DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0045
MINOAN GODDESS AND GOD NORMALLY ATTIRED 401
ordinary Minoan men, the latter figure showing the puttee-like leg-gear.
Certain figures of religious ministrants of both sexes on the Hagia Triada
Sarcophagus also illustrate the widespread practice of votaries wearing the
skins of their victims,1 and the curious baggy robes, sometimes with tail-
like appendages, seen on a series of figures—some of them attendants
of the Goddess—upon early seal impressions have been thus explained.2
On these, too, we see this costume combined with a kind of rustic corslet
such as is worn in the same conjunction by the shaggy leader of the
harvesters' rout on the Hagia Triada ' rhyton '.3
The ritual garb and accoutrements visible in these last-named cases,
though they are connected with religious ministrations of various kinds,
hardly concern the Priest-kings themselves. Like the male divinity, with
whom to a certain extent the latter may be thought to have been identified,
they seem, though distinguished by special insignia, to have traditionally
worn the mere loincloth of ordinary male apparel. The religious con-
servatism as regards the male divinity is well illustrated by the Cretan
seal-type showing the Young God,4 his divinity marked by the Sacral
Horns at his feet, attended by an ewer-holding Genius and a winged goat.
The chryselephantine figure of the divine Child, described below, has his
loin apparel still preserved in gold plating.5
It is only at a distinctly later date that the traditional figure of the
Minoan God begins to be replaced by the imitative images of the Syrian
Lightning God, Resheph, with his cylindrical helmet, his fighting pose, and
Syro-Egyptian kill.0
The Minoan Goddess herself was nothing if not fashionable. She
moved with the times and wears her skirts longer or shorter according
to the prevailing mode. The flounced attire in which she appears from
the Third Middle Minoan Period onwards no doubt reflects a general usage,
though as already suggested,7 the flounces may have been originally copied
from Oriental models, such as, in the subjects of Babylonian cylinders, were
already reaching Crete by the days of Hammurabi.s In the remarkable
Normal
attire of
male
divinity.
'Resh-
eph '
types due
to later
Syrian
influence.
Minoan
Goddess
too wears
fashion-
able
attire.
1 Cf. Pariberii, Mon. Ant., xix (1908). p. 18
seqq. Dr. Paribeni did not however regard
the appendage visible as actually representing
a tail.
2 Parabeni, op. cit., p 23. See, too, Nilsson,
Minoan and Mycenaean Religion, p. 132 seqq.
" See, for a full restoration, P. of M., ii,
Pt. I, Suppl. PL XVII ; for the vase see
L. Savignoni, Ilvaso di Ilaghia Triada (Mon.
Ant, xiii).
' See P. of M., i, p. 708, Fig. 532, and cf.
p. 467, Fig. 392 below.
5 See p. 470, Fig. 394, and p. 473,
Fig. 397, a, 0.
G See P. of M., iii, p. 477 seqq.
7 Ibid., i, p. 197, and see Fig. 145.
3 E.g., ibid., \, p. 19S, F'ig. 146, and ibid.,
ii, Pt. I, p. 265, Fig. 15S.
ordinary Minoan men, the latter figure showing the puttee-like leg-gear.
Certain figures of religious ministrants of both sexes on the Hagia Triada
Sarcophagus also illustrate the widespread practice of votaries wearing the
skins of their victims,1 and the curious baggy robes, sometimes with tail-
like appendages, seen on a series of figures—some of them attendants
of the Goddess—upon early seal impressions have been thus explained.2
On these, too, we see this costume combined with a kind of rustic corslet
such as is worn in the same conjunction by the shaggy leader of the
harvesters' rout on the Hagia Triada ' rhyton '.3
The ritual garb and accoutrements visible in these last-named cases,
though they are connected with religious ministrations of various kinds,
hardly concern the Priest-kings themselves. Like the male divinity, with
whom to a certain extent the latter may be thought to have been identified,
they seem, though distinguished by special insignia, to have traditionally
worn the mere loincloth of ordinary male apparel. The religious con-
servatism as regards the male divinity is well illustrated by the Cretan
seal-type showing the Young God,4 his divinity marked by the Sacral
Horns at his feet, attended by an ewer-holding Genius and a winged goat.
The chryselephantine figure of the divine Child, described below, has his
loin apparel still preserved in gold plating.5
It is only at a distinctly later date that the traditional figure of the
Minoan God begins to be replaced by the imitative images of the Syrian
Lightning God, Resheph, with his cylindrical helmet, his fighting pose, and
Syro-Egyptian kill.0
The Minoan Goddess herself was nothing if not fashionable. She
moved with the times and wears her skirts longer or shorter according
to the prevailing mode. The flounced attire in which she appears from
the Third Middle Minoan Period onwards no doubt reflects a general usage,
though as already suggested,7 the flounces may have been originally copied
from Oriental models, such as, in the subjects of Babylonian cylinders, were
already reaching Crete by the days of Hammurabi.s In the remarkable
Normal
attire of
male
divinity.
'Resh-
eph '
types due
to later
Syrian
influence.
Minoan
Goddess
too wears
fashion-
able
attire.
1 Cf. Pariberii, Mon. Ant., xix (1908). p. 18
seqq. Dr. Paribeni did not however regard
the appendage visible as actually representing
a tail.
2 Parabeni, op. cit., p 23. See, too, Nilsson,
Minoan and Mycenaean Religion, p. 132 seqq.
" See, for a full restoration, P. of M., ii,
Pt. I, Suppl. PL XVII ; for the vase see
L. Savignoni, Ilvaso di Ilaghia Triada (Mon.
Ant, xiii).
' See P. of M., i, p. 708, Fig. 532, and cf.
p. 467, Fig. 392 below.
5 See p. 470, Fig. 394, and p. 473,
Fig. 397, a, 0.
G See P. of M., iii, p. 477 seqq.
7 Ibid., i, p. 197, and see Fig. 145.
3 E.g., ibid., \, p. 19S, F'ig. 146, and ibid.,
ii, Pt. I, p. 265, Fig. 15S.