There is little evidence for Mycenaean religious structures before the Late Hel-ladic IIIA period. Only the cultic remains at the (later) sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas at Epidauros date back to the Early Mycenaean period (Wright 1996, 68). This has led some to suggest that Mycenaean cult structures were created by the palaces for the sake of propaganda. However, because at least some of the early cult places predate the palaces, as at Epidauros, it appears more likely that the palaces merely hastened a preexisting trend of building religious structures.
The Mycenaeans had three basic types of sacred space: the open-air sanctuary, the shrine building, and the megaron (Wright 1996, 37). As one might imagine, there is little archaeological evidence from the open-air sanctuaries, although textual evidence does exist for them. The most famous sanctuary known from the Linear B texts is that of Pakijana in the region of Pylos, where the priestess Erita, as well as several slaves of the god/dess, maintained land-
8.7 Haghia Triadha Sarcophagos (2 views—Sacrifice) (Kathleen Cohen/Herakleion Archaeological Museum)
Holdings. Several tablets from the Pylos archive document offerings directed to Pakijana. Pakijana has not yet been "discovered," so it is entirely possible that there was some manner of cult building there. Until such is found, though, we might think of Pakijana as an open-air sanctuary.
Shrine buildings existed throughout the Mycenaean world and in the Cyclades. In some instances, they existed independently within settlements, as at Phylakopi on Melos, House G at Asine, Megaron B at Eleusis, and Amyclae. In other cases, they were located within the citadel walls of the palaces, as at Mycenae and Tiryns. All the shrine buildings had commonalities that made their identification as shrines evident. These commonalities included benches as foci of religious activity and the presence of idols serving as divine images. Nevertheless, each shrine was unique, with its own set of sacred images, arguing that the various shrines served different cults in the veneration of different deities. This certainly makes sense in the polytheistic system attested to in the Linear B tablets.
The most famous, and complex, shrine buildings are those south of Grave Circle A at Mycenae. Here, excavators found two contiguous, but not interconnected, sacred rooms abutting the citadel walls (see Image 8.8). The first of these—the Shrine of the Idols—consisted of three areas. The shrine was entered through a short vestibule to the south of the main room, dubbed the Room with the Platforms (the second part of the shrine). As you may already have guessed, one of the room's chief features was a low platform in the center of the floor. The platform was slightly concave with no signs of burning, so it may have been used for libations, but clearly not for burnt sacrifices. Beyond the platform against the far wall was a series of benches at different heights. Votives were probably placed on these benches, set before idols of the deities. One such idol still remained on the bench in the northeast corner of the room, a goddess, to judge from her prominent breasts and hair styled in a pigtail and from the upraised position of her arms. Directly before this goddess was a small table of offerings, where the devout could dedicate trinkets or first fruits.
Directly behind this idol was a staircase that led to the third component of the shrine: the Room with the Idols. Here, excavators found a quantity of similar clay figures, as well as tables of offerings, pottery, and snake models. All the idols, roughly half a meter in height, are similar in construction, yet distinctive in detail. Each was made on a potter's wheel: They have hollow, cylindrical bodies and no feet. On the torsos, the males have barrel chests, and the females have flat chests with molded breasts. Arm positions vary, and some appear to have carried now-missing items. Perhaps one male with an upraised arm carried an axe, indicative of an early manifestation of Zeus. The group of tables no doubt went with the idols, so that each deity might have had a separate place for their offerings. The meaning of the snakes has yet to be determined, although snakes were common motifs of several deities in the historical pe-
8.8 Plan of Mycenaean Shrine Complex (Courtesy of Stephanie Budin)
Riod, such as Athena and Dionysos. In all events, it is clear that the Shrine of the Idols served as sacred space for several deities.
To the west of the Shrine of the Idols is the Room with the Fresco. In contrast to the axial alignment of the previous shrine, this room was relatively spread out. One entered through an anteroom to the north. Immediately left of the entrance was a bathtub containing water jugs, and it appears that one was expected to wash or purify oneself upon entering this sacred space. In the center of the room was a sunken hearth, beyond which was a bench against the south wall. No objects were found on the bench, but, as with other shrine benches, it was probably used for offerings. At the eastern edge of the bench was a white-plastered platform. This was probably an altar (Taylour 1990, 55). Immediately above this altar are the frescoes for which the shrine was named. On a lower level was a rim showing three horns of consecration, suggesting Minoan inspiration. Above these were three goddesses. The best preserved, and the smallest, shows a woman in profile carrying what appear to be sheaves of grain in both hands. Some have suggested that this is an early representation of Demeter. Above the grain goddess is a scene with two much larger females. One is the Warrior Goddess described above: She wears a fringed dress and appears to hold a sword point-down in her hand (only the bottom of the fresco remains). Facing this goddess is another female/goddess whose hem is obviously that of a Minoan flounced skirt (see chapter 9). She carries an object in her hand that appears to be a spear. To judge from the decor, this shrine was dedicated to a group of goddesses, possibly Minoan in inspiration. Behind the wall containing the frescoes was a smaller room containing several pieces of worked and raw ivory. Of particular interest to researchers is that, at a date after the room's construction, the southern wall of this room was converted into a small shrine, where was perched a little statuette of a Goddess With Upraised Arms. Apparently, one more sacred room was needed to fulfill the spiritual needs of the residents.
Finally, there is the megaron, the quintessential architectural element of the Mycenaeans. As discussed in chapter 9, the megaron—a square room with a central hearth surrounded by four columns and a throne set off to the side, approached through a porch and vestibule—was the core unit of the Mycenaean palaces. The megaron also served as the religious center of the Mycenaean palaces, and possibly of Mycenaean ideology as well. The close connection between the megaron and religion is evident both in the finds associated with the megara (pl. of megaron) and in their orientation. At Mycenae, for example, the megaron vestibule contained an altar, an offering table, and a basin possibly used for libations (Wright 1996, 54, no. 62). Thus, one was put into a ritual state of mind upon entering. At Tiryns, a special orientation heightened the religious ideology: The central hearth "looked" out through the vestibule and porch to a large piazza containing an altar. The altar was situated such that it had direct line of sight with the interior megaron hearth. Thus, the public ritual was linked to the private.
In the megaron, the hearth, columns, and throne each had symbolic meaning. The importance of the hearth as religious space probably extends well back in Indo-European tradition. It symbolized not only the concept of the house, and by extension the state, but also the notion of permanence (Wright 1996). As discussed below in the section on Hestia, the hearth was seen as the immovable center of the physical and conceptual household. To control the hearth was to control the household and, by extension, the state. The placement of the throne next to the hearth symbolized the control of the wanax (see chapter 7) over the land. The columns, possibly deriving from Minoan iconography, had at least one symbolic meaning of connecting the megaron and its hearth with the heavens. Thus, the megaron was the link between the terrestrial world of humans and the heavenly abode of the deities (ibid., 57-60). The placement of the throne right at the edge of this nexus reaffirmed the role of the wanax as mediator between the human realm and the divine.
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