DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0073
A MOTHER GODDESS
429
show that a parallel development had taken place on theAnatolianside and no
doubt its clay antecedents in Neolithic deposits of that region may ultimately
be also brought to light. It is characteristic of the evolution that the extreme
steatopygy noteworthy in the clay Neolithic class finds its equivalent in a
broadening of the thighs of the stone copies, which are square cut with an
indentation above on either side, while the legs at the same time are
0-radually straightened out, as best seen in the prevalent Cycladic type,
the figure at the same time becoming more elongated. It is specially
interesting to observe that in the later specimens such'as e from Sparta1
and / from the Cyclades 2 the signs of pregnancy are well developed. We
have before us a Mother Goddess.
Something of the traditional crudeness of the Neolithic clay figures is Survival
still preserved in the female image with chalk inlays found on the altar °'"eu!jte
ledge of the very late ' Shrine of the Double Axes '3 at Knossos, where it Knossos.
occurred beside the sacred weapons and among votaries of the Dove
Goddess. The gross indigenous clay images of the Cyprian Aphrodite
themselves survive the period of Minoan settlement. At Knossos, on the
other hand, the ' Ring of Minos' has supplied a nude personification in more
artistic styleJ executed, it would appear, in the First Late Minoan Period.
divinity.
1 Ath. Mith.,Tis\ (rSoi), p. 52, Fig. 1.
" In the British Museum : recently acquired
by Mr. E. J. Forsdyke.
8 /'. of M., i, p. 52, Fig. 1 -1, a and !>, and cf.
ibid., ii, Pt. I, p. 342 and n. 5.
'' See below, § 117, Pt. I.
Hell', mother naked, as S. Reinach has well
demonstrated, cannot hold. My own sugges-
tion {P. of M., i, p. 5r) of a reference to this
is hardly warranted. Conversely, however,
the doffing of all raiment by Ishtar before
entering the Underworld may have been due
to traditional ideas as to the aspect of its
Fig. 353. Late Babylonian Cylinder showing Offering
to Figure of the 'Naked Goddess' on a Pedestal with
Fan-tailed Dove perched beside her.
429
show that a parallel development had taken place on theAnatolianside and no
doubt its clay antecedents in Neolithic deposits of that region may ultimately
be also brought to light. It is characteristic of the evolution that the extreme
steatopygy noteworthy in the clay Neolithic class finds its equivalent in a
broadening of the thighs of the stone copies, which are square cut with an
indentation above on either side, while the legs at the same time are
0-radually straightened out, as best seen in the prevalent Cycladic type,
the figure at the same time becoming more elongated. It is specially
interesting to observe that in the later specimens such'as e from Sparta1
and / from the Cyclades 2 the signs of pregnancy are well developed. We
have before us a Mother Goddess.
Something of the traditional crudeness of the Neolithic clay figures is Survival
still preserved in the female image with chalk inlays found on the altar °'"eu!jte
ledge of the very late ' Shrine of the Double Axes '3 at Knossos, where it Knossos.
occurred beside the sacred weapons and among votaries of the Dove
Goddess. The gross indigenous clay images of the Cyprian Aphrodite
themselves survive the period of Minoan settlement. At Knossos, on the
other hand, the ' Ring of Minos' has supplied a nude personification in more
artistic styleJ executed, it would appear, in the First Late Minoan Period.
divinity.
1 Ath. Mith.,Tis\ (rSoi), p. 52, Fig. 1.
" In the British Museum : recently acquired
by Mr. E. J. Forsdyke.
8 /'. of M., i, p. 52, Fig. 1 -1, a and !>, and cf.
ibid., ii, Pt. I, p. 342 and n. 5.
'' See below, § 117, Pt. I.
Hell', mother naked, as S. Reinach has well
demonstrated, cannot hold. My own sugges-
tion {P. of M., i, p. 5r) of a reference to this
is hardly warranted. Conversely, however,
the doffing of all raiment by Ishtar before
entering the Underworld may have been due
to traditional ideas as to the aspect of its
Fig. 353. Late Babylonian Cylinder showing Offering
to Figure of the 'Naked Goddess' on a Pedestal with
Fan-tailed Dove perched beside her.