DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0278
ISIS PELAGIA AND HAGIA PELAGIA
251
curious parallels with the Syrian Atargatis—the Derketo of Ascalon—as
well as certain representations of the shrine of the Paphian Goddess in
which a harbour with fish appears immediately before it or a boat is seen
at the temple steps. The Advent of the Goddess from the sea, which
recalls so much in later lore, is the more interesting from the fact that her
arboreal form here accompanies her on the voyage. At Tyre, also, the
sacred olive tree came forth from the sea to take its place between the
Ambrosian Stones within the sanctuary.
Attention has already been drawn to the fact Com-
that the cult of the old Mediterranean Sea-Goddess, wtthHis
Isis Pharia, otherwise Pelagia,1 still survives in Crete Pelag'a:
& ' Hagia
hard by the remains of a Minoan port beyond the Pelagia.
headland West of Candia, where the little church of
Hagia Pelagia marks the now untenanted site.
But the attachment of the cult of this latter-day
Saint to Minoan maritime sites, some of them here
described, can be shown to be a recurring feature in
a series of cases. A little church thus dedicated
rises near the sea coast by Gournia and another on
a rocky islet off Mallia. So, too, the church of
St. Phanourios in the village of Meskinia, set there, beside a prominent lime-
stone crag, on a platform overlooking, on the Eastern side, the mouth of the
old Kairatos river and the main harbour of Knossos, has partly superseded,
partly absorbed the cult of an earlier shrine of Hagia Pelagia built into
a grot immediately below. The upper church combines the icons of both
saints, and it was interesting to note among votive offerings suspended to
them silver tablets with embossed figures of ships under sail.2
Can we doubt that the worship of the Christian Saint on these sites has
been taken over from a much more ancient cult ? The assimilation was in
this case suggested not so much by anything specially applicable in the
history of the Saint herself—a pious lady of Antioch who lived in the latter
part of the third century 3—but by the accident of her name, Pelagia.
Fig. 148. Isis Pelagia
sailing her Raft on Con-
torniate Coin of Fourth
Century a.d.
1 See especially W. Drexler, Lexikon d.
gr. u. rom. Myth., ii, Art. Isis (p. 474 seqq.
Got/in des Meeres).
2 Among other votive offerings in silver
plate were various parts of the body, such as
heads, eyes, female breasts, legs and hands,
swathed infants and children of both sexes.
The dedication of these, especially the human
limbs, curiously recalls that of Minoan sanctu-
aries like that on the summit of Juktas or the
rock-shelter of Palaikastro. The embossed
silver tablets on the other hand find an equally
early parallel in the embossed votive bronze
plate from the Diktaean Cave (-P. of M., i,
p. 623, Fig. 47).
3 Her proper ecclesiastical description is
251
curious parallels with the Syrian Atargatis—the Derketo of Ascalon—as
well as certain representations of the shrine of the Paphian Goddess in
which a harbour with fish appears immediately before it or a boat is seen
at the temple steps. The Advent of the Goddess from the sea, which
recalls so much in later lore, is the more interesting from the fact that her
arboreal form here accompanies her on the voyage. At Tyre, also, the
sacred olive tree came forth from the sea to take its place between the
Ambrosian Stones within the sanctuary.
Attention has already been drawn to the fact Com-
that the cult of the old Mediterranean Sea-Goddess, wtthHis
Isis Pharia, otherwise Pelagia,1 still survives in Crete Pelag'a:
& ' Hagia
hard by the remains of a Minoan port beyond the Pelagia.
headland West of Candia, where the little church of
Hagia Pelagia marks the now untenanted site.
But the attachment of the cult of this latter-day
Saint to Minoan maritime sites, some of them here
described, can be shown to be a recurring feature in
a series of cases. A little church thus dedicated
rises near the sea coast by Gournia and another on
a rocky islet off Mallia. So, too, the church of
St. Phanourios in the village of Meskinia, set there, beside a prominent lime-
stone crag, on a platform overlooking, on the Eastern side, the mouth of the
old Kairatos river and the main harbour of Knossos, has partly superseded,
partly absorbed the cult of an earlier shrine of Hagia Pelagia built into
a grot immediately below. The upper church combines the icons of both
saints, and it was interesting to note among votive offerings suspended to
them silver tablets with embossed figures of ships under sail.2
Can we doubt that the worship of the Christian Saint on these sites has
been taken over from a much more ancient cult ? The assimilation was in
this case suggested not so much by anything specially applicable in the
history of the Saint herself—a pious lady of Antioch who lived in the latter
part of the third century 3—but by the accident of her name, Pelagia.
Fig. 148. Isis Pelagia
sailing her Raft on Con-
torniate Coin of Fourth
Century a.d.
1 See especially W. Drexler, Lexikon d.
gr. u. rom. Myth., ii, Art. Isis (p. 474 seqq.
Got/in des Meeres).
2 Among other votive offerings in silver
plate were various parts of the body, such as
heads, eyes, female breasts, legs and hands,
swathed infants and children of both sexes.
The dedication of these, especially the human
limbs, curiously recalls that of Minoan sanctu-
aries like that on the summit of Juktas or the
rock-shelter of Palaikastro. The embossed
silver tablets on the other hand find an equally
early parallel in the embossed votive bronze
plate from the Diktaean Cave (-P. of M., i,
p. 623, Fig. 47).
3 Her proper ecclesiastical description is