The Minoan Pantheon Expands, Confusingly

All deities, all the time!

I love the journey I’m on with the other members of Ariadne’s Tribe, discovering and uncovering Minoan deities so we can reconnect with them as modern Pagans.

We’re not trying to reconstruct ancient Minoan religion; I’m not even sure that’s possible. Not only is the Minoan Linear A script still undeciphered, but the Bronze Age is so far removed from our own era, their worldview may not be fully accessible to us. Especially considering that Minoan religion maintained what appear to be Neolithic practices right up to the end. That’s an even further-removed mindset, with very different values from those of the modern western world. Even those of us who have shared gnosis about this subject agree that it would be difficult to articulate and adequately explain to a modern audience, regardless of how Pagan they may be.

Since we can’t reasonably reconstruct ancient Minoan religion, we’ve asked the deities instead to guide us in developing relationships with them in the here and now, in ways that are healthy and helpful for both us and them. That’s the basis of our spiritual practice in the Tribe.

Building the pantheon has taken a decade and has led us in directions I never expected. The family of deities doesn’t look at all like I thought it would. It feels far more like a collective or some kind of, almost, hippie commune presided over by a handful of elder goddesses rather than an organized, hierarchical, family tree-style pantheon. Which is groovy (forgive me, I’m a child of the 1970s).

But the thing that really fascinates me and keeps me peering into the never-ending relationships among the different deities is the way in which they are and aren’t separate from each other, in any given place and time or across time.

Individuation is problematic, as we like to say in the Tribe.

Our pantheon is pretty stable at this point…. except that every now and then, we discover a new facet of a deity we already know, one that has a separate, distinct name and specific characteristics. Then the question becomes, is this a separate deity? Where is their place in the pantheon?

Today I’ve shared a Minoan Path blog post about a pair of healer deities: Hygeia and Paean. You can read the post here: Hygeia and Paean: Minoan Healer Deities.

These two are faces of our Sun Goddess Therasia and her son, the god Korydallos. So are they separate deities? Well, they have distinctive names and were considered to be stand-alone deities later on, in classical times.

How do deities unfold from each other? Where does one-ness end and separateness, or the appearance of it, begin?

When we look back at Neolithic Old Europe and Anatolia, we can see what Dr. Marija Gimbutas interpreted as a single Mother Goddess with many different faces. Our research suggests that Dr. Gimbutas’s interpretation was not so much incorrect as incomplete. There does appear to have been a single Mother Goddess who was the most important deity (though perhaps not the only one) in the urban farming culture of the areas she studied. But there were at least two distinct herding cultures in the same region who had either their own deities or who prioritized deities in the pantheon besides the Mother Goddess.

The Minoans’ ancestors came from Neolithic Anatolia, the time and place I’m talking about here. They would have known the One-Mother (that’s what we call her in the Tribe) and all her faces, as well as her children.

At what point did those faces become separate deities? Before or after the Minoans’ ancestors reached Crete during those waves of Neolithic migration? Does it matter?

Does it really matter now, even?

Ultimately, that’s a question each person has to answer for themselves.

I used to consider myself a hard polytheist. Then the edges started to soften and blur. I’ve learned to live with ambiguity - not easily or comfortably, mind you, but it’s here to stay.

Individuation is problematic.

Thank heavens humor is also sacred.

So I’m delighted to share Hygeia and Paean with you, and I hope you find the kaleidoscope of reflection within the Minoan pantheon to be as beautiful as the deities themselves.

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About Laura Perry

I'm an author, artist, and creator who works magic with words, paint, ink, music, textiles, and herbs. I'm also the founder and Temple Mom of Ariadne's Tribe, a worldwide inclusive Minoan spiritual tradition. My spiritual practice includes spirit work and herbalism through the lens of lifelong animism. I write Pagan / polytheist non-fiction and fiction across several different subjects and genres. I'm currently working on an illustrated book of modern Minoan myths and a Minoan entry in the Moon Books Pantheons series (release date 26 August 2025). I’m also an avid gardener and living history demonstrator.