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Blobrana


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RE: Minoan Deities
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World-leading archaeologist to speak about Bronze Age Minoan civilisation

The Minoan civilisation on the island of Crete during the Bronze Age is the theme for the Felix Neubergh Lecture in Archaeology at the University of Gothenburg. On May 30, Professor Nanno Marinatos will hold the lecture "The Solar Goddess of Minoan Crete".
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Blobrana


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Linear B clay tablets
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Margalit Fox, "The Riddle of the Labyrinth"

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Blobrana


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Linear B
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Minerviad 01 - Lev Blechman: "The Decipherment of Linear B"

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Blobrana


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Linear B clay tablets
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Archaeologists discover a large cache of clay tablets with hieroglyphic writing in a script they call Linear B on the 5th April, 1900.

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Blobrana


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Minoan Deities
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On April 5, 1900, excavators in Knossos discovered the first large cache ever of Linear B tablets among the remains of a wooden box in a disused terracotta bathtub. Subsequently caches turned up at multiple locations (of later disputed date) including the Room of the Chariot Tablets where over 350 pieces from four boxes were found.
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Blobrana


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Mycenaean syllabary, derived from Minoan Linear A.

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Blobrana


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Pipituna
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The text is roughly the following:
In the month of Lapathos: to Dwikutos(?) 1/18 unit of OIL, to Pipituna 1/18 unit, to Aurimos 4/18 unit of OIL, to all the gods 1/3 unit, to Qerasia 1/3 unit, to the priestess of winds 1 unit of OIL, to the Utanos priestess of winds 1/3 + 3/18 units.

All the personal names on this tablet are expected to be divine entities. Unfortunately we know nothing of Qerasia or Pipituna, except that the former name resembles the name "Thera" and the latter is somewhat similar to goddess Diktynna.

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Blobrana


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Female deities appear to outnumber the male deities. Linear B tablets name some of the goddesses worshipped in Crete: Eleuthia/Eileithiya, goddess of childbirth; Diktynna/Artemis, the Mistress of the Animals; Pipituna of the Doves, who may be a form of Aphrodite; Atana Potinija, who might be an early Athena; an unnamed Mistress of the Labyrinth; Rhea, who might be a form of the Great Mother Goddess; and Qe-ra-sija (pronounced "Therasia"), a minor goddess associated with the Thera eruption. Hera was also worshipped, and there seems to have been a female version of Poseidon named Po-se-dana.
Keep in mind that these are all Mycenaean Greek names. Because Linear A, the unique Minoan language, remains undeciphered, we don't yet know what the Minoans called their gods or goddesses.
The popular Snake Goddess could be an aspect of the Mistress of the Animals, who also seems to be represented as the Mistress of Horses and the Mistress of Birds. Again, we don't know whether they're the same goddess or several minor goddesses.
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The Minoan Deities Named: An Archaeologist Gleans Goddesses and Gods from Linear A

According to the online Dartmouth course "Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean", the goddess names found include Potinija or Potnia ("Mistress" in later Greek); Atana Potinija or Potnia Atana, possibly Athena; Dapuritojo Potinijia, Potnia of the Labyrinth; Pipituna, possibly Diktynna, a goddess of classical Crete; Ereutija or Eleuthia, in other words Eileithyia, the classical goddess of childbirth; Erinu, or Erinys, a name for a classical Fury and a cult epithet of Demeter; and Diwija or Diwia, the female counterpart of Zeus.
The god names found include Diwo, Zeus; Posedaone or Poseidon; Enesidaone or Enosidas, Greek for "Earth-shaker"; Pajawone or Paiawon, Paian being a later classical epithet for Apollo; Are, possibly Ares; and Enuwarijo or Enyalios, a classical epithet for Ares. Very likely, some of these were native deities, whose worship was continued by the Mycenaeans who ruled Knossos after 1450 BC. However, it's impossible to know if the Knossos tablets contain any Minoan names or list strictly Mycenaean names that disguise Nopina, Ma and the rest.
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