DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8755#0095
84
A. J. Evans
coiled.1 A still later version of the same half aniconic type of cylindrical
figure with snakes was found by Professor Halbherr in the cemetery of
Prinias near Gortyna.'2
The snake's head rising above the summit of the tiara in the present
figure3 naturally recalls the urasus as seen above the heads of Egyptian
divinities and royal personages. A winged serpent or asp by itself
appears as the representative of Nekhebet, identified by the Greeks with
Eileithyia, the Goddess of Childbirth, and of her twin sister the ' Nurse'
Uatchet or Buto. Its connexion with the Egyptian Mother Goddess
Hathor derives a special importance from the fact that, as I have elsewhere
shown,4 the Hathoric staff with two serpents coiled round its foot supplies
the prototype of the rayed pillars with similar snakes on Cypro-Mycenaean
signets, in association with a Goddess whose attributes are lions and doves.5
Of the influence, at least of the formal creations, of Egyptian religious
art on that of Minoan Crete there can be no doubt. The griffin and the
sphinx, however transformed, were not of insular origin. That the native
beast-headed demons were crossed by the Egyptian hippopotamus Goddess
and other similar forms is now clear.''' The aukh itself was adopted by
Minoan symbolism. Neither can there be any hesitation in regarding the
Cow and Calf reliefs found in the same Temple Repository with the Snake
Goddess and her votaries as taken over from the service of Hathor. Even
the clumps of native crocuses that here decorate the votive robes are, as
has been already pointed out, simple adaptations of Egyptian lotus clumps.
That the cult imagery of one or other of the Egyptian Mother
Goddesses may have reacted on that of a parallel divinity in Minoan Crete
would thus be quite in keeping with other ascertained phenomena. But
the argument can hardly be carried beyond this point. Taken as a whole
neither the Snake Goddess nor her votaries present any special Egyptian
1 This shrine is perhaps contemporary (as most of the remains at Gournia) with the First
l'erioil of the Later Palace at Knossos. (In my Report, &c, 1902, 'p. 105 it is referred to as
later.)
2 For an excellent account of these see s. Wide, Ath. Mitlh. xxvi. pp. 247-257 and PI. XII.
3 The head of the snake, as seen in Fig. 54, is restored, but there is no doubt whatever as
to its position.
4 See Myc. Tree and Pillar Cult, pp. 52, 53.
5 See below, p. 87.
(i Compare the shell relief found by the Italian Mission at Phaestos (Moil. Ant. vol. xii.
Tav. VIII. 1 : J.U.S. xxii. p. 92, Fig. 33, on which Mr. Hogarth justly remarks, 'A glance is
enough to assure any one familiar with Egyptian art that these figures are first cousins of those
Nilotic divinities whose one arm is raised in exactly the same pose while the other holds the ankh.'
A. J. Evans
coiled.1 A still later version of the same half aniconic type of cylindrical
figure with snakes was found by Professor Halbherr in the cemetery of
Prinias near Gortyna.'2
The snake's head rising above the summit of the tiara in the present
figure3 naturally recalls the urasus as seen above the heads of Egyptian
divinities and royal personages. A winged serpent or asp by itself
appears as the representative of Nekhebet, identified by the Greeks with
Eileithyia, the Goddess of Childbirth, and of her twin sister the ' Nurse'
Uatchet or Buto. Its connexion with the Egyptian Mother Goddess
Hathor derives a special importance from the fact that, as I have elsewhere
shown,4 the Hathoric staff with two serpents coiled round its foot supplies
the prototype of the rayed pillars with similar snakes on Cypro-Mycenaean
signets, in association with a Goddess whose attributes are lions and doves.5
Of the influence, at least of the formal creations, of Egyptian religious
art on that of Minoan Crete there can be no doubt. The griffin and the
sphinx, however transformed, were not of insular origin. That the native
beast-headed demons were crossed by the Egyptian hippopotamus Goddess
and other similar forms is now clear.''' The aukh itself was adopted by
Minoan symbolism. Neither can there be any hesitation in regarding the
Cow and Calf reliefs found in the same Temple Repository with the Snake
Goddess and her votaries as taken over from the service of Hathor. Even
the clumps of native crocuses that here decorate the votive robes are, as
has been already pointed out, simple adaptations of Egyptian lotus clumps.
That the cult imagery of one or other of the Egyptian Mother
Goddesses may have reacted on that of a parallel divinity in Minoan Crete
would thus be quite in keeping with other ascertained phenomena. But
the argument can hardly be carried beyond this point. Taken as a whole
neither the Snake Goddess nor her votaries present any special Egyptian
1 This shrine is perhaps contemporary (as most of the remains at Gournia) with the First
l'erioil of the Later Palace at Knossos. (In my Report, &c, 1902, 'p. 105 it is referred to as
later.)
2 For an excellent account of these see s. Wide, Ath. Mitlh. xxvi. pp. 247-257 and PI. XII.
3 The head of the snake, as seen in Fig. 54, is restored, but there is no doubt whatever as
to its position.
4 See Myc. Tree and Pillar Cult, pp. 52, 53.
5 See below, p. 87.
(i Compare the shell relief found by the Italian Mission at Phaestos (Moil. Ant. vol. xii.
Tav. VIII. 1 : J.U.S. xxii. p. 92, Fig. 33, on which Mr. Hogarth justly remarks, 'A glance is
enough to assure any one familiar with Egyptian art that these figures are first cousins of those
Nilotic divinities whose one arm is raised in exactly the same pose while the other holds the ankh.'