EGBERT, Saint. – Benedictine, perhaps a bishop, born in 639 of a noble family in Northumbria (England), died at the age of ninety on 24 April 729 on the island of Iona. As a young man he attended monastic schools in Ireland and was a monk at Rathmelsigi (perhaps Mellifont in County Louth). He took a vow to preach the Gospel to the Germanic peoples, but was prevented by a shipwreck from going himself and instead sent St Willibrord. In 716 he persuaded the monks of the monastery of Iona to adopt the Roman rite. He spent the last thirteen years of his life there.
The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 24 April.
CRETE
It is easy to form a judgment.
Only the island of Crete has more abundant cultural data, but we cannot extend them to the whole Greek world. As for the cults of the island of Cyprus, which lie outside the strictly so-called Roman Empire, although they present points of contact with it, no mention will be made here.
Cult sites were caves, open-air locations either enclosed by a wall or not, and small shrines. Votive deposits, more or less rich, are associated with open-air cults and caves, whereas none have been found in connection with cult rooms. The earliest offerings in the cave of Amnìsos (pottery vessels) date from the Neolithic period, around two stalactites enclosed by a wall, and continue into the Roman age.
In Early Minoan times the cave of Arkalochori begins to be used (votive weapons); in Late Minoan III, the cave of Amnìsos, offerings were deposited outside. In Middle Minoan we have the caves of Skoteino (double axes and figurines), Kamarés (pottery vessels), which continues until the end of Late Minoan III, Psychro (weapons, male and female figurines, animals) which extends into the Geometric period, and various open-air cults limited to Middle Minoan at Zakro (male and female figurines, goats, oxen), at Petsofa and on Mount Juktas (the cult site was enclosed by a wall; offerings, figurines and parts of the human body, were thrown into the fire).
Late Minoan I sees the cave of Phanomeni (male adorants, knives, double axes) which extends into the Orientalizing period. Late Minoan III includes the cave of Patso and the open-air cult in the courtyard of Haghia Triada, lasting into the whole Geometric period with a great variety of offerings: figurines, weapons, horns of consecration, animals, etc. At Haghia Triada there was also an altar (?) and a sacrificial pit containing ashes, charcoal and burnt bones of small animals. Less important in Late Minoan was the cult at Phaistos (figurines, animals, libation tables) located a few metres above the ruins of the second palace. A votive deposit from the end of Late Minoan III comes from a covered spring near Knossos (vases and sphinxes). It is not known which deities were worshipped at the sites listed. In historical times at Amnìsos Eileithyia was venerated; for Patso it has been mistakenly suggested that Hermes Cranios was worshipped. Perhaps the cults at Petsofa and Mount Juktas were addressed to healing deities, since among the offerings were reproductions of human limbs; those at Arkalochori, Psychro and Phanomeni, where weapons were numerous among the votive offerings, to a warrior deity; those at Phaistos, Patso, Haghia Triada and Zakro to a rustic deity protecting animals and field work. For Kamarés and Amnìsos the identification is made difficult by the fact that only vases were found as offerings. At the spring of Knossos a deity of the waters may have been venerated, who could also be the one depicted by a female figure with arms raised within a round frame, found in the votive deposit.
In Middle Minoan the first certain evidence of cult in palace rooms appears: in the first palace of Phaistos there was a room destined for cult with three accessory rooms and a sacrificial pit.
Certain representations of deities appear only at the end of Middle Minoan. The female figurines in the tombs of Early Minoan and the pottery vessels in the shape of a female body, which have been interpreted as images of the Minoan Mother Goddess, are merely funerary offerings; even for two female statuettes with snakes from Knossos it is uncertain whether they are deities. From the end of Middle Minoan onwards, seals, gems and sealings depict a Mistress of Animals between two lions, dogs or griffins, and another with a pointed cap and spear, also accompanied by a lion or dog. Other seals show an identical scheme for a male deity: a god between two animals (griffins, dogs or lions), another with a pointed cap, spear and rectangular shield, who is also accompanied by a lion or dog.
The male deity does not seem to occupy an inferior position with respect to the female deity; therefore one cannot speak of a paredros. Seals with supposed marine or warrior deities do not offer secure evidence. Cult statues appear only in Late Minoan III: they are female deities with arms raised, wearing a diadem with various emblems (birds, horns of consecration, poppies, etc.). Some hold snakes in their hands. It is not known whether they represent the same deity with different attributes or several deities; the two with snakes cannot be domestic deities, as has been suggested, because they were found in sanctuaries separate from any dwelling. Female deities never appear nude: a graffito on a jug from Mallia and a statuette from Haghia Triada—if they are indeed goddesses—will represent foreign concepts and cults.
The cult of the double axe, the pillar, the column, the horns of consecration, and trees has been mentioned; only the cult of the latter seems attested by gems. Demons and monsters, hybrid fusions of man and animal, have secondary functions.
No traces of cults are found until the beginning of Minoan artistic influence, but then it is not easy to distinguish whether the cult scenes represent imported concepts or not. In a shaft grave at Mycenae there were two nude female figures with doves, perhaps goddesses; the type is foreign to Crete but may have been imported from the East. A slab from Mycenae shows a female figure almost entirely covered by a large figure-of-eight shield, who could be a Greek warrior goddess. In Late Mycenaean times numerous female figurines come from tombs, houses and cult sites: those from tombs will be funerary offerings, the others may be either goddesses or worshippers.
Cult sites are not earlier than Late Mycenaean: at Kleinos a cave with votive offerings has been found; at Haghia Triada in the Argolid there was an open-air cult with a votive deposit; at Delphi, beneath the temple of Apollo, there were ashes and remains of sacrifices, and beneath that of Athena Proaikos a slab with an altar and female figurines. Cult rooms are also found in the palace of Mycenae and at Bebati. At Asine a room in a house had a stone bench supporting vases and statuettes; it recalls the sanctuary rooms of Crete, but the deity venerated is male (unlike the Cretan ones) and it has been suggested—though without proof—that Zeus or Poseidon was worshipped there. At Tiryns there was an altar in the courtyard. Beneath numerous Greek sanctuaries Mycenaean structures have been found (Eleusis, Athens, Argos, Delos, etc.), but no certain traces of cult.
AEGEAN ISLANDS. — Although various deities and places of worship are traced back to pre-Hellenic times, no traces of cults prior to the Greek era have been found. In the marble figurines from the tombs of Cleidali, some have wished to recognize a goddess of fertility, but the hypothesis is much debated.