Snake Goddess

Minoan Snake Goddess figurines c 1600 BCE.

The snake goddess has been compared to the Snake-witch picture stone, which shows a woman holding snakes in both hands, from Gotland, Sweden

Furious Maenad. She holds a thyrsus in her right hand and with her left hand shakes a panther. A snake is rolled up over her head. Staatliche Antikensammlungen Munich Germany.

Snake Goddess, indicates figurines of a woman holding a snake in each hand found during excavation of Minoan archaeological sites in Crete dating from approximately 1600 BCE.It seems that the two elegant idols found in Knossos represented goddesses ^[1] and by implication, the term 'snake goddess' also describes the chthonic deity depicted.Little more is known about her identity apart from that gained from the figurines. These idols were found only in house sanctuaries, where the snake appears as "the snake of the household", and they are probably related with the Paleolithic tradition regarding women and domesticity. ^[1] Evans tentatively linked the snake goddess with the Egyptian snake goddess Wadjet.

Figurines

The first 'Snake Goddess' figurines to be discovered were found by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans in 1903, in the palace depository of Knossos. The figurines are made of faience, a technique for glazing earthenware and other ceramic vessels by using a quartz paste. This material symbolized in old Egypt the renewal of life, therefore it was used in the funeral cult and in the sanctuaries. After firing this produces bright colors and a lustrous sheen.

These two figurines are today exhibited at the Herakleion Archeological Museum in Crete and they probably represent the mother goddess and her daughter. It is possible that they illustrate the fashion of dress of Minoan women: a tight bodice which left the breasts bare, a long flounched skirt, and an apron made of material with embroidered or woven decoration. The larger of these figures has snakes crawling over her arms up to her tiara. The smaller figure holds two snakes in her raised hands and a small animal is perched on her head, which seems to be the imitation of a panther. ^[2] These were usually symbols of the earth goddess.

Similar symbols are also depicted on representations of Maenads,the women dancers who accompanied the rituals honouring Dionysos with frenzied dancings ^[3] in classical Greece, but the relation seems uncertain.

Clay idols with raised hands and curling snakes were found in the "house of the double axes" in Knossos, in Asine,in Gournia,and in Myrtos.Objects with snakes curling up the sides of clay-tubes were also found in Cyprus and Palestine. ^[1]

Interpretations

While the statuette's true function is somewhat unclear, her exposed and amplified breasts suggest that she is probably some sort of fertility figure. The figurines may illustrate the fashion 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,^[4] and this was also observed by Herodotus among Egyptian women.^[5]

The serpent is often symbolically associated with the renewal of life because it sheds its skin periodically. A similar belief existed in the ancient Mesopotamians and Semites, and appears also in the Hindu mythology.^[6] The Pelasgian myth of creation refers to snakes as the reborn dead. However, Nilsson noticed that in the Minoan religion the snake was the protector of the house,^[1] as it later appears also in Greek religion.^[7] Among the Greek Dionysiac cult it signified wisdom and was the symbol of fertility.^[6]

Barry Powell suggested that the snake goddess reduced in legend into a folklore heroine was Ariadne (utterly pure or the very holy one) ^[8] who in classical Greece was often depicted surrounded by Satyrs and Maenads. Some scholars connect the snake goddess with the Phoenician Astarte (virgin daughter). She was the goddess of fertility and sexuality and her worship was connected with orgiastic cult. Her temples were decorated with serpentine motifs. She probably became later the goddess Aphrodite (Venus). In a relative Greek myth Europa (Ευρώπη "wide-eyes or face"), was a Phoenician princess who Zeus abducted and carried to Crete.^[5]Astarte is sometimes identified with Europa in ancient sources.^[9]

Evans tentatively linked the snake goddess with the Egyptian snake goddess Wadjet or Wadjut ('Eye of the moon' and later 'Eye of Ra') but did not pursue this connection. Statuettes similar to the "snake goddess" identified as priest of Wadjud and magician were found in Egypt. Wadjut was associated with the city known to the Greeks as Aphroditopolis (the city of Aphrodite) and she was also the goddess of fertility.^[10]

Sacral Knot

Both goddesses have a knot with a projecting looped cord between their breasts. Evans noticed that these are analogous to the sacral knot, a name given by him to a knot with a loop of fabric above and sometimes fringed ends hanging down 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^[11] were found in Minoan and Mycenaean sites. It is believed that the sacral knot was the symbol of holiness on human figures or cult-objects. ^[12] In Minoan Crete the cult was aniconic and the goddesses appeared only in epiphany, called forth chiefly by means of ecstatic sacral dance, as well as by tree shaking and baetylic rites.^[13] The sacral knot (combined with the double edged axe) can be compared with the Egyptian ankh (eternal life) which is used to represent the planet Venus, or with the tyet (welfare/life) a symbol of Isis (the knot of Isis) ^[14] which is thought to represent the idea of eternal life and resurrection.

Oracle

Wadjet had a famous oracle in the city Per-Wadjet (Greek name Buto). According to Herodotus this may have been the source of the oracular tradition which spread to Greece from Egypt.^[15] The serpents were considered the protectors of the temples and the chthonic masters of the ancient earth goddess. In Greece the old oracles were devoted to the mother goddess. According to a Greek legend Apollo came to Delphi carrying Cretan priests, and there he possessed the oracle after slewing the serpent Python,the daughter of Gaia. At Dodona Zeus displaced the mother goddess and assimilated her with Aphrodite. At the oracle of Trophonius, Demeter-Europa was the nurse of the chthonic Zeus-Trophonios who possessed the oracle.^[16]

Comparison to other goddesses

Other goddesses probably associated with the "snake goddess" are:

• The ancient Egyptian goddess Renenutet, who often appeared in the form of a hooded cobra.^{[citation needed]}
• The Phoenician goddess Tanit, worshipped as a patron goddess of Carthage.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Ariadne
• Snake worship in Hindu mythology.
• Gorgon - female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes in Greek mythology.
• Astarte
• Ishtar
• Wadjet
• Potnia theron
• Matriarchal religion
• Snake-witch stone, a picture stone from Gotland popularly called ormgudinna

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Walter Burkert (1985). Greek Religion. Harvard University Press. pp.23,30 ISBN 0 674 36281 0
2. ^ F.Schachermeyer.Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta.(1964).W.Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart. p.143
3. '^ The last two million years.(1973).The Reader's Digest Association Ltd. p 31,98
4. ^ The Iliad, transl. by R. Lattimore. (1970) University of Chicago Press,Phoenix Book p.437 (Book XXII 77-81)
5. ^ ^{a b} H.G. Wunderlich (1994). The secret of Crete. Efstathiadis group S.A. p 260, 276 ISBN 960 226 261 3 (First British edition, publ.1975 by Souvenir Press Ltd., London)
6. ^ ^{a b} Columbia. The free Dictionary. [1]
7. ^ Zeus Kresios in the guise of a snake is regarded the "protector of storehouses". A snake is the "good daemon" at the temple of Athena on Acropolis,etc: Martin Nilsson (1967). Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion Vol I . C.H. Beck Verlag Munchen
8. ^ Barry Powell. Classical Myth with new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice Hall Inc 1998. p 368
9. ^ Lucian of Samosata (200 AD): De Dea Syria 4
10. ^ Cristopher L.C.E Whitcombe. Minoan Snake Goddess". 8:Snakes, Egypt, Magic and women(External links)
11. ^ F.Schachermeyer.(1964)Die minoische Kultur des alten Kreta.W.Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart. p 161,163
12. ^ F.Schachermeyer.(1964) Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta.W.Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart. p 163-164
13. ^ Thera and the Aegean world' I.London 1978 p 669 : "The Thera catastrophe-consequences for the European civilization",by A.Furumark. Upsala University, Upsala Sweden.ISBN 0 9506133 0 4
14. ^ Cristopher L.C.E Whitkombe. Minoan snake goddess". 9:Snake charmers (External links)
15. ^ Herodotus.Histories. II 55 and VII 134
16. ^ Pausanias.Description of Greece 9.39.2-5

External links

• Minoan Snake Goddess essay by Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe originally in Images Of Women In Ancient Art - Accessed July 2006
• The Picture Stone from Smiss at När, Historical museum of Gotland