3 Living Things With the Statue of the Mother Goddess in Minoan Art

Two Minoan snake goddess figurines are a group of ancient sculptures that were excavated in 1903 in the Minoan palace at Knossos in the Greek isle of Crete. The decades-long excavation programme led by the English archeologist Arthur Evans greatly expanded noesis and awareness of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization, but Evans has subsequently been criticised for overstatements and excessively speculative ideas, both in terms of his "restoration" of specific objects, including the nearly famous of these figures, and the ideas most the Minoans he drew from the archeology. The figures are at present on display at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum ("AMH").

The Knossos figurines, both significantly incomplete, date to about the stop of the neo-palatial period of Minoan civilization, around 1600 BCE.^[1] It was Evans who called the larger of his pair of figurines a "Ophidian Goddess", the smaller a "Serpent Priestess"; since and then, information technology has been debated whether Evans was right, or whether both figurines draw priestesses, or both depict the same deity or singled-out deities.^[ii]

The combination of elaborate clothes that go out the breasts completely bare, and "snake-wrangling",^[three] attracted considerable publicity, not to mention diverse fakes, and the smaller figure in particular remains a popular icon for Minoan art and religion, now besides generally referred to as a "Ophidian Goddess". But archaeologists accept found few comparable images, and a snake goddess plays little role in current thinking about the cloudy topic of Minoan religion.

Knossos figurines [edit]

The smaller effigy before "restoration"

The two Knossos snake goddess figurines were found by Evans's excavators in i of a group of stone-lined and lidded cists Evans called the "Temple Repositories", since they contained a variety of objects that were presumably no longer required for use,^[four] perhaps afterwards a fire.^[5] The figurines are fabricated of faience, a crushed quartz-paste material which after firing gives a truthful vitreous finish with brilliant colors and a lustrous sheen. This cloth symbolized the renewal of life in former Egypt, therefore it was used in the funeral cult and in the sanctuaries.

The larger of these figures has snakes crawling over her arms and up to her "alpine cylindrical crown", at the top of which a snake's head rears upwardly. The figure lacked the body below the waist, one arm, and part of the crown. She has prominent bare breasts, with what seems to be ane or more snakes winding circular them. Because of the missing pieces, it is not clear if information technology is ane or more than snakes around her arms. Her dress includes a thick belt with a "sacred knot".^[6]

The smaller figure, equally restored, holds two snakes in her raised easily, and the figure on her head-wearing apparel is a cat or panther. All the same, as excavated, she lacked a caput and the proper left arm was missing below the elbow. The head was recreated by Evans and ane of his restorers. The crown was an incomplete fragment in the same pit, and the cat/panther was another separate piece, which Evans only decided belonged to the effigy some time later, partly considering there seemed to be matching fittings on the crown and cat. Recent scholars seem somewhat more fix to accept that the chapeau and cat belong together than that either or both vest to the residual of the effigy.^[7]

A tertiary figure, intermediate in size, is broken off at the waist, merely the lower function is comparable. The cist as well independent another arm that might have held a snake.

Other Minoan figures [edit]

Another figurine at present in Berlin, made of bronze, has on her head what may be iii snakes, or simply tresses of hair. She seems to be a priestess or worshipper rather than a deity, as she is stooped slightly frontwards, and making the Minoan worship gesture of a facepalm with one hand and the other brought upwardly to the chest or, in this instance, the throat. The 1 breast visible has a prominent nipple, so is presumably intended to be bare. This is probably Late Minoan I, rather subsequently than the Knossos figures.^{[viii] [9]}

Later still are some terracotta votive offerings, probably representing the goddess rather than humans, in at least i case "snake-wrangling" and with snakes rising from the diadem or headress. This type of figure oft has attributes rise from the headress, typified past the Poppy goddess (AMH).

Fakes [edit]

The tremendous impact of the Knossos figures, in one case published by Evans and in a volume by the Italian physician Angelo Mosso, apace led to ingenious fakes. A figure in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts with an ivory body and gilded snakes twined around the arms is now mostly regarded as a fake. It was bought by the museum in 1914.^{[10] [9] [11]}

Some other figure, in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, is a small steatite bare-breasted female person figurine with a snake engraved around her headdress, and holes pierced through her clenched fists, presumably to suggest these held snakes. This is also now regarded equally a false. It was bought past Henry Walters from a dealer in Paris in 1929, and left to the museum in 1931.^[12]

• 

  The Boston ivory and gold effigy, probably a false, pre-1914. Gold snakes coil round the arms.^[13]

• 

  Baltimore stone figure, probably a fake, pre-1929. A snake winds round the headdress and the easily are pierced as if to hold snakes.

Interpretations [edit]

Evans' reconstruction of the "Snake Goddess Shrine": Objects from the Temple Repositories at Knossos, including the two figures, soon after discovery in 1903.^[xiv]

Emily Bonney regards the figures equally cogitating of Syrian religion which had a brief bear upon on Crete, when "the elites at Knossos emulated Syrian iconography every bit an assertion of their access to exotic knowledge and command of trade."^[15]

The figurines are probably (according to Burkert) related to the Paleolithic traditions regarding women and domesticity.^[16] The figurines take also been interpreted as showing a mistress of animals-blazon goddess and as a forerunner to Athena Parthenos, who is also associated with snakes.^[ii]

Item of the larger Knossos effigy; the parts below this are reconstructed.

The serpent is often symbolically associated with the renewal of life considering it sheds its skin periodically. A similar conventionalities existed in the ancient Mesopotamians and Semites, and appears too in Hindu mythology.^[17] The Pelasgian myth of creation refers to snakes as the reborn expressionless.^[18] However, Martin P. Nilsson noticed that in the Minoan religion the snake was the protector of the house,^[16] as it afterwards appears besides in Greek faith.^[19] Inside the Greek Dionysiac cult it signified wisdom and was the symbol of fertility.^[17]

Barry Powell suggested that the "snake goddess" reduced in legend into a sociology heroine was Ariadne (whose proper noun might mean "utterly pure" or "the very holy one"), who is often depicted surrounded by Maenads and satyrs.^[20] Hans Georg Wunderlich related the snake goddess with the Phoenician Astarte (virgin daughter). She was the goddess of fertility and sexuality and her worship was connected with an orgiastic cult. Her temples were decorated with serpentine motifs. In a related Greek myth Europa, who is sometimes identified with Astarte in ancient sources, was a Phoenician princess whom Zeus abducted and carried to Crete.^{[21] [22]} Evans tentatively linked the serpent goddess with the Egyptian snake goddess Wadjet simply did not pursue this connection. Statuettes similar to the "snake goddess" type identified as "priest of Wadjet" and "magician" were found in Egypt.^[23]

While the statuette'south truthful function is somewhat unclear, her exposed and amplified breasts suggest that she is probably some sort of fertility figure. The figurines may illustrate the style of dress of Minoan women, however, it is also possible that bared breasts represented a sign of mourning. Homer gives a literary description of this kind of mourning,^[24] and this was also observed by Herodotus amidst Egyptian women.^[21]

The ophidian goddess's Minoan name may be related with A-sa-sa-ra, a possible interpretation of inscriptions establish in Linear A texts.^[25] Although Linear A is not yet deciphered, Palmer^{[ clarification needed ]} relates tentatively the inscription a-sa-sa-ra-me which seems to have accompanied goddesses, with the Hittite išhaššara, which means "mistress".^{[26] : 256, 263}

Sacral knot [edit]

Both goddesses accept a knot with a projecting looped cord between their breasts. Evans noticed that these are analogous to the sacral knot, his name for a knot with a loop of fabric above and sometimes fringed ends hanging downwards below. Numerous such symbols in ivory, faience, painted in frescoes or engraved in seals sometimes combined with the symbol of the double-edged axe or labrys which was the almost of import Minoan religious symbol.^{[26] : 161, 163} Such symbols were found in Minoan and Mycenaean sites. It is believed that the sacral knot was the symbol of holiness on man figures or cult-objects.^{[26] : 163 ff} Its combination with the double-axe can be compared with the Egyptian ankh (eternal life), or with the tyet (welfare/life) a symbol of Isis (the knot of Isis).^[27]

Art [edit]

The 1979 feminist artwork The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago features a identify setting for a "Ophidian Goddess".^[28]

Gallery [edit]

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  Minoan terracotta votive figure holding a snake or snakes, Kania, Gortyna, 1300-1200 BC, AMH

• 

  Statuary Minoan figure in Berlin, LM I, probably a worshiper, with either snakes or tresses of hair.^[29]

• 

  Pot, probably a stand for rhytons, with snake, Knossos, 1700-1600 BC, AMH

• 

  Aureate ring & blow-up. 4 women with similar dress. The wavy line about the woman at far correct has been called a snake.

• 

  Largely reconstructed relief fresco of a (?) goddess from Psira; i of the few figures with comparable bodices

See besides [edit]

• Ishtar
• Gorgon (female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes in Greek mythology)
• Master of Animals
• Matriarchal religion
• Wadjet
• Snake worship (in Hindu mythology)

Notes [edit]

1. ^ High german; this is the purlieus betwixt Center Minoan and Late Minoan
2. ^ ^{a b} Ogden, Daniel (2013). Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Oxford University Printing. pp. 7–9. ISBN9780199557325 – via Google Books.
3. ^ German'southward term
4. ^ Witcombe: two; German language
5. ^ Hood, 133
6. ^ Witcombe: four; Hood, 133
7. ^ Witcombe: 2; Hood, 133; German
8. ^ Hood, 112
9. ^ ^{a b} "A statuette of the Minoan Snake Goddess. Gift of Mrs. W. Scott Fitz". Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin. 12 (73): 51–55. Dec 1914. JSTOR 4423650.
10. ^ Boston: "She has long been admired by many experts, simply some have questioned her actuality. Her face has been seen as "likewise modern-looking," and her hips too narrow for a Minoan woman. Scientific testing has proven inconclusive... virtually 1600–1500 B.C. or early 20th century". In 2021 it was not on display.
11. ^ In 2002, 1 author still regarded it as "probably genuine" - Castleden, Rodney, Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete, p. 5, 2002, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9781134880645, google books
12. ^ "Snake goddess", Walters, "The joining method, manner, and material make the authenticity of this slice doubtful... 16th century BCE or early on 20th century".
13. ^ Boston
14. ^ Witcombe: three
15. ^ Bonney, Emily Thou. (2011). "Convincing the Ophidian Goddess: a Reconsideration of the faience figurines from the temple repositories at Knossos". Journal of Mediterranean Archæology. 24 (2): 171–190. doi:10.1558/jmea.v24i2.171.
16. ^ ^{a b} Burkert, Walter (1985). Greek Faith . Harvard University Press. pp. 23, xxx. ISBN0-674-36281-0.
17. ^ ^{a b} "snake worship". Columbia. The free Lexicon.
18. ^ Graves, Robert (2012). "Chapter 1: The Pelasgian Creation Myth". The Greek Myths (Penguin Classics Palatial ed.). Penguin. ISBN9780143106715.
19. ^ Nilsson, Martin (1967). Die Geschichte der griechischen Religion [The History of Greek Organized religion] (in German). Vol. 1. Munich, DE: C.H. Beck Verlag. Zeus Kresios in the guise of a snake is regarded the "protector of storehouses". A snake is the "adept daemon" at the temple of Athena on Acropolis, etc. ^{[ page needed ]}
20. ^ Powell, Barry; Howe, Herbert Grand. (1998). Classical Myth . Upper Saddle River, New Bailiwick of jersey: Prentice Hall Inc. p. 368. ISBN9780137167142. with new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe
21. ^ ^{a b} Wunderlich, H.Grand. (1994) [1975]. The Secret of Crete. Efstathiadis grouping South.A. pp. 260, 276. ISBN960-226-261-3. (First British edition, published 1975 by Souvenir Press Ltd., London.)
22. ^ Lucian of Samosata (200). De Dea Syria [On the Syrian Goddess]. 4.
23. ^ Witcombe: 8
24. ^ The Iliad, transl. by R. Lattimore. (1970) University of Chicago Press,Phoenix Book p.437 (Book XXII 77-81)
25. ^ Haarmann, Harald (2011). Das Rätsel der Donauzivilisation. Die Entdeckung der ältesten Hochkultur Europas (in German). Munich, DE: Verlag C.H. Beck. p. 241. ISBN978-iii-406-62210-6.
26. ^ ^{a b c} Schachermeyer, F. (1964). Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta [The Minoan Culture of Ancient Crete] (in German). Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag.
27. ^ Witcombe: 9
28. ^ "Place Settings". artist Judy Chicago. Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 6 August 2015. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
29. ^ Hood, 112

References [edit]

• "Boston": "Statuette of a snake goddess", Boston MFA folio - "nearly 1600–1500 B.C. or early 20th century"
• German, Senta, "Serpent Goddess", Khan Academy
• Hood, Sinclair, The Arts in Prehistoric Greece, 1978, Penguin (Penguin/Yale History of Fine art), ISBN 0140561420
• Witcombe, Christopher L.C.Due east. "Minoan Snake Goddess". Retrieved 1 July 2006. essay originally in Images of Women in Ancient Art

Farther reading [edit]

• Lapatin, Kenneth, Mysteries of the Ophidian Goddess: Art, Want, and the Forging of History, 2002, Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0618144757

External links [edit]

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