DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0108
464 EARLY NILOTIC INFLUENCE ON MINOAN RELIGION
Minoan Herakles, aided by the Genius, drives his blade into the ]' >
mouth on the cylinder, Fig. 387. That these ceiling compositions ren-
senting the celestial functions of Ta-urt, supplied, in fact, her prevaili
aspect as brought to the notice of the Minoans at the very epoch whe&
these imitation daemonic forms took shape with them, is well demonstrate 1
by the Tomb of the great Vizier Sen-mut who stood in the most intimate
relations with the princes of Keftiu (Fig. 362, above). We have seen that
these astronomic schemes had left their mark on the Minoan seal types in
which the Genii figure. The stars beside the stag-bearing daemon of Fio-
364 are specially suggestive, as is the ox-leg of Fig. 365.
Early We may here recall that in the ' Book of the Dead ' the Hippopotamus
influence Goddess is identified with Isis or Hathor, the natural guardian of the child
i,"CrfI?, Horus, while on the other hand, there is sufficient evidence of the reaction
from Nile
Valley. of this Goddess or of Wazet, with whom she was assimilated, on the Minoan
Cult.1 The influence of the old Delta Goddess and her son is continuously
preserved in Minoan religious Art, notably in her distinctive was or
papyrus wand and in the symbolic group of the cow and calf or its Cretan
equivalent the she-goat suckling its young. But what is especially impor-
tant to observe is that, in addition to these mythological records, old Nilotic
cult forms and ritual objects such as they existed before the coming ot the
First Egyptian dynasty, survived over a considerable area of Central Crete,
Prc- . including the site of Knossos itself. The evidence of this, as shown
Libation especially by the primitive bee-hive tombs of Mesara, certainly warrants the
from'6 conclusion adopted in this work,2 that the invasion of Menes had actually
Temple led to a partial migration of some of the older proto-Libyan inhabitants oi
the Delta to Southern Crete. This evidence, indeed, has been now corro-
borated by the most telling example of this religious tradition yet brought
to light, the discovery in the Temple Tomb at Knossos of a cylindncallj
bored libation block, cut out of an igneous rock,"' exactly answering to a
typical late pre-dynastic class and standing at the head of the Early Minoan
copies of such vessels already known from the Mesara graves.
At the same time this ethnic intrusion must not be allowed to obscuie
the fact that the more deeply rooted element in the early Cretan population
should be regarded as fitting on to the kindred ' Old Carian ' stock on
Anatolian side. The Minoan Mother Goddess and her male satellite
belongs to this, as does her sacred Double Axe symbol. Only 'n_ ,
present case—as happened also on the Syrian border of this Asi
1 See especially, P. of M., i. p. 509 seqq. 45, and Fig. 20.
" See especially, P. of M., ii, Pt. I, pp. 44, s See below, § 117, Pt. HI.
Minoan Herakles, aided by the Genius, drives his blade into the ]' >
mouth on the cylinder, Fig. 387. That these ceiling compositions ren-
senting the celestial functions of Ta-urt, supplied, in fact, her prevaili
aspect as brought to the notice of the Minoans at the very epoch whe&
these imitation daemonic forms took shape with them, is well demonstrate 1
by the Tomb of the great Vizier Sen-mut who stood in the most intimate
relations with the princes of Keftiu (Fig. 362, above). We have seen that
these astronomic schemes had left their mark on the Minoan seal types in
which the Genii figure. The stars beside the stag-bearing daemon of Fio-
364 are specially suggestive, as is the ox-leg of Fig. 365.
Early We may here recall that in the ' Book of the Dead ' the Hippopotamus
influence Goddess is identified with Isis or Hathor, the natural guardian of the child
i,"CrfI?, Horus, while on the other hand, there is sufficient evidence of the reaction
from Nile
Valley. of this Goddess or of Wazet, with whom she was assimilated, on the Minoan
Cult.1 The influence of the old Delta Goddess and her son is continuously
preserved in Minoan religious Art, notably in her distinctive was or
papyrus wand and in the symbolic group of the cow and calf or its Cretan
equivalent the she-goat suckling its young. But what is especially impor-
tant to observe is that, in addition to these mythological records, old Nilotic
cult forms and ritual objects such as they existed before the coming ot the
First Egyptian dynasty, survived over a considerable area of Central Crete,
Prc- . including the site of Knossos itself. The evidence of this, as shown
Libation especially by the primitive bee-hive tombs of Mesara, certainly warrants the
from'6 conclusion adopted in this work,2 that the invasion of Menes had actually
Temple led to a partial migration of some of the older proto-Libyan inhabitants oi
the Delta to Southern Crete. This evidence, indeed, has been now corro-
borated by the most telling example of this religious tradition yet brought
to light, the discovery in the Temple Tomb at Knossos of a cylindncallj
bored libation block, cut out of an igneous rock,"' exactly answering to a
typical late pre-dynastic class and standing at the head of the Early Minoan
copies of such vessels already known from the Mesara graves.
At the same time this ethnic intrusion must not be allowed to obscuie
the fact that the more deeply rooted element in the early Cretan population
should be regarded as fitting on to the kindred ' Old Carian ' stock on
Anatolian side. The Minoan Mother Goddess and her male satellite
belongs to this, as does her sacred Double Axe symbol. Only 'n_ ,
present case—as happened also on the Syrian border of this Asi
1 See especially, P. of M., i. p. 509 seqq. 45, and Fig. 20.
" See especially, P. of M., ii, Pt. I, pp. 44, s See below, § 117, Pt. HI.