Evans, Arthur J.: Scripta minoa: the written documents of minoan Crete with special reference to the archives of Knossos (Band 1): The hieroglyphic and primitive linear classes (Oxford, 1909)

29 T

III. § 6. THE INSCRIPTION POSSIBLY A RELIGIOUS CHAUNT
IN HONOUR OF THE ANATOLIAN GREAT MOTHER

The traces thus revealed of an artificial arrangement, to a certain extent The in-
identical in both halves ol the inscription, lead most naturally to the conclusion ^^[J^t
that we have here to do with a metrical composition divided into two equal staves, romposi-
There can be little doubt that it follows the laws of a primitive music, and it may tlon"
well represent some kind of chaunt or incantation, *

This fits in with the indications already noted of religious elements among the Symbols of
characters of the Disk. Its derivation, ex hypothesi, moreover, from a Lycian source, Goddess
makes it highly probable that the female breast, so constantly recurring in this on Disk,
composition, should be taken in its usual Anatolian sense as a symbol of the great female5
Mother-Goddess. breast.

This 'breast' sign coupled with the enigmatic figure, o. 45, begins the whole
inscription as arranged above and also occupies the first place in three further sections.
Elsewhere we see it in juxtaposition or close connexion with the feline head—which is
possibly that of a lioness—the special guardian of the Great Mother. This head in
turn is in three cases1 coupled with the insect, perhaps to be interpreted as her sacred
bee. In a recurring formula,2 in which the 'breast' sign also appears, the group is
concluded by the feline head preceded by the ' double pipes', here taken to represent
a religious instrument. On B 6, 18, 21 one or more of these signs is coupled
with the pagoda-like building. Does it, perhaps, actually delineate a shrine of the
Goddess ?

It is possible that the frequently repeated 'hide' (No. 27) itself really represents Ox-hides
the skin of a sacrificed beast. It is, moreover, noteworthy in this connexion that ^ifim'"
on B 14 this sign precedes the 'tiara* (No. 9), which has a singularly sacerdotal connexion,
aspect, and that on B 4 the same ' tiara' is preceded by a head of a ram, an animal
intimately connected with the cult of one or other form of the Asiatic Goddess.

It is now well ascertained that in Minoan Crete there was also worshipped a kindred The
Nature-Goddess, the tradition of whom survived to later times as Rhea, Britomartis, JJjSess of
Artemis Dictynna, or Aphrodite Ariadne. This Minoan divinity, indeed, shows many of Crete
the attributes of her Anatolian sisters. Like Kybele she was guarded by lions, and a cat- t0sthe °rm
like animal, apparently a lion's cub, appears on the head of one of her priestesses or Anatolian,
votaries. Under the form of the ' Snake Goddess'a she even wears a tiara of the same
generic class as that on the Disk, and the female breast seems to have been her special
symbol.4 From the general associations of the figures on the Disk, however, their great
divergence from Minoan hieroglyphic forms, and the pronounced non-Cretan character
of some of the representations, it seems preferable none the less to trace the religious

^ B 2,6, A 28, where the feline head is twice repeated. s See ' Knossos', Report, 1903, pp. 74 seqq. and Fig. 54^

B 5. 10,13. * See above, p. 282.