In Gods on the Tablets you met the gods by name. The same tablets tell what was given to them, where and sometimes when. Some of these records are easy to read; one of them is among the most debated texts in the whole archive.
Key idea
Ordinary offerings
Most religious tablets are plain lists. Pylos sends perfumed oil to Poseidon and to goddesses called Potnia. A Knossos tablet sends a jar of honey (me-ri) to Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth, at Amnisos. Others send wheat, wine or animals to shrines, sometimes dated by month. They show a calendar of festivals run partly through the palace.
Tn 316: a hard tablet
Tn 316 is a page-shaped tablet written on both sides. It lists shrines and gods, and for each a gold vessel and, often, a man or a woman. The extract above shows three entries. The question is what the people were for. One reading: they were sacrificed, perhaps in an emergency as the palace faced its end. Another: they were given to the god as servants of the shrine, as later temples had temple servants. A few have suggested other readings.
| Reading | For it | Against it |
|---|---|---|
| Human offerings | People are listed exactly like the gold vessels, as gifts | No word on the tablet says "sacrifice"; such sacrifice is rare in Greek evidence |
| Temple servants | Later Greek shrines had servants given to the god | The tablet does not say they served; it only lists them |
Why it works
Common mistake
Worked example: Read an entry
- di-we: to Zeus (dative).
- AUR *213VAS 1: one gold bowl.
- VIR 1: one man.
Answer: To Zeus: a gold bowl, 1; a man, 1.
Worked example: What can be said?
- (a) is written: di-we, the gold and vessel signs, 1.
- (b) adds an interpretation the tablet does not state.
Answer: (a) only.