not