Religion
Evidence that the Mycenaeans had a set polytheistic religion is plentiful throughout several architectural remains on Crete. Figurines have been found throughout the hundreds of cult based temples on the island. These figurines depict the Ancient Cretan Gods and weakly resemble the familiar gods depicted in Greek mythology. Like in the worship of Greek mythology, the practice of both supplication and sacrifice seem to be prevalent in the Mycenaean cults. Most temple remains contain altars and statues where both of these procedures could be performed.
Any actual mythological stories or true beliefs within the Cretan religion remain a mystery to most historians. This is due to the lack in archaeological remains which were so crucial to understanding both Greek and Roman mythology.
Read more about this topic: Ancient Crete
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“Never has any one been less a priest than Jesus, never a greater enemy of forms, which stifle religion under the pretext of protecting it. By this we are all his disciples and his successors; by this he has laid the eternal foundation-stone of true religion; and if religion is essential to humanity, he has by this deserved the Divine rank the world has accorded him.”
—Ernest Renan (1823–1892)
“As soon as a religion comes to dominate, it has as its opponents all those who would have been its earliest disciples.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“It must appear impossible, that theism could, from reasoning, have been the primary religion of human race, and have afterwards, by its corruption, given birth to polytheism and to all the various superstitions of the heathen world. Reason, when obvious, prevents these corruptions: When abstruse, it keeps the principles entirely from the knowledge of the vulgar, who are alone liable to corrupt any principle or opinion.
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—David Hume (1711–1776)