"I should only believe in a God
                                      that would know how to dance."
                                                                - Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spake Zarathustra


TOTEMISM

Totemism appears to have played a major role among the Illyrians. The resemblance of some tribal names to natural objects, be it animal or otherwise, makes for a strong argument to their totemistic culture (see Tribes; Language and Origins). More importantly, there seems to have been two major Illyrian cults - the "cult of the sun" in the north and the "cult of the serpent" in the south.

The Sun Cult was well represented in northern Illyria. Familiar symbols of the sun or the sun cycle such as the swastika, chariot, sunboat and disc are found on a wide array of Illyrian artifacts and representations of the sun are not limited to the geometrical. Illyrian artifacts depicting waterfowl, horses (with chariot), and deer have also been uncovered as they are too "helio-symbolic."(1)

In southern Illyria, the Serpent Cult predominated. Bracelets, necklaces, pins and pendants from the middle first millennium BC adorn images of a creature long believed to symbolize fertility, guardianship as protector and immortality through resurrection (shedding of skin thus reborn). The importance of the serpent cult in southern Illyria goes beyond religionism. Rather, the cults true importance may lie in the very roots of Illyrian creation (see Origins).(2)


GODS AND GODDESSES

Illyrian deities were worshipped in certain regions or attributed to certain tribes.
Anzotica was the Liburnian goddess of love and comparable to the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus. She was depicted with her
cohort (?) Priapus phallic and all. Both were deities of fertility,
with the exception that Anzotica was represented on a more
grand scale and probably much more adorned (see image).(3)
However, the importance of fertility among the Illyrians was
strengthened with the phallic stalagmite found recently in a
Croatian cave (see image).

Dedications to Bindus, the Japodes god of springs and seas -
the Illyrian variation of the Roman Neptune, were erected as
shrines and altars near water and river sources. Armatus, as
his name survives only in its Latin form, was the local war god
of the Delmatae.(4) Deities of the underworld are not prevalent in
Illyrian mythology. However, the serpent, though it was regarded
with the attributes noted above, may also have carried the role as
a chthonic deity.


SACRIFICE

Human sacrifice played a significant role in the lives of some Illyrians. The ancient historian, Arrian, records the Illyrian chieftain, Kleitus, sacrificing three boys, three girls and three rams just before his battle with Alexander the Great, but human sacrifice as an sacrificial offering to the Gods par excellence was not always the case.(5)

Ritual killings were common among some Illyrian tribes. The Scordisci killed their captives and drank out of their skulls while the Autariatae sacrificed their own weak and wounded and ate their flesh. This cannibal behavior was not a result of famine but of their own tribal reasoning. For the Autariatae, it was to keep the enemy from killing and eating the flesh of their own and acquiring the wisdom and strength of their tribe. On the other hand, the probable motives of the Scordisci may be why the Autariatae sacrificed their kin. By drinking the enemies blood and eating the enemies flesh, the Scordisci adhered to the paleo-belief that in doing so they would acquire their enemies knowledge and power.(6)


DEATH

Cremation was a ritual of Illyrian obsequies and were celebrated with the ceremonial funeral pyre before burial. The most common type of burial among the Illyrians was tumulus or mound burial. The kin of the
first tumuli would be buried around that and the higher the
status of those in these burials, the more princely the graves
(see image) and so, the higher the mound. Archaeology has
brought forth numerous artifacts placed within these tumuli
such as weapons, ornaments, garments, and clay vessels. These items probably reflect the obscure Illyrian belief in the afterlife.(7)


(1) Stipcevic, Illyrians (pp. 182); Lengyel/Radan, Pannonia (pp. 177ff); Mocsy,
Pan/Moesia (pp. 61); Germanic sun cults see Owen, Germanic Ppl (pp. 190ff). (2) Stipcevic,
op. cit. (pp. 185ff); Thracian snake cults see Fol/Marazov, Thrace (pp. 19); and again see Owen, op. cit. (pp. 189). (3) Stipcevic, op. cit. (pp. 194); Wilkes, Dalmatia (pp. 310); Wilkes,
Illyrians (pp. 245). (4) Stipcevic, op. cit. (pp. 194ff); Wilkes, Dalmatia (Bindus pp. 187, 289); Wilkes, Illyrians (pp. 246ff). (5) Arrian, Anabasis (I, 5). (6) Stipcevic, op. cit. (pp. 85); Wilkes,
Illyrians (pp. 243); Papazoglu, Cent. Balk. (493ff); Thracian human sacrifice see Fol/Marazov, op. cit. (pp. 49). (7) Stipcevic, op. cit. (pp. 230ff) and also Art of  the Illyrians; Lengyel/Radan, op. cit. (pp. 78ff); Mocsy, op. cit. (pp. 148ff); Wilkes, Illyrians (pp. 241ff); Theodossiev, Dead With Golden Faces.
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