Short answers, pulled from the story.
The central deity in Minoan religion was a goddess, widely agreed to be the dominant figure in the Bronze Age Cretan pantheon. A younger male figure, possibly a consort or son, was often associated with her. Distinct goddess types identified by archaeologists include a mountain goddess, a snake goddess, the Potnia Theron, and a goddess of childbirth.
Minoan religion has been reconstructed almost entirely from archaeological evidence including Minoan paintings, statuettes, ritual vessels, carved seals, and gold rings. The absence of readable texts for most of the Minoan period means the names of deities and the content of myths remain unknown. Arthur Evans was among the first to interpret this material evidence systematically through excavations at Knossos.
The Minoan bull-leaping ritual involved young people executing vaults over or with bulls, depicted in frescoes at Knossos and on miniature seals and gold rings. Arthur Evans argued the acrobats literally vaulted over the bull's back by seizing its horns, while Nanno Marinatos considered this physically unrealistic. Some scholars interpret the event as a rite of passage or initiation test for entry into the Minoan elite.
Evidence for human sacrifice in Minoan Crete has been found at three sites: Anemospilia near Mount Juktas, the sanctuary at Fournou Korifi, and the North House at Knossos. At Anemospilia, a young man's bones were found on a raised platform alongside a fifteen-inch bronze dagger engraved with boar images. At Knossos, bones of at least four children excavated by Peter Warren of the British School at Athens showed cut marks matching Minoan butchering techniques, though all three finds remain contested.
Minoan religion influenced ancient Greek religion through centuries of oral transmission, though the precise extent is debated. Scholar M. Nilsson proposed that the Greek goddess Athena originated in the Minoan snake-goddess, based on Athena's close association with snakes. The Theseus legend is considered a transformed version of Minoan religious material, reshaped by Athenian storytellers after the Mycenaean conquest.
Minoan burial practices included beehive tombs called tholoi in southern Crete and house tombs in the north and east, with group burial common throughout. Later periods saw a shift toward singular burials in clay pithoi and larnax coffins, often decorated with motifs from the fresco and vase painting tradition. The Hagia Triada Sarcophagus, dating to about 1400 BC, is the richest surviving image of Minoan mortuary ritual, depicting a bull sacrifice led by female officiants.