DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8755#0104
Knossos Excavations, 1903.
93
rising from her head ; tw o small Double Axes and a miniature repre-
sentation of the Sacral Horns, and two other objects which, by their
association, evidently belong to the same cult. One of these is a kind of
rayed wheel, an obvious solar emblem. The other is a circular disk held
up by another small female figure, whose conical base serves as its pedestal.
Round the borders of this disk runs a dotted circle, within which below is
a crescent sign—certainly of lunar significance. Within the inner circle,
and forming the central design of the whole, is a small cross with equal
limbs. The associated emblems of the sun and moon show that here
again we have the cross as a star-sign, which in this case appears set up as a
central feature of a cult object. The rayed ' wheel,' which in this religious
group represents the solar aspect of the cult, is indeed itself better described
as a cross within a rayed circle. For the
combination of the cross, the original star-
sign, with the rayed circle as emblematic
of the sun, goes back to the very begin-
ning of pictography, and to a time when
wheels in the modern sense were unknown.
It may be added that a small gold object
in the form of a Greek cross with a border Fig. 64.—Cross of Purple Faience.
was found in a chamber adjoining the
Megaron1 of the Palace of Mycenae and a somewhat larger object of
purple faience was found in the Palace at Knossos in 1901 (Fig. 64).
These would appear to have been amulets connected with the same cult.
This Converging evidence pointing to the fact that a cross of orthodox
Greek shape was not only a religious symbol of Minoan cult,2 but an
actual object of worship, cannot but have a profound interest in its relation
to that later cult of the same emblem which still holds the Christian world.
The long survival of the allied Crux gammata symbol, which seems to be
traceable in later offshoots of the Minoan religion from Gaza to Eryx,
affords some presumption that the simpler cruciform type may have also
retained an abiding sanctity. The deep underlying influence of this
1 Tsountas, 'E<p. Apx- '897, PI. 13, Fig. 26, p. 170.
2 The cross as a symbol or amulet was also known among the Babylonians and Assyrians. It
appears on cylinders (according to Professor Sayce, of the Kassite Period), in front of seated gods
(cf. Cat. De Cleraj, No. 254, 255, PI. xxv.), apparently as a sign of divinity. As an amulet on
Assyrian necklaces it is seen associated as on the Palaikastro mould with a rayed (solar) and a
semi-lunar emblem—in other words it once more represents a star.
93
rising from her head ; tw o small Double Axes and a miniature repre-
sentation of the Sacral Horns, and two other objects which, by their
association, evidently belong to the same cult. One of these is a kind of
rayed wheel, an obvious solar emblem. The other is a circular disk held
up by another small female figure, whose conical base serves as its pedestal.
Round the borders of this disk runs a dotted circle, within which below is
a crescent sign—certainly of lunar significance. Within the inner circle,
and forming the central design of the whole, is a small cross with equal
limbs. The associated emblems of the sun and moon show that here
again we have the cross as a star-sign, which in this case appears set up as a
central feature of a cult object. The rayed ' wheel,' which in this religious
group represents the solar aspect of the cult, is indeed itself better described
as a cross within a rayed circle. For the
combination of the cross, the original star-
sign, with the rayed circle as emblematic
of the sun, goes back to the very begin-
ning of pictography, and to a time when
wheels in the modern sense were unknown.
It may be added that a small gold object
in the form of a Greek cross with a border Fig. 64.—Cross of Purple Faience.
was found in a chamber adjoining the
Megaron1 of the Palace of Mycenae and a somewhat larger object of
purple faience was found in the Palace at Knossos in 1901 (Fig. 64).
These would appear to have been amulets connected with the same cult.
This Converging evidence pointing to the fact that a cross of orthodox
Greek shape was not only a religious symbol of Minoan cult,2 but an
actual object of worship, cannot but have a profound interest in its relation
to that later cult of the same emblem which still holds the Christian world.
The long survival of the allied Crux gammata symbol, which seems to be
traceable in later offshoots of the Minoan religion from Gaza to Eryx,
affords some presumption that the simpler cruciform type may have also
retained an abiding sanctity. The deep underlying influence of this
1 Tsountas, 'E<p. Apx- '897, PI. 13, Fig. 26, p. 170.
2 The cross as a symbol or amulet was also known among the Babylonians and Assyrians. It
appears on cylinders (according to Professor Sayce, of the Kassite Period), in front of seated gods
(cf. Cat. De Cleraj, No. 254, 255, PI. xxv.), apparently as a sign of divinity. As an amulet on
Assyrian necklaces it is seen associated as on the Palaikastro mould with a rayed (solar) and a
semi-lunar emblem—in other words it once more represents a star.