Mycenaean religion

Overview

Mycenaean religion was practised on the Greek mainland by the warrior elite of the Late Bronze Age, roughly 1600 to 1100 BCE, centred on citadels such as Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos and Thebes. Palace scribes kept Linear B, the earliest deciphered written Greek, adapted from the Minoans' still-unread Linear A; it is mostly administrative, listing goods rather than belief. After taking political control of Minoan Crete around 1450 BCE, Mycenaean Greeks absorbed some Minoan cult practice while keeping a system of their own. Much of what survives comes not from texts but from monumental architecture: "Cyclopean" walls and domed tholos tombs. Destruction in the late 13th century BCE ended the palace period, but Mycenae's myths, including those of Agamemnon, lived on in Homer and Greek tragedy.^{[1–2, 4–7]}

History

Citadels of the Mycenaean mainland c. 1600–1450 BCE

Mycenaean culture takes its name from Mycenae in the Peloponnese, one of several fortified citadels, alongside Tiryns, Pylos and Thebes, that dominated the Greek mainland in the Late Bronze Age. In 1876 the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann uncovered unplundered royal Shaft Graves at Mycenae, whose gold and weaponry suggested a wealthy warrior elite and were soon linked to Homer's account of Agamemnon's kingdom. Around 1450 BCE, Mycenaean Greeks took political control of Minoan Crete, absorbing some Minoan cult practices even as their own religious system kept many differences from the Minoan one.^{[1, 3, 6]}

Palace scribes and massive stonework c. 1450–1300 BCE

Mycenaean palace scribes recorded an early form of Greek in the Linear B script, adapted from the Minoans' undeciphered Linear A; the tablets are mainly administrative lists rather than religious texts. Above ground, Mycenaean builders raised massive defensive walls of unworked boulders, which later Greeks, unable to imagine ordinary labour producing them, called "Cyclopean," and domed, corbel-vaulted tholos tombs for their rulers.^{[2, 4]}

Collapse and afterlife in legend c. 1300–1100 BCE and after

By the late 13th century BCE a wave of destruction struck the Mycenaean palatial centres, and their populations withdrew to more remote, defensible settlements, ending the palace period. Mycenae itself lingered on as a minor city-state into the era of Classical Greece but lay in ruins by the 2nd century CE. Its legendary rulers and their kin, including Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia, Electra and Orestes, continued to inspire poets, dramatists and artists from Homer's epics and Greek tragedy down to the present.^{[5, 7]}

Places

Mycenae

GRC · UNESCO World Heritage, 1999

The hilltop citadel that gave Mycenaean culture its name, fortified with massive Cyclopean walls and containing domed tholos tombs; tradition made it the kingdom of Agamemnon. It is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List together with nearby Tiryns.^[4–5]

Art & objects

Public-domain objects from museum collections. Select one to see it at the museum.

Piriform (Pear-Shaped) JarGreek, Mycenaean, Late Helladic IIIA1-2b, c. 1400–1300 BCEMycenaean female figurineHelladic, Mycenaean, Late Helladic IIIB, 13th century BCETerracotta female figure in three-legged chairHelladic, Mycenaean, Late Helladic IIIB, 13th century BCETerracotta stirrup jarMycenaean, Late Helladic III, ca. 1400–1050 BCETerracotta animal figurineMycenaean, Late Helladic III, ca. 14th–13th century BCETerracotta female figureHelladic, Mycenaean, Late Helladic IIIA, ca. 1400–1300 BCETerracotta bullHelladic, Mycenaean, Late Helladic IIIA, ca. 1400–1300 BCEGilt terracotta ornaments from a necklaceMycenaean, Late Helladic III, ca. 1400–1050 BCETerracotta sheep or bullHelladic, Mycenaean, Late Helladic IIIA, ca. 1400–1300 BCETerracotta female figureHelladic, Mycenaean, Late Helladic IIIA, ca. 1400–1300 BCE3 Terracotta female figuresHelladic, Mycenaean, Late Helladic IIIA, ca. 1400–1300 BCE

Common misconceptions

Glossary

Linear B

The Mycenaeans' script, adapted from the Minoans' Linear A, used to write an early form of Greek; its surviving tablets are chiefly administrative, not religious, records.^[2]

Shaft Graves

Royal burial shafts at Mycenae, excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, whose rich gold and weapon finds first suggested a powerful Bronze Age warrior elite.^[3]

Cyclopean masonry

Mycenaean fortification walls built of huge, roughly fitted boulders; later Greeks attributed the technique to the mythical Cyclopes, since they could not imagine ordinary builders raising it.^[4]

Tholos tomb

A domed, corbel-vaulted "beehive" burial chamber built for Mycenaean rulers, approached by a long entrance passage.^[4]