Poseidon is undoubtedly one of the most famous of all the Greek gods. The Greeks worshipped him throughout antiquity, as far back as the Bronze Age. Interestingly, there is evidence that the Greek god Poseidon was originally a Minoan deity, but what is this evidence? And what do we know about the earliest version of this god?
Hints at Poseidon’s Minoan origin in Greek mythology
The fact that Poseidon originally came from the Minoan civilisation before being adopted by the Greeks is hinted at in Greek mythology. The Minoans, we should note, lived primarily on Crete. With this in mind, it is interesting to observe the connection between Poseidon and Crete in Greek records.
One of the most famous legends concerning Crete in Greek mythology is the story of the Cretan bull. According to this story, King Minos of Knossos, Crete, prayed to Poseidon to send him a bull as a sign that he was the rightful heir to the throne of Knossos.
Poseidon sent a bull as requested, which emerged from the sea and arrived on the shores of Crete. Minos should have sacrificed it to Poseidon, but he was so impressed with the Cretan bull that he decided to hide it among his cattle.
As a punishment, Poseidon made Minos’s wife fall in love with the Cretan bull. She then had relations with it, which resulted in the birth of the monstrous Minotaur of the Labyrinth.
The Greeks recounted not only the tale of King Minos seeking a sign from Poseidon but also a legend that he annually sacrificed to the god. Poseidon, being the principal deity for Minos’s people, suggests a significant link between the Greeks and the Cretans with Poseidon. Although these legends do not definitively confirm Poseidon’s Minoan roots, additional evidence supports this hypothesis beyond just these stories.
Understanding the Minoan pantheon
The Minoans wrote in a script called Linear A. Unfortunately, scholars still have yet to decipher the Minoans’ language, so we know relatively little about their religion. However, Linear A is closely related to Linear B, the script of the Bronze Age Greeks.
This means that although we cannot understand the language of the Minoans, we can, to a certain degree, transliterate their inscriptions. In other words, we know what many of the characters represent, even if we do not understand what the words mean.
This means that scholars have been able to recognise the names of gods on Minoan inscriptions. Furthermore, after the Mycenaeans conquered Crete in c. 1450 BCE, they did not immediately or completely replace the Minoans’ religion. Aspects of Minoan religion continued into the Iron Age.
Due to this, the Greek Linear B tablets (which we can read and understand) from immediately after the Mycenaean conquest of Crete give us valuable insights into Minoan religion.
Poteidan, the Minoan antecedent of Poseidon
Based on the evidence, we can discern that an important Minoan deity was a goddess whom the Greeks called Potnia, apparently the highest goddess in the Minoan pantheon. The Palace of Knossos was sacred to her. She was a type of Great Mother goddess, similar to what we see all over the Near East.
In Minoan mythology, male deities frequently accompanied goddesses. The counterpart of the goddess Potnia was a male god known as Poteidan or Potidas, regarded by the Minoans as the ruler of the earth, sky, and sea. He held the position of the supreme deity in the Minoan pantheon. Both Potnia and Poteidan were central to the religious site’s dedication at Knossos.
Poteidan was the Minoan antecedent of the Greek god Poseidon, as the name suggests. Interestingly, the name ‘Poteidan’ also appears among the Doric Greeks of later history.
The tradition among the later Greeks of Poseidon and his association with the Cretan bull is reflected in the older Minoan religion. It appears that the Minoans viewed the bull as a symbol of Poseidon. It represented him here on earth, evidently due to its power.
This helps us to understand the importance of the practice of bull-leaping. It was not just a sport, but a religious tradition.
One fascinating find from Minoan Crete is a clay seal which appears to depict Poseidon. Archaeologists found this at Kydonia. The seal dates to Late Minoan IB, which is the era between the eruption of Thera and the Mycenaean conquest of Crete.
On this seal, there is a depiction of a god brandishing a spear and standing on top of a building by the shore, which appears to have waves lapping against it. This Minoan art seems to be the oldest known depiction of Poseidon.