DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0492
CORRESPONDENCE WITH SNAKE GODDESS
439
fingers, and then flattened out again and cut in the shape of a head. A Golden
similar piece was attached to this below for the lower jaw, and the tongue < Boston
was inserted between these by means of three rivets, the heads of two G°ddess'
of these supplying
the eyes (see Fig.
304). They seem
actually to hiss as
the Goddess holds
them out.
Like some of
the female votive
figurines of clay from
Pe.tsofa * and the
marble statuette of
the Minoan God-
dess now in the Fitz-
william Museum,2
this ivory image was made in two pieces.
b a
Fig. 304. a, Ivory Arm of ' Boston Goddess ' with Golden
Snake coiled round it, and Hand grasping it below the Head ;
b, Head of Snake seen from above (enlarged 2 diams.).
These were secured by means.of
a projection at the back, running up from the lower half and secured in
a corresponding socket in the upper piece of a cylindrical ivory pin. The
joint was partly concealed by the gold band forming the hem of the second
flounce. The height of the figure, as restored, is given as o-161 m. or about
6| inches.
Mr. L. D. Caskey who first published the statuette and superintended
its reconstitution at the Boston Museum 3—itself a masterpiece of the results
of patient skill—has thus expressed the general conclusion to which he was
led regarding its affinities. ' The resemblances described suffice to show
that the Snake Goddess is a work of the same period and school, perhaps
even of the same atelier that produced the ivories from Knossos.' *
1 J. Myres, B. S. A., ix, p. 367.
2 A. J. B. Wace, A Cretan Statuette in
the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge, 1927),
p. 4. The Lyre Player and dancers from
Palaikastro, of L. M. Ill b date, show the
same dual formation (R. M. Dawkins, B. S. A.,
x, pp. 217 seqq.). See above, p. 73, Fig. 41.
3 Mr, Caskey's first publication of it was in
the Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin (Boston,
Massachusetts), vol. xii (1914), p. 51 seqq.
He described it in a more amplified form in
the American Journal of Archaeology (second
series), vol. xix (1915), with numerous photo-
graphic plates and figures. It was presented
to the Museum by Mrs. W. Scott Fitz. The
fragmentary state of the remains before recon-
struction can be gathered from PI. XV. The
repairs were due to Mr. Paul Hoffman at the
Museum.
4 L. D. Caskey, A Chryselephantine Statuette
of the Cretan Snake Goddess (Am. Journ. of
Arch., xix (1915), p. 247).
439
fingers, and then flattened out again and cut in the shape of a head. A Golden
similar piece was attached to this below for the lower jaw, and the tongue < Boston
was inserted between these by means of three rivets, the heads of two G°ddess'
of these supplying
the eyes (see Fig.
304). They seem
actually to hiss as
the Goddess holds
them out.
Like some of
the female votive
figurines of clay from
Pe.tsofa * and the
marble statuette of
the Minoan God-
dess now in the Fitz-
william Museum,2
this ivory image was made in two pieces.
b a
Fig. 304. a, Ivory Arm of ' Boston Goddess ' with Golden
Snake coiled round it, and Hand grasping it below the Head ;
b, Head of Snake seen from above (enlarged 2 diams.).
These were secured by means.of
a projection at the back, running up from the lower half and secured in
a corresponding socket in the upper piece of a cylindrical ivory pin. The
joint was partly concealed by the gold band forming the hem of the second
flounce. The height of the figure, as restored, is given as o-161 m. or about
6| inches.
Mr. L. D. Caskey who first published the statuette and superintended
its reconstitution at the Boston Museum 3—itself a masterpiece of the results
of patient skill—has thus expressed the general conclusion to which he was
led regarding its affinities. ' The resemblances described suffice to show
that the Snake Goddess is a work of the same period and school, perhaps
even of the same atelier that produced the ivories from Knossos.' *
1 J. Myres, B. S. A., ix, p. 367.
2 A. J. B. Wace, A Cretan Statuette in
the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge, 1927),
p. 4. The Lyre Player and dancers from
Palaikastro, of L. M. Ill b date, show the
same dual formation (R. M. Dawkins, B. S. A.,
x, pp. 217 seqq.). See above, p. 73, Fig. 41.
3 Mr, Caskey's first publication of it was in
the Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin (Boston,
Massachusetts), vol. xii (1914), p. 51 seqq.
He described it in a more amplified form in
the American Journal of Archaeology (second
series), vol. xix (1915), with numerous photo-
graphic plates and figures. It was presented
to the Museum by Mrs. W. Scott Fitz. The
fragmentary state of the remains before recon-
struction can be gathered from PI. XV. The
repairs were due to Mr. Paul Hoffman at the
Museum.
4 L. D. Caskey, A Chryselephantine Statuette
of the Cretan Snake Goddess (Am. Journ. of
Arch., xix (1915), p. 247).