Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 1): The Neolithic and Early and Middle Minoan Ages (London, 1921)

M.M. Ill: THE SNAKE GODDESS AND RELICS 513

may serve to remind us that both this and the she-goat and young had ^j^°rtlc
probably a religious intention in connexion with the Cretan Mother Goddess, Religious
though in this case as assimilated to her Egyptian sister. of ReHeS

The group of the Cow and Calf of the Egyptian Mother Goddess,
enlisted here in the cult of the analogous Cretan divinity, leads us to another

A ~r C

Fig. 370. a, c. Cruciform Star Symbols on Hathoric Cow ; b, d. Minoan Adaptations.

interesting comparison of a symbolic character. The Egyptian Goddess,
as Lady of Heaven, appears as the Cow of the Underworld, the body of
which, in place of natural spots, shows asterisk marks or simple crosses,
symbolizing the starry firmament of Night, as on the animal shown in
Fig. 370 a.1 By a convention, moreover, which shows a kind of compromise
with Nature, these symbolic crosses are often rendered by quatrefoil spots,

1 Naville, Xlth Dynastv Temple of Deir el-Bahari, Part III, PI. XXX. On a votive cloth.
T Ll

Cruci-
form Star
Symbols
of Ha-
thoric
Cow
adopted
by

Minoan
Cult.