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Jazzz

In: Film and Music

Submitted By lizzzzz
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The Minoans and the Phoenicians were different in that the Minoans gave more importance on worshipping goddesses while the Phoenicians worshiped mainly gods, however they both sacrificed to their gods/goddesses.

When viewing the artwork of the Minoans, we notice that the portrayal of female goddesses was very popular. There were many frescos involving women, including them engaging in bull leaping, which was a popular sport. The Minoans did not paint images of their kings or pharaohs.
The Minoans also worshipped Big Mother Earth, who was a goddess and was said to rule over the other gods of Crete. The goddesses would appear in animal forms when visiting earth, that’s why in artwork done by the Minoans, the goddesses would share a space with animals.
Since the Minoans worshiped Big Mother Earth and portrayed women in most of their artwork, we can say that the Minoan’s religion was based on worshipping goddesses.

The Phoenicians were different on this aspect. The Phoenicians believed in Baal of Tyre. He referred to many gods, such as god of the rain, thunder, fertility, agriculture, and the lord of Heaven. Most of the Phoenician worship was based on him.
The Phoenicians also believed in gods of the sea. They would create faces on the front of their ships, sometimes horses, sometimes only eyes. It was said this would help them on their voyage.
We can see that the Phoenician religion delegated a lot of importance to gods, which makes them different than the Minoans.
However, they’re somewhat similar in that both civilizations sacrificed to their gods. The Minoans sacrificed mainly animals and the occasional human to the goddesses in temples. While the Phoenicians sacrificed slaves before sailing away. As you can see, they both sacrificed lives, human or animal, to whom they believed in.
This difference in sacrifice could be because since the Minoans had goddesses who appeared in animal forms so it was more appropriate to sacrifice animals. However, with the Phoenician gods, animal sacrifice might not have been good enough.

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