dead with goods such as food suggests that they believed in
an aft erlife in which the dead would need or want the goods.
Th ey seem to have believed that deceased family members
could be good infl uences for their living kin. Historians and
archaeologists disagree about exactly where the Germanic
peoples thought people went aft er death. Many argue that the
notion of Valhalla, the home in the aft erlife for those slain in
battle, came late to the Germanic peoples, the ancient peoples
believing only in a dark place in the earth governed by a god-
dess of the dead.
EARLY EUROPEAN CHRISTIANITY
Christianity was making itself felt in Europe by the end of
the fi rst century c.e. It was one of several religions circulat-
ing at the time, especially in central Europe. One competing
faith was Mithraism, an exclusively male religion especially
popular among soldiers. Mithras was a warrior god, and dead
soldiers could hope to join him aft er death in a battle against
evil. Perhaps the key to the growth of Christianity in Europe
in these early years was that it welcomed women in its re-
ligious rites. Roman men oft en served decades in the army,
leaving women at home to raise the children. It is a tiny logical
step to imagine many women taking their sons and daughters
to a church that treated women with greater respect than did
other European religions. By the time the Roman emperor
Constantine the Great converted to Christianity (ca. 312 c.e.),
the faith already had a strong European following. Th ereaf-
ter, Christian priests oft en became secular as well as spiritual
leaders—for example, as bishops who governed towns and
regions around towns.
During this same period, however, Christians them-
selves were embroiled in bitter theological disputes with one
another. Th e main issues concerned the divinity of Christ and
particularly whether, if divine, he was of the same substance
as God. Confl ict over such questions, resulting oft en in ex-
ecutions and sometimes in wholesale massacres of “heretics,”
continued in Europe long aft er the fall of the Western Roman
Empire in 476 c.e.
GREECE
BY BRADLEY SKEEN
Religion was the main binding force in ancient Greek cul-
ture. Greek religion gave birth to philosophical speculation
that in time not only led to the development of science but
also provided the theological language of Rabbinic Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. It formed the basis for the creation of
the fi rst modern literature, which is still among the most im-
portant ever produced. Greek religion has remained a source
of inspiration for artists, writers, and composers as well as
theologians and philosophers down to the present day.
MINOAN RELIGION
Th e Minoan civilization on the island of Crete (ca. 2000–ca.
1400 b.c.e.) was the beginning of Greek civilization, though
its people did not speak Greek. Minoan culture centered on a
number of palace complexes; the most important was Knos-
sos. Th e agricultural produce of the surrounding countryside
was dedicated to various gods in the palace storehouses; obvi-
ously religion was very important.
We know about the religion of Minoan Greeks from
their art and from myths that were written down centuries
later. For example, frescoes in the palace at Knossos make it
clear that one of the most important activities of Minoan cul-
ture was an athletic festival in which young male and female
athletes leaped over bulls. Meanwhile, the classical myth of
Th eseus (a legendary king of Athens) tells that each year every
city in Greece had to send young men and women to Knos-
sos, where they were sacrifi ced by being killed by the Mino-
taur—a monster with a human body and the head of a bull.
No defi nite connection between the historical evidence and
the myth can be made, however. Th e Minoans left extensive
records written in an alphabet known as Linear A, but these
texts have never been deciphered.
Minoans did not build temples like later Greeks but in-
stead worshipped the gods on hilltops and in caves. Perhaps
they thought these locations were nearest the gods of the sky
and the gods below the earth, respectively. Th ese shrines were
generally located near palaces, and their service was one of the
chief duties of the kings. Th e most important form of worship
was animal sacrifi ce, especially of bulls. Cave shrines some-
times contained a statue of the goddess honored in them, but
shrines also held many off erings of double-headed axes and
swords that suggest important male deities. Private houses
generally had small shrines. Many statuettes of a woman have
been found, wearing the clothing of a Minoan aristocrat and
holding her arms above her head with a writhing snake in
each hand. Undoubtedly, the statuettes depict goddesses.
Invaders from the north—the fi rst people we know of
who spoke the historical Greek language—eventually over-
whelmed the Minoan civilization. Th ey founded many new
cities, especially on mainland Greece; the most important
was Mycenae, so their culture is called Mycenaean (1400–1100
b.c.e.). Th ey wrote a form of Greek in a Minoan alphabet later
than Linear A and known as Linear B, generally inventories
of the royal palaces of the cities. Many of the listed items were
dedicated to various gods, the same as those worshipped by
later Greeks, such as Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, and Dionysus.
Th e Homeric epics of the Iliad and the Odyssey are an-
other source of information about the Mycenaeans. Th e most
important works of Greek literature, they were written down
around the sixth century b.c.e. but are both set in Mycenaean
times (as was the narrative of much Greek myth) and were
based on ora l traditions t hat went back to t hat era. Th ese texts
suggest that many institutions of historical Greek religion,
such as priesthood and sacrifi ce, were already formed in the
Mycenaean culture. But as in the case of the Minoans, the
sparse evidence provides more questions than answers.
Between 1200 and 1000 b.c.e. the whole eastern Mediter-
ranean world, including Greece, underwent a terrible collapse.religion and cosmology: Greece 853