Editing Mycenae (section)

==Religion==
{{Main list|List of Mycenaean deities}}

Much of the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] religion survived into [[classical Greece]] in their pantheon of [[Greek gods|Greek deities]], but it is not known to what extent Greek religious belief is Mycenaean, nor how much is a product of the [[Greek Dark Ages]] or later. [[Moses I. Finley]] detected only few authentic Mycenaean beliefs in the 8th-century [[Homeric]] world,<ref>{{harvnb|Finley|1954|p=124}}.</ref> but [[Martin P. Nilsson|Nilsson]] suggested that the Mycenaean religion was the mother of the [[Religion in ancient Greece|Greek religion]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nilsson|1967|loc=Volume I, p. 339}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Page|1976|loc="IV: The Homeric Description of Mycenaean Greece", pp. 118–177 (see especially pp. 122–123)}}.</ref>

From the history traced by Nilsson and [[W. K. C. Guthrie|Guthrie]], the Mycenaean pantheon consisted of [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] deities, but also of gods and goddesses who appear under different names with similar functions in East and West.<ref name="Dietrich65–66">{{harvnb|Dietrich|1973|pp=65–66}}.</ref> Many of these names appearing in the [[Linear B]] inscriptions can be found later in classical Greece, like [[Zeus]], [[Hera]], [[Poseidon]], [[Athena]], [[Hermes]], [[Eileithyia]] and [[Dionysos]],<ref>{{cite web|last=Paul|first=Adams John|title=Mycenaean Divinities|location=Northridge, CA|publisher=California State University|date=10 January 2010|access-date=24 January 2014|url=http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/mycen.html}}</ref> but the etymology is the only evidence of the cults.

There are several reasonable guesses that can be made, however. It seems that originally the Mycenaeans, like many [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]]s, considered divine any object that inherited an internal power ([[animism|anima]]). Certain religious beliefs were mixed with the beliefs of the local populations as it appears in the old cults of isolated [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]], which survived up to classical [[Greece]]. In these cults, [[Poseidon]] appears usually as a horse, representing the river spirit of the underworld, as usually happens in northern [[Europe]]an folklore. The precursor goddesses of [[Demeter]] and [[Persephone]] are closely related with springs and animals, and especially with Poseidon and [[Artemis]], who was the first [[nymph]].<ref name="Nilsson479–480">{{harvnb|Nilsson|1967|loc=Volume I, pp. 479–480}}.</ref> Mycenaean religion was almost certainly polytheistic, and the Mycenaeans were actively syncretistic, adding foreign deities to their pantheon of deities with ease. The Mycenaeans probably entered Greece with a pantheon of deities headed by some ruling sky-deity, which linguists speculate might have been called ''*Dyeus'' in early [[Proto-Indo-European language|Indo-European]]. In Greek, this deity would become [[Zeus]] (pronounced ''Zeus'' or ''Dias'' in [[Ancient Greek phonology|ancient Greek]]). Among the [[Hindus]], this sky-deity becomes "[[Dyaus Pita]]". In Latin he becomes "Deus Pater" or [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]]; we still encounter this word in the etymologies of the words "deity" and "divine".

Later in some cults, [[Zeus]] is united with the [[Aegean civilization|Aegean]] [[Mother goddess|Great Goddess]], who is represented by [[Hera]], in a "holy wedding" (''hieros gamos''). At some point in their cultural history, the Mycenaeans adopted some [[Minoan civilization#Religion|Minoan]] goddesses like [[Aphaea]], [[Britomartis]], [[Diktynna]] and associated them with their sky-god.<ref name="Dietrich65–66"/> Many of them were absorbed by more powerful divinities, and some like the [[vegetation deity|vegetation goddesses]] [[Ariadne]] and [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] survived in Greek folklore together with the cult of the "divine child", who was probably the precursor of [[Dionysos]].<ref>{{harvnb|Kerényi|1976|pp=110–114}}; {{harvnb|Nilsson|1967|loc=Volume I, pp. 315–319}}. The child dies every year in order to be reborn. In the [[Minoan religion|Minoan]] myth it is abandoned by his mother, and then brought up by the powers of nature. Similar myths are found in the cults of [[Hyakinthos]] ([[Amyklai]]), [[Erichthonios]] ([[Athens]]), [[Ploutos]] ([[Eleusis]]), and in the cult of [[Dionysos]].</ref> [[Athena]] and [[Hera]] survived and were tutelary goddesses, the guardians of the palaces and the cities. In general, later Greek religion distinguishes between two types of deities: the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian]], or sky, deities (including Zeus), who are now commonly known in some form or another; and the [[chthonic]] deities, or deities of the earth. [[Walter Burkert]] warns: "To what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and Mycenaean religion is a question which has not yet found a conclusive answer."<ref>{{harvnb|Burkert|1987|p=21}}.</ref> He suggests that useful parallels will be found in the relations between Hellenistic and Archaic Greek culture and religion, or between Roman and Etruscan culture.

The pantheon also included deities representing the powers of nature and wildlife, who appear with similar functions in the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] region.<ref name="Dietrich65–66"/> The "Mistress of the Animals" (''[[Potnia Theron]]''), later called [[Artemis]], may be identified as the Minoan goddess [[Britomartis]]/Dictynna.<ref>{{harvnb|Hornblower|Spawforth|Eidinow|2012|loc="Artemis", pp. 175–176}}.</ref> [[Poseidon]] is the lord of the sea, and therefore of storms and earthquakes, (the "Earth shaker" in [[Linear B]] tablets). He may have functioned as a pre-Hellenic chthonic Zeus, the lord or spouse of the [[Earth goddess]].<ref>Poseidon is pairing with the "Two Goddesses" ([[Demeter]] and [[Persephone]]) in Linear B tablets. There is a theory linking his name with elements meaning "husband" or "lord" (Greek πόσις (posis), from [[PIE]] ''*pótis'') and another element meaning "earth" (δᾶ (da), Doric for γῆ (gē)), producing something like lord or spouse of Da, i.e. of the earth. His name may also be interpreted as "lord of the waters" (from [[PIE]] ''*potis'' and Sanskr. ''daFon'': "water").</ref> [[Athena]] whose task was to protect the olive-trees is a civic Artemis. The powers of animal nature fostered a belief in [[nymphs]] whose existence was bound to the trees and the waters, and in gods with human forms and the heads or tails of animals who stood for primitive bodily instincts. In [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]] were depicted animal-headed gods, indicating that in the remote past the gods were conceived as animals and birds, in a surrounding of animal-headed [[daemon (mythology)|daemons]].<ref name="Nilsson479–480"/> Later the gods were revealed in human forms with an animal as a companion or symbol. Some of the old gods survived in the cult of [[Dionysos]] ([[Satyrs]]) and [[Pan (god)|Pan]] (the goat-god).

The Mycenaeans adopted probably from the east a priest-king system and the belief of a ruling deity in the hands of a theocratic society. At the end of the second millennium BC, when the Mycenaean palaces collapsed, it seems that Greek thought was gradually released from the idea that each man was a servant to the gods, and sought a "moral purpose". It is possible that this procedure started before the end of the Mycenaean age, but the idea is almost absent or vague in the [[Homeric]] poems, where the interference of the gods is not related to the rightness or wrongness of men's actions.<ref name="Dietrich65–66"/> Later, [[Hesiod]] uses a lot of eastern material in his [[cosmology]] and in the genealogical trees of the gods,<ref>{{harvnb|Walcot|1966|p=85f.}}; {{harvnb|Jeffrey|1976|p=38}}; M.L. West (''Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient'', 1971, p. 205) holds that such eastern material is more likely to be lingering traces from the Mycenaean tradition than the result of Oriental contacts in Hesiod's own time.</ref> and he introduces the idea of the existence of something else behind the gods, which was more powerful than they.<ref>[[Hesiod]]. ''[[Theogony]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D207 Lines 216–224]: "Also she bore the Destinies and ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos, who give men at their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions of men and of gods: and these goddesses never cease from their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty."</ref><ref name=Nilsson368>{{harvnb|Nilsson|1967|loc=Volume I, p. 368}}: "Moira is not a god, because otherwise the will of the god would be predestinated. Compare [[Destiny|Kismet]] in Muslim religion."</ref><ref>Aeschylus. ''Prometheus Bound'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0010%3Acard%3D507 Lines 515–518].</ref>

The [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian Pantheon]] is an ordered system. The Greek divinities live with Zeus at the helm and each is concerned with a recognizable sphere. However, certain elements in some Greek cults indicate the survival of some older cults from a less rationalized world: old cults of the dead, agrarian magic, exorcism of evil spirits, peculiar sacrifices, and animal-headed gods. In the Homeric poems, the avenging [[Moirai|Fate]] was probably originally a [[daemon (classical mythology)|daemon]] acting in parallel with the gods.<ref name=Nilsson368/> Later, the cult of [[Dionysos]] [[Zagreus]] indicates that life-blood of animals was needed to renew that of men.<ref>{{harvnb|Schachermeyer|1964|p=128}}.</ref> A similar belief may be guessed from the [[Mycenean Greece|Mycenaean]] [[Hagia Triada sarcophagus]] (1400 BC), which combines features of [[Minoan civilization]] and [[Mycenean Greece|Mycenaean]] style. It seems that the blood of a bull was used for the regeneration of the reappearing dead.<ref>{{harvnb|Schachermeyer|1964|p=241}}.</ref> Probably most of these cults existed in the Mycenaean period and survived by immemorial practice.

A secondary level of importance was the cult of the heroes, which seems to have started in the Mycenaean era. These were great men of the past who were exalted to honor after death, because of what they had done. According to an old [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] belief, beyond the sea there was an island called [[Elysion]], where the departed could have a different but happier existence.<ref>{{harvnb|Schachermeyer|1964|p=141}}. Elysion may be affiliated with [[Eleusis]], the city of the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]].</ref> Later, the Greeks believed that there could live in human form only heroes and the beloved of the gods. The souls of the rest would drift unconsciously in the gloomy space of [[Hades]]. Gods and men had common origins, but there was an enormous gap between the immortal gods and mortal men. However, certain elements indicate that the [[Mycenean Greece|Mycenaeans]] probably believed in a future existence. Two well-preserved bodies were found in Shaft Grave VI, and [[Wolfgang Helbig]] believed that an embalming preceded the burial.<ref>{{harvnb|Helbig|1884|p=53}}; {{harvnb|Wunderlich|1974|p=221}}.</ref> In the shaft graves discovered by [[Heinrich Schliemann]], the corpses were lightly exposed to fire in order to preserve them.<ref>{{harvnb|Wunderlich|1974|pp=216–218, 221–222}}.</ref>

Mycenaean [[religion]] certainly involved offerings and sacrifices to the deities, and some have speculated that their ceremonies involved human sacrifice based on textual evidence and bones found outside tombs. In the Homeric poems, there seems to be a lingering cultural memory of human sacrifice in King [[Agamemnon]]'s sacrifice of his daughter, [[Iphigenia]]; several of the stories of Trojan heroes involve tragic human sacrifice. In the far past, even human beings might be offered to placate inscrutable gods, especially in times of guilty fear. Later sacrifice became a feast at which oxen were slaughtered. Men kept the meat, and gave the gods the bones wrapped in fat.<ref>Hesiod. ''Theogony'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D507 Lines 535–544].</ref>

Beyond this speculation we can go no further. Somewhere in the shades of the centuries between the fall of the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] civilization and the end of the Greek Dark Ages, the original Mycenaean religion persisted and adapted until it finally emerged in the stories of human devotion, apostasy, and divine capriciousness that exists in the two great epic poems of [[Homer]].<ref>[[Pindar]]. ''Pythionikos'', VIII.95–7: "Man's life is a day. What is he, what is he not? A shadow in a dream is man, but when God sheds a brightness, shining light is on earth and life is sweet as honey."</ref>