DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0028
THE MINOAN AGE
3
Greece itself the islet that guards the port of Megara, and a headland
of Laconia, bear this appellation. It recurs in Corcyra. In Sicily, where
of recent years a series of finds have come to light illustrative of a late off-
shoot of the Minoan civilization, the ' Minoan ' Herakleia bears witness to
its abiding- tradition. For it was said that Daedalos sought refuge on
Sicilian shores, and that Minos himself, following with an ill-fated expedition,
found a grave and sepulchral shrine near this Westernmost Minoa.
The dynastic use of the word ' Minos ' may perhaps be compared with Dynastic
that of Pharaoh, originally signifying him of the 'great house' (Per-o), and ^Minos'.
' Minoan' may thus be fairly paralleled with ' Pharaonic ' as a term for the
dynastic civilization of Egypt. It seems certain that we must recognize in Divine
Minos the bearer of a divine title. He is of divine parentage and himself Tltle'
the progenitor of divine beings. Son of Zeus by Europa, herself, perhaps,
an Earth-Goddess,1 wedded to Pasiphae, ' the all-illuminating,' father of
Ariadne ' the Most Holy'—Minos, in the last two relationships at least, was
coupled with alternative forms of the Mother Goddess of pre-Hellenic Crete.
But this divine element in Minos has a special significance in view Divine
of a series of analogies supplied by the great religious centres of the Kin°-s of
geographically connected Anatolian regions. In these sanctuaries the priest Anatolia-
not only represented the God, wore his dress, and wielded his authority, but
often also bore his name. A most conspicuous instance of this is found
in the case of Attis 2 or Atys, whose chief-priest, the Archigallus, regularly
took the same name.3 At Pessinus he was a priest-king. The divine
nature of primitive kingship is of course almost universal.4 It is well
illustrated indeed in the case of Egypt, whose Pharaohs took the titles
of the ' Great God 1 the golden HorusSon of the Sun-god (Ra), at times,
Son of the Moon (Aah), or 1 engendered of Thoth and so forth.
In Egypt, indeed, the royal and the priestly authority were kept some-
what apart, and the Temple overshadowed the Palace. In the Anatolian
centres the royal and the sacerdotal abode was one and the same, and the
1 See Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, ii,
p. 479.
2 Kretschmer, Einleitung in die Geschichte
der griecluschen Sprache,p. 195, points out that
Attis and the Great Mother with whom he is
associated belong to the pre-Phrygian ele-
ment, in other words to the old Anatolian
element akin to the Cretan.
8 The authorities are collected by Dr. Frazer,
Adonis, At/is, Osiris, pp. 182-4. Sir W. M.
Ramsay refers to this practice in his recent
paper ' on The Shrine of the God Men
Askaenos at the Pisidian Antioch '. (Abstract
in Journ. of Hellenic Studies, xxxii, 1912,
pp. xlix, 1.) See also his Sketches in the Religious
Antiquities of Asia Minor ; B. School Annual,
xviii. 37, &c.
4 I need only here refer to Frazer's Lectures
on the Early History of Kingship, p. 128
seqq.
B 2
3
Greece itself the islet that guards the port of Megara, and a headland
of Laconia, bear this appellation. It recurs in Corcyra. In Sicily, where
of recent years a series of finds have come to light illustrative of a late off-
shoot of the Minoan civilization, the ' Minoan ' Herakleia bears witness to
its abiding- tradition. For it was said that Daedalos sought refuge on
Sicilian shores, and that Minos himself, following with an ill-fated expedition,
found a grave and sepulchral shrine near this Westernmost Minoa.
The dynastic use of the word ' Minos ' may perhaps be compared with Dynastic
that of Pharaoh, originally signifying him of the 'great house' (Per-o), and ^Minos'.
' Minoan' may thus be fairly paralleled with ' Pharaonic ' as a term for the
dynastic civilization of Egypt. It seems certain that we must recognize in Divine
Minos the bearer of a divine title. He is of divine parentage and himself Tltle'
the progenitor of divine beings. Son of Zeus by Europa, herself, perhaps,
an Earth-Goddess,1 wedded to Pasiphae, ' the all-illuminating,' father of
Ariadne ' the Most Holy'—Minos, in the last two relationships at least, was
coupled with alternative forms of the Mother Goddess of pre-Hellenic Crete.
But this divine element in Minos has a special significance in view Divine
of a series of analogies supplied by the great religious centres of the Kin°-s of
geographically connected Anatolian regions. In these sanctuaries the priest Anatolia-
not only represented the God, wore his dress, and wielded his authority, but
often also bore his name. A most conspicuous instance of this is found
in the case of Attis 2 or Atys, whose chief-priest, the Archigallus, regularly
took the same name.3 At Pessinus he was a priest-king. The divine
nature of primitive kingship is of course almost universal.4 It is well
illustrated indeed in the case of Egypt, whose Pharaohs took the titles
of the ' Great God 1 the golden HorusSon of the Sun-god (Ra), at times,
Son of the Moon (Aah), or 1 engendered of Thoth and so forth.
In Egypt, indeed, the royal and the priestly authority were kept some-
what apart, and the Temple overshadowed the Palace. In the Anatolian
centres the royal and the sacerdotal abode was one and the same, and the
1 See Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, ii,
p. 479.
2 Kretschmer, Einleitung in die Geschichte
der griecluschen Sprache,p. 195, points out that
Attis and the Great Mother with whom he is
associated belong to the pre-Phrygian ele-
ment, in other words to the old Anatolian
element akin to the Cretan.
8 The authorities are collected by Dr. Frazer,
Adonis, At/is, Osiris, pp. 182-4. Sir W. M.
Ramsay refers to this practice in his recent
paper ' on The Shrine of the God Men
Askaenos at the Pisidian Antioch '. (Abstract
in Journ. of Hellenic Studies, xxxii, 1912,
pp. xlix, 1.) See also his Sketches in the Religious
Antiquities of Asia Minor ; B. School Annual,
xviii. 37, &c.
4 I need only here refer to Frazer's Lectures
on the Early History of Kingship, p. 128
seqq.
B 2