Goddesses. The earliest known representation of a goddess in the Minoan repertoire is the so-called Goddess of Myrtos from Room 92 of the Early Minoan II settlement of Myrtos Fournou Koriphi. The presence of this image, the presence of a bench structure, and the proximity of storerooms suggest that Room 92 was a shrine. The figurine (see Image 8.1) is a hollow, bell-shaped image with a long, solid neck; tiny head; molded breasts; and spindly arms holding a water jug. Paint decorates the body with what appears to be a skirt, a necklace, and a pubic triangle. Although this piece looks like a kindergartener's arts and crafts project, its identification as a deity is based on the thin neck and other nonrealistic attributes, in contrast to Early Minoan images of humans, which were basically realistic. The weird appearance puts the female outside human realms, thus, divine. Furthermore, the fragile yet unbroken condition of the figurine indicates that it could not have been useful for any "practical" functions.
The next goddess image is a figurine from a funerary complex at Koumasa dating between the Early Minoan III and Middle Minoan I periods. This is a stylized image with a simplistic head and a trapezoidal body, molded breasts, and painted clothing. Of special interest is the roll of clay around the figurine's shoulders, which may represent a snake. As snake goddesses were common in the later Minoan repertoire, this may be the earliest portrayal of one. The fact that an early version of a snake tube was also found at the site seems to confirm this identity, as snake goddesses and tubes usually came in pairs.
8.1 Goddess of Myrtos (Courtesy of Paul Butler)
Four more goddess images come from the Middle Minoan. Two of these come from Phaistos on an offering table and a fruit bowl. The offering table, after being heavily restored, shows three females in full skirts dancing in a row. The two flanking females are smaller in scale than the center figure, and both look to the larger female in the center. This female (perhaps a goddess) raises her hands, in which she holds flowers, possibly lilies. All three have somewhat bird-like beaks, either indicating an animal aspect to their personae (identifying them as goddesses), or indicating that they are wearing masks (suggesting participation in religious ritual). Whether they are goddesses, priestesses, or a combination of both, the main focus of the ritual "dance" seems to be the flow-
Ers, suggesting some manner of floral, vegetal, or even spring rite (Goodison and Morris 1998, 123).
The fruit bowl shows two women, skirted and beaked similarly to the ones on the offering table, gesticulating on either side of a scalloped lump in the ground, from which a female face emerges. Next to this human-headed lump is a flower. Once again, it appears that bird-beaked females are dancing on either side of some manner of supernatural female creature. Some archaeologists have suggested that the central character is a snake goddess, interpreting the scallops as snakes. However, the scallops have neither heads nor tails, so a snake identification does not seem likely. More probable is an interpretation of this center female as a flower deity. This is based on the presence of the blooming flower next to the ambiguous character, the fact that she is "growing" out of the ground, and that the same dancing figures who flanked the "flower goddess" on the offering table now flank her. Thus, we appear to have a flower goddess at Middle Minoan Phaistos.
The other two Middle Minoan images are the faience "snake goddesses" from the Temple Repositories at Knossos (see Image 8.2). One female has a snake coiled about her hat, another two wrapped about her forward-extended arms, and at least one more curling about her waist. The other, a smaller figurine with upraised arms, holds a small snake in each hand; a cat on her cap was probably added mistakenly during restoration. The sacred location, the elaborate materials and decoration, the snakes, and the gestures of these figurines all contribute to their identification as snake goddesses, suggesting that there was more than just one such goddess. Other objects found buried with the figurines were nautical—painted seashells and flying fish images—as well as faience images of mother cows and goats suckling their kids (Goodison and Morris 1998, 125). Once again, nature motifs are associated with goddess images, but now featuring animal rather than floral/vegetal life.
All of nature comes together in the goddess portrayed in the Xeste 3 Building at Akrotiri on Thera. Here, we are speaking of an island other than Crete, but the Minoans colonized at least part of Thera by 1700 b. c.e. (see chapter 4), and the iconography that emerges from Santorini is predominately Minoan in character. This goddess appears in Room 3b, in the middle of a crocus-gathering scene. Researchers can tell that she is a goddess because, first, she is seated on a tripartite shrine, a common religious motif in Minoan art. Furthermore, right behind her is a rearing griffin—a creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. The fact that she is attended by a magical creature emphasizes her divine status.
Looking at her personal attributes, we see she wears elaborate jewelry, one necklace composed of ducks, another of dragonflies. During a lecture several years ago, one Thera excavator, Christos Doumas, suggested that the tress curling down her back is symbolic of a snake. As such, we can at least partially interpret her as an animal goddess, a potnia theron (mistress of animals). This idea is further supported by the presence of a monkey standing before the goddess, offering her flowers.
The ritual in which the goddess takes part casts light on another aspect of
8.2 Minoan Snake Goddess (Archivo Iconografico, S. A./Corbis)
Her persona. Behind the monkey is a girl carrying a basket of crocus stamens. She is dumping these out into a shallow basket that looks almost identical to the basket before the goddess's feet. Thus, we might infer that the girl is dedicating flower parts to the goddess herself. Behind the goddess, and wrapping around the adjacent wall of the room, are more young women gathering cro-
8.3 Seal from Mycenae with Religious Scene (Ministry of Culture/Archaeological Receipts Fund/National Archaeological Museum, Athens)
Cuses and carrying baskets of flowers to the goddess. It appears that what is taking place is a (perhaps annual) gathering of crocus stamens, also called saffron, which are being ritually offered to the goddess. This would suggest that in addition to being an animal deity, the Xeste 3 goddess is some manner of floral deity, a divine type well attested to in the Minoan world. However, one must remember that saffron served several important functions in the ancient Mediterranean, ranging from the medicinal to the culinary to the textile (being a common source of yellow dye). Any or all of these may have fallen under the auspices of the goddess, suggesting she was some manner of "great goddess" of nature.
Further examples of Minoan goddess iconography are present in glyptic art, scenes that appear on jewelry such as signet rings. Although only a tiny amount of detail is possible in this medium, it is evident that religious scenes featuring goddesses take place out of doors. Sometimes the goddess is standing (or hovering) in a field of flowers, as on a sealing discovered at Mycenae but clearly showing Minoan iconography (see Image 8.3). At other times, she is in a more "constructed" environment, with a paved floor and a tripartite shrine, as on an example from Archanes (Goodison and Morris 1998, 129). Even on this latter example, however, the presence of a tree growing right out of the shrine still places the religious scene in a natural setting, strengthening our notion of a goddess/goddesses of nature. It would appear that the Minoan goddesses were associated with flowers, trees, snakes, monkeys, and even birds—in short, they were nature goddesses. But, we must remember that for the Minoans, there was not really a life outside of the natural (unlike today, when people go camping or hiking to "get back to nature"). For the Minoans, to be a goddess of nature implied being a goddess of life, health, sustenance, healing, technology, and the economy.
Gods. Until recently, it has been assumed that there were no gods in Minoan religion. Or, if there was a god, it was the relatively powerless vegetation god who died every year with the crops, to be reborn the next year through the will of the Earth Mother. Once scholars began to abandon the Cambridge School way of thinking, though, it became apparent that there were gods in the Minoan pantheon. Nevertheless, there appear to have been fewer gods than goddesses; there are certainly fewer artistic representations of gods. But these representations do exist, and they tell us something about the male elements of Minoan religion.
One piece of Minoan god iconography is the master impression from Kha-nia. Here is shown a male, nude save for a tight belt, a codpiece, sandals, a necklace, and an armband. He poses in proud fashion holding a staff on what almost resembles a tripartite shrine, except one would really have to call it a multipartite shrine, since there are so many levels and architectural elements. Many of these elements are capped with horns of consecration (see below), suggesting a religious orientation. Below the architecture is what appears to be a beach, and at the bottom of the seal, there is water. In short, the god stands upon a city that is located on a beachfront. The male's size in relation to the city identifies him as a deity, as does the fact that he stands between two horns of consecration. All this shows his dominion over the city with its adjacent beach. This notion of domination is further emphasized if we compare the man-with-staff pose with similar stances in Near Eastern iconography, in which such imagery portrayed a victorious god or king over his domain. Judging from this, it appears that we have here a city god, owner and protector of the urbs (city).
Perhaps the most important piece of Minoan god iconography is the Palaikastro Kouros, a chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statuette from Palaikastro. The statuette is one-half meter tall and stands in a standard worship pose for Minoan males, although a slight stride given to the legs probably comes from Egyptian influence (Moak 2000, 65-66). Rather than a worshipper, though, this image appears to be a god. This is evident first in the materials used in its construction. Both the gold and the ivory had to be imported, probably from Egypt. Such precious materials were probably reserved for divine images; male votives were made of clay. The elaborate workmanship that went into making the Kouros also speaks for its importance, thus its divine nature. In contrast to the rather rude votive images from Crete, there is exceptional anatomical detail in the Palaikastro Kouros, even down to the veins in its arms. The image was found by a city shrine (see below), apparently situated in a place of visual prominence, suggesting that it was intended to be the center of attention (Driessen 2000a, 95). This idea is strengthened by the fact that the statuette was originally set upon a stand: There are tangs on his feet, which fit into a blue faience mounting disc. All in all, it appears that the Palaikastro Kouros is a cult image of a Minoan god.
What type of god is a more difficult matter, and all identifications must be tentative. J. A. MacGillivray, who has done considerable work on this image, has suggested that the Palaikastro Kouros is some manner of dying and rising vegetation deity, possibly the Minoan version of Diktaian Zeus, with some Near Eastern influence in the form of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead. MacGillivray has even suggested that a small repository in the shrine's floor is where the image was stored during the sowing season, when the god would have been in the underworld (along with the seeds the people had sown) (MacGillivray and Sackett 2000, 169).
World History
