DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8944#0001
MYCENAEAN TREE AND PILLAR CULT AND ITS
MEDITERRANEAN RELATIONS.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM RECENT CRETAN FINDS.
[Plate V.]
8 1,—Cretan Caves and Hypacthral Sanctuaries.
Among the greater monuments or actual structural remains of the
Mycenaean world hitherto made known, it is remarkable how little there is
to be found having a clear and obvious relation to religious belief. The erreat
wealth of many of the tombs, the rich contents of the pit-graves of Mycenae
itself, the rock-cut chambers, the massive vaults of the bee-hive tombs,
are all indeed so many evidences of a highly developed cult of departed Spirits.
The pit-altar over grave IV. of the Akropolis area at Mycenae, and the some-
what similar erection found in the Court-yard of the Palace at Tiryns, take
us a step further in this direction ;4but it still remains possible that the second,
like the first, may have been dedicated to the cult of the ancestors of the
household, and it supplies in itself no conclusive evidences of a connexion
with any higher form of worship. In the great South-Western Court, and
again in the Central Area of the Palace of Knossos, have now, however, been
Drought to light the foundations of what seem to have been two rectangular
altars; and the special relation in which this building stood to the God of the
Double Axe makes a dedication to the Cretan Zeus in this case extremely
probable.
In Crete indeed we are on somewhat different ground. Throughout the
island are a series of caves, containing votive and sacrificial deposits, going
back from the borders of the historic period to Mycenaean and still more
remote antiquity. The two greatest of these, on the heights of Ida and
Dikta, are connected by immemorial tradition with the cult of the ancient
indigenous divinity later described by the Greeks as the Cretan Zeus, whose
special symbol was the double axe. The colossal rock-hewn altar at the
mouth of the Idaean Cave was unquestionably devoted to the service of this
God.1 In the steatite libation-table found at the bottom of the votive
stratum of the Diktaean Cave2 we have an article of cult the special
1 P. Halblicrr and P. Orsi, Antro di Ztun
/(ho, p. 3 and Tav. xi.
' J.H.S. xvii. (1897), p. 350 xeqq.
h 2
MEDITERRANEAN RELATIONS.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM RECENT CRETAN FINDS.
[Plate V.]
8 1,—Cretan Caves and Hypacthral Sanctuaries.
Among the greater monuments or actual structural remains of the
Mycenaean world hitherto made known, it is remarkable how little there is
to be found having a clear and obvious relation to religious belief. The erreat
wealth of many of the tombs, the rich contents of the pit-graves of Mycenae
itself, the rock-cut chambers, the massive vaults of the bee-hive tombs,
are all indeed so many evidences of a highly developed cult of departed Spirits.
The pit-altar over grave IV. of the Akropolis area at Mycenae, and the some-
what similar erection found in the Court-yard of the Palace at Tiryns, take
us a step further in this direction ;4but it still remains possible that the second,
like the first, may have been dedicated to the cult of the ancestors of the
household, and it supplies in itself no conclusive evidences of a connexion
with any higher form of worship. In the great South-Western Court, and
again in the Central Area of the Palace of Knossos, have now, however, been
Drought to light the foundations of what seem to have been two rectangular
altars; and the special relation in which this building stood to the God of the
Double Axe makes a dedication to the Cretan Zeus in this case extremely
probable.
In Crete indeed we are on somewhat different ground. Throughout the
island are a series of caves, containing votive and sacrificial deposits, going
back from the borders of the historic period to Mycenaean and still more
remote antiquity. The two greatest of these, on the heights of Ida and
Dikta, are connected by immemorial tradition with the cult of the ancient
indigenous divinity later described by the Greeks as the Cretan Zeus, whose
special symbol was the double axe. The colossal rock-hewn altar at the
mouth of the Idaean Cave was unquestionably devoted to the service of this
God.1 In the steatite libation-table found at the bottom of the votive
stratum of the Diktaean Cave2 we have an article of cult the special
1 P. Halblicrr and P. Orsi, Antro di Ztun
/(ho, p. 3 and Tav. xi.
' J.H.S. xvii. (1897), p. 350 xeqq.
h 2