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Illyrian religion

Illyrian religion refers to the religious beliefs and practices of the Illyrian peoples, a group of tribes who spoke the Illyrian languages and inhabited part of the western Balkan Peninsula from at least the 8th century BC until the 7th century AD.[1][2] The available written sources are very tenuous. They consist largely of personal and place names, and a few glosses from Classical sources.[3]

Still insufficiently studied, the most numerous traces of religious practices of the pre-Roman era are those relating to religious symbolism. Symbols are depicted in every variety of ornament and reveal that the chief object of the prehistoric cult of the Illyrians was the sun,[4][5] worshipped in a widespread and complex religious system.[6] Illyrian deities were mentioned in inscriptions on statues, monuments, and coins of the Roman period, and some interpreted by Ancient writers through comparative religion.[7][3] To these can be added a larger body of inscriptions from the south-eastern Italian region of Apulia written in the Messapic language, which is generally considered to be related to Illyrian,[3][8][2][9] although this has been debated as mostly speculative.[10] There appears to be no single most prominent god for all the Illyrian tribes, and a number of deities evidently appear only in specific regions.[7]

As pagans, Illyrians believed in supernatural powers and they attributed to the deities qualities that were reflected in everyday life, health and disease, natural abundance and natural disaster.[11] A number of Illyrian toponyms and anthroponyms derived from animal names and reflected the beliefs in animals as mythological ancestors and protectors.[12] The serpent was one of the most important animal totems.[13] Illyrians believed in the force of spells and the evil eye, in the magic power of protective and beneficial amulets which could avert the evil eye or the bad intentions of enemies.[14][7] The rich spectrum in religious beliefs and burial rituals that emerged in Illyria, especially during the Roman period, may reflect the variation in cultural identities in this region.[15]

Certain aspects of the deities and beliefs of the Illyrians stem ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mythology.[3] Alongside the Thracian and Dacian beliefs, it constitutes part of Paleo-Balkan mythologies.[16] Albanians preserved traces of Illyrian religious symbolism,[17][18] and ancient Illyrian religion is probably one of the underlying sources from which Albanian folk beliefs have drawn nourishment.[19][20] One can also find several traces of Illyrian cults in the religious and superstitious beliefs among south Slavic peoples today.[21]

  1. ^ Stipčević 2002, pp. 46–47.
  2. ^ a b Mallory & Adams 1997, pp. 288–89.
  3. ^ a b c d West 2007, p. 15: "For the ancient Thracian and Illyrian peoples the source material is extremely scanty. It consists largely of personal and place names, a few glosses from Classical sources, and one or two inscriptions. To these can be added a larger body of inscriptions from south-east Italy in the Messapic language, which is generally considered to be Illyrian..."
  4. ^ Stipčević 1974, p. 182: "The most numerous traces of religious practices from the pre-Roman period are those which relate to religious symbolism. The finds of an extraordinarily large number of pendants having a symbolic meaning offer rich, until now insufficiently utilized, material for research into the little-known spiritual world of the prehistoric IIlyrians, also research for the purpose of identifying the spiritual currents which flowed from various sides and at different periods into the western Balkans. It is these tiny pendants and graphically presented symbols on clay or metal objects which reveal to us the chief object of the cult of the prehistoric Illyrians — the Sun."
  5. ^ Wilkes 1992, p. 244: "Symbolic forms appear in every variety of ornament. Most common of all is that of the sun, to which were related birds, serpents, horses and the swastika, which is seen to represent the solar movement."
  6. ^ Stipčević 1974, p. 182: "...all were connected with sun-worship, proving how very widespread it was. Such symbolic designs as swastikas, spirals or even horse-shaped pendants, images of birds, serpents, etc., reveal details of the very complex Illyrian Sun cult."
  7. ^ a b c Wilkes 1992, p. 245.
  8. ^ Wilkes 1992, p. 68: "...the Messapian language recorded on more than 300 inscriptions is in some respects similar to Balkan Illyrian. This link is also reflected in the material culture of both shores of the southern Adriatic. Archaeologists have concluded that there was a phase of Illyrian migration into Italy early in the first millennium BC."
  9. ^ Small 2014, p. 18.
  10. ^ De Simone 2017, p. 1842–1843.
  11. ^ Wilkes 1992, p. 244.
  12. ^ Stipčević 1974, p. 197.
  13. ^ Stipčević 1976, p. 235.
  14. ^ Stipčević 1974, p. 182.
  15. ^ Brandt, Ingvaldsen & Prusac 2014, p. 249.
  16. ^ Leeming 2005, p. xvii.
  17. ^ Stipčević 1974, p. 74: "Ethnologists, too, studying the very rich and as yet insufficiently known Albanian ethnographical material, have found in it a series of elements which have descended directly from prehistoric Illyrian heritage. Particularly numerous are traces of Illyrian costume in present-day Albanian national costume, just as there are Illyrian traces in Albanian ornaments and in religious symbolism, folk dances, music anthroponymy, toponymy, etc."
  18. ^ Stipčević 1976, pp. 234–235: "Il fatto che questo simbolo lo troviamo connesso con l'altro simbolo solare — il cerchio, nelle necropoli medioevali in Albania può avere un significato solo, quello cioè del contenuto simbolico identico tra questi oggetti, un fatto che può servire da argomento in favore della tesi per la continuità spirituale tra gli Illiri preistorici e le genti albanesi dell'alto Medioevo. Altri simboli religiosi illirici e albanesi, studiati dal punto di vista che ci interessa in questa sede, non potranno non apportare nuove prove per la continuità spirituale illiro-albanese. Tra questi ricorderemo quello che possiamo senz'altro considerare il più importante di tutti — il serpente."
  19. ^ West 2007, p. 288: "Ancient Illyrian religion is perhaps one of the underlying sources from which Albanian legend and folklore have drawn nourishment."
  20. ^ Wilkes 1992, p. 280: "...the Albanian culture, as fascinating and varied as any in that quarter of Europe, is an inheritance from the several languages, religions and ethnic groups known to have inhabited the region since prehistoric times, among whom were the Illyrians."
  21. ^ Stipčević 2002, p. 75.

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