"I should only believe in a God
that would know how to dance."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
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 were two major Illyrian cults - the "cult of the sun" in the north and the "cult of the serpent" in the south (see Stipcevic, The Illyrians).
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 and they are too "helio-symbolic."
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 as the cults true importance may lie in the very roots of Illyrian creation (see Origins).
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 (see image) was represented on a more grand scale and probably much more adorned. However, this should not suggest that the Illyrians held a supreme belief in female deities. The recent discovery in Croatia of an ancient stalagmite polished into a more phallic form soundly puts that argument to rest (see image).
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.
Human sacrifice and ritual killings 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.
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 attributes of their tribe which happened to be the sole motive of their neighbors, the Scordisci (see Papazoglu, Central Balkan Tribes). 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 full knowledge and power.
Honoring Death was a ritual of Illyrian obsequies. Cremation was celebrated with the ceremonial funeral pyre before burial. The most common type of burial among the Illyrians was tumulus or mound burial. The higher the mound the more 'princely' the grave (see image).
