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 4,1): Emergence of outer western enceinte, with new illustrations, artistic and religious, of the Middle Minoan Phase (London, 1935)

INTERTWINED VIPERS

177

families coil themselves together, as in the Viper herd shown in Fig. 140,
below.1 It is not unreasonable to suppose that the Nodus Herculeus itself
may go back to the knotted combination formed by a pair of sacred snakes.
The triple coils of the reptiles that form the girdle of the faience figure of
the Snake Goddess (Fig. 139) and those of the bronze statuette in the Berlin
Museum 2—sometimes mistaken for locks of hair (Fig. 13S)—are really such
as might have been copied from a living group. The plaiting together of
the three members of the 'snake frames', as seen on the Dendra ring
itself, hardly goes beyond the natural interlacing of these reptiles.

1 This figure is taken from that in the
Royal Natural History, edited by Richard
Lydeklcer, B.A., F.R.S., vol. v, p. 231.

- Reproduced from P. of M.t i, p. 507,
Fig. 305.

Fig. ] 40. Clay Cult Object from Younous, Cyprus, at back of which is a
Double Stand to which two Snakes raise themselves: Dikeos. (See Above,
p. 166, note 2.)