Snake Goddess
Encyclopedia
Figurine
A figurine is a statuette that represents a human, deity or animal. Figurines may be realistic or iconic, depending on the skill and intention of the creator. The earliest were made of stone or clay...
s of a woman holding a snake in each hand found during excavation of Minoan
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...
archaeological sites in Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
dating from approximately 1600 BCE.It seems that the two elegant idols found in Knossos
Knossos
Knossos , also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square...
represented goddesses and by implication, the term 'snake goddess' also describes the chthonic
Chthonic
Chthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Greek religion. The Greek word khthon is one of several for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land or the land as territory...
deity depicted.Little more is known about her identity apart from that gained from the figurines. These idols were found only in house sanctuaries, where the snake appears as "the snake of the household", and they are probably related with the Paleolithic
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
tradition regarding women and domesticity. Evans tentatively linked the snake goddess with the Egyptian snake goddess Wadjet
Wadjet
In Egyptian mythology, Wadjet, or the Green One , was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep , which became part of the city that the Egyptians named Per-Wadjet, House of...
.
Figurines
The first 'Snake Goddess' figurines to be discovered were found by the British archaeologist Arthur EvansArthur Evans
Sir Arthur John Evans FRS was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete and for developing the concept of Minoan civilization from the structures and artifacts found there and elsewhere throughout eastern Mediterranean...
in 1903, in the palace depository of Knossos
Knossos
Knossos , also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square...
. The figurines are made of faience
Egyptian faience
Egyptian faience is a non-clay based ceramic displaying surface vitrification which creates a bright lustre of various blue-green colours. Having not been made from clay it is often not classed as pottery. It is called "Egyptian faience" to distinguish it from faience, the tin glazed pottery...
, a technique for glazing earthenware and other ceramic vessels by using a quartz paste. This material symbolized in old Egypt the renewal of life, therefore it was used in the funeral cult and in the sanctuaries. After firing this produces bright colors and a lustrous sheen.
These two figurines are today exhibited at the Herakleion Archeological Museum in Crete and they probably represent the mother goddess and her daughter. It is possible that they illustrate the fashion of dress of Minoan women: a tight bodice which left the breasts bare, a long flounched skirt, and an apron made of material with embroidered or woven decoration. The larger of these figures has snakes crawling over her arms up to her tiara. The smaller figure holds two snakes in her raised hands and a small animal is perched on her head, which seems to be the imitation of a panther. These were usually symbols of the earth goddess.
Similar symbols are also depicted on representations of Maenads,the women dancers who accompanied the rituals honouring Dionysos with frenzied dancings in classical Greece, but the relation seems uncertain.
Clay idols with raised hands and curling snakes were found in the "house of the double axes" in Knossos
Knossos
Knossos , also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square...
, in Asine
Asine
Asine was an ancient Greek city of Argolis, which was the first city mentioned by Homer as part of the kingdom of Diomedes, king of Argos.In 740 BC, the Argives destroyed the city because its citizens had helped the Spartans in their war against Argos...
,in Gournia
Gournia
Gournia is the site of a Minoan palacecomplex on the island of Crete, Greece, excavated in the early 20th century by theAmerican archaeologist, Harriet Boyd-Hawes. Gournia lies in the municipality of Ierapetrain the prefecture of Lasithi.-External links:...
,and in Myrtos
Myrtos
Myrtos is a coastal village in the west of the municipality of Ierapetra, in the prefecture of Lasithi on the island of Crete in Greece. It is located from Ierapetra, the most southern town of Europe and from Agios Nikolaos, on the road to Viannos...
.Objects with snakes curling up the sides of clay-tubes were also found in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
.
An excavation in Knossos shows the climax of the Minoan civilization being 1500 BC, they found this to be the best time for the Mycenaeans because of the richs they have found there. However, what was found there was works from the Minoans, and one of those arts being the statuette of the snake goddess. In particular, one of the snake goddess’s was found in few pieces apart, and was later filled with a solution of paraffin to preserve it from further damage (52). Further, the article describes her just as she is depicted as other statues (crown on head, hands grasping snakes and so on…) The expression on her face is described as life-like, and is also wearing the typical Minoan dress. She is named a goddess because when Sir Arthur discovered her in 1903, she was found in a sort of treasure chest with other objects that were also clearly part of a shrine. Two other statuettes were found as well, that somehow survived (54). One is similar to most, however she is holding the snake’s head in her hand while it wraps around her waist (54). Also another figure found in Berlin, made of bronze, looks more like a snake charmer with the snakes on top of her head. The article also describes that many Minoan statues and statuettes express a sort of pride (54)
A Statuette of the Minoan Snake Goddess: Gift of Mrs. W. Scott Fitz
L. D. C.
Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin , Vol. 12, No. 73 (Dec., 1914), pp. 51-55
Published by: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4423650
Interpretations
While the statuette's true function is somewhat unclear, her exposed and amplified breasts suggest that she is probably some sort of fertility figure. The figurines may illustrate the fashion of dress of Minoan women, however, it is also possible that bared breasts represented a sign of mourning. HomerHomer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
gives a literary description of this kind of mourning, and this was also observed by Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
among Egyptian women.
The serpent
Serpent (symbolism)
Serpent in Latin means: Rory Collins :&, in turn, from the Biblical Hebrew word of: "saraf" with root letters of: which refers to something burning-as, the pain of poisonous snake's bite was likened to internal burning.This word is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context,...
is often symbolically associated with the renewal of life because it sheds its skin periodically. A similar belief existed in the ancient Mesopotamians and Semites, and appears also in the Hindu mythology
Hindu mythology
Hindu religious literature is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. As such, it is a subset of Nepali and Indian culture...
. The Pelasgian myth of creation refers to snakes as the reborn dead. However, Nilsson
Nilsson
Nilsson is a Swedish surname and the fourth most common surname in Sweden. The name is a patronymic meaning "Nils's son". Nils was a very common name, especially in 19th century Sweden.Some people named Nilsson:...
noticed that in the Minoan religion the snake was the protector of the house, as it later appears also in Greek religion
Greek religion
Greek religion can refer to several things, including*Ancient Greek religion**Greek hero cult**Eleusinian Mysteries**Hellenistic religion**Platonic idealism*Greek Orthodox Church*Religion in Greece*Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism...
. Among the Greek Dionysiac cult it signified wisdom and was the symbol of fertility.
Barry Powell suggested that the snake goddess reduced in legend into a folklore heroine was Ariadne
Ariadne
Ariadne , in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and was the bride of the god Dionysus.-Minos and Theseus:...
(utterly pure or the very holy one) who in classical Greece was often depicted surrounded by Satyrs and Maenads. Some scholars connect the snake goddess with the Phoenicia
Phoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
n Astarte
Astarte
Astarte is the Greek name of a goddess known throughout the Eastern Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to Classical times...
(virgin daughter). She was the goddess of fertility and sexuality and her worship was connected with orgiastic cult. Her temples were decorated with serpentine motifs. She probably became later the goddess Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
(Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
). In a relative Greek myth Europa
Europa (mythology)
In Greek mythology Europa was a Phoenician woman of high lineage, from whom the name of the continent Europe has ultimately been taken. The name Europa occurs in Hesiod's long list of daughters of primordial Oceanus and Tethys...
(Ευρώπη "wide-eyes or face"), was a Phoenician princess who Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
abducted and carried to Crete.Astarte is sometimes identified with Europa in ancient sources.
Evans tentatively linked the snake goddess with the Egyptian snake goddess Wadjet
Wadjet
In Egyptian mythology, Wadjet, or the Green One , was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep , which became part of the city that the Egyptians named Per-Wadjet, House of...
or Wadjut ('Eye of the moon' and later 'Eye of Ra') but did not pursue this connection. Statuettes similar to the "snake goddess" identified as priest of Wadjud and magician were found in Egypt. Wadjut was associated with the city known to the Greeks as Aphroditopolis (the city of Aphrodite) and she was also the goddess of fertility.
Sacral Knot
Both goddesses have a knot with a projecting looped cord between their breasts. Evans noticed that these are analogous to the sacral knot, a name given by him to a knot with a loop of fabric above and sometimes fringed ends hanging down below. Numerous such symbols in ivory, faience, painted in frescoes or engraved in seals sometimes combined with the symbol of the double-edged axe or labrysLabrys
Labrys is the term for a symmetrical doubleheaded axe originally from Crete in Greece, one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization; to the Romans, it was known as a bipennis....
were found in Minoan
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...
and Mycenaean
Helladic period
Helladic is a modern archaeological term meant to identify a sequence of periods characterizing the culture of mainland ancient Greece during the Bronze Age. The term is commonly used in archaeology and art history...
sites. It is believed that the sacral knot was the symbol of holiness on human figures or cult-objects. In Minoan Crete the cult was aniconic and the goddesses appeared only in epiphany, called forth chiefly by means of ecstatic sacral dance, as well as by tree shaking and baetylic rites. The sacral knot (combined with the double edged axe) can be compared with the Egyptian ankh
Ankh
The ankh , also known as key of life, the key of the Nile or crux ansata, was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read "eternal life", a triliteral sign for the consonants ʻ-n-ḫ...
(eternal life) which is used to represent the planet Venus
Venus symbol
The Venus symbol is a depiction of a circle with a small cross below it. The symbol is historically associated with the Roman goddess Venus or the Greek goddess Aphrodite...
, or with the tyet
Tyet
The tyet is an ancient Egyptian symbol of the goddess Isis; its exact origin is unknown. In many respects the tyet resembles an ankh, except that its arms curve down...
(welfare/life) a symbol of Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
(the knot of Isis) which is thought to represent the idea of eternal life and resurrection.
Oracle
Wadjet had a famous oracleOracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....
in the city Per-Wadjet (Greek name Buto
Buto
Buto , Butus , or Butosus, , now Tell al-Fara'in near the city of Desouk , was an ancient city located 95 km east of Alexandria in the Nile Delta of Egypt. The city stood on the Sebennytic arm of the Nile, near its mouth, and on the southern shore of the Butic Lake...
). According to Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
this may have been the source of the oracular tradition which spread to Greece from Egypt. The serpents were considered the protectors of the temples and the chthonic masters of the ancient earth goddess. In Greece the old oracles were devoted to the mother goddess
Mother goddess
Mother goddess is a term used to refer to a goddess who represents motherhood, fertility, creation or embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother.Many different goddesses have...
. According to a Greek legend Apollo came to Delphi
Delphi
Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
carrying Cretan priests, and there he possessed the oracle after slewing the serpent Python
Python (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Python was the earth-dragon of Delphi, always represented in Greek sculpture and vase-paintings as a serpent. He presided at the Delphic oracle, which existed in the cult center for his mother, Gaia, "Earth," Pytho being the place name that was substituted for the earlier Krisa...
,the daughter of Gaia
Gaia (mythology)
Gaia was the primordial Earth-goddess in ancient Greek religion. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods and Titans were descended from her union with Uranus , the sea-gods from her union with Pontus , the Giants from her mating with Tartarus and mortal creatures were sprung or born...
. At Dodona
Dodona
Dodona in Epirus in northwestern Greece, was an oracle devoted to a Mother Goddess identified at other sites with Rhea or Gaia, but here called Dione, who was joined and partly supplanted in historical times by the Greek god Zeus.The shrine of Dodona was regarded as the oldest Hellenic oracle,...
Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
displaced the mother goddess and assimilated her with Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
. At the oracle of Trophonius
Trophonius
Trophonius or Trophonios was a Greek hero or daimon or god - it was never certain which one - with a rich mythological tradition and an oracular cult at Lebadaea in Boeotia....
, Demeter-Europa was the nurse of the chthonic Zeus-Trophonios who possessed the oracle.
Comparison to other goddesses
Other goddesses probably associated with the "snake goddess" are:- The ancient Egyptian goddess RenenutetRenenutetIn Egyptian mythology, Renenutet was the anthropomorphic deification of the act of gaining a true name, an aspect of the soul, during birth. Her name simply meaning, gives Ren, with Ren being the Egyptian word for this true name...
, who often appeared in the form of a hooded cobra. - The Phoenician goddess TanitTanitTanit was a Phoenician lunar goddess, worshipped as the patron goddess at Carthage. Tanit was worshiped in Punic contexts in the Western Mediterranean, from Malta to Gades into Hellenistic times. From the fifth century BCE onwards Tanit is associated with that of Baal Hammon...
, worshipped as a patron goddess of CarthageCarthageCarthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
.
See also
- AriadneAriadneAriadne , in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and was the bride of the god Dionysus.-Minos and Theseus:...
- Snake worshipSnake worshipThe worship of serpent deities is present in several old cultures, particularly in religion and mythology, where snakes were seen as entities of strength and renewal.-Hindu mythology:...
in Hindu mythology. - GorgonGorgonIn Greek mythology, the Gorgon was a terrifying female creature. The name derives from the Greek word gorgós, which means "dreadful." While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair of living, venomous snakes, and a...
- female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes in Greek mythology. - AstarteAstarteAstarte is the Greek name of a goddess known throughout the Eastern Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to Classical times...
- IshtarIshtarIshtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. She is the counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate north-west Semitic goddess Astarte.-Characteristics:...
- WadjetWadjetIn Egyptian mythology, Wadjet, or the Green One , was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep , which became part of the city that the Egyptians named Per-Wadjet, House of...
- Potnia theronPotnia TheronPotnia Theron is a term first used by Homer and often used to describe female divinities associated with animals...
- Matriarchal religionMatriarchal religionThe concept of a Matriarchal religion is a concept forwarded in second-wave feminism since the 1970s, based on the notion of a historical matriarchy first developed in the 19th century by J. J...
- Snake-witch stone, a picture stone from Gotland popularly called ormgudinna
External links
- Minoan Snake Goddess essay by Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe originally in Images Of Women In Ancient Art - Accessed July 2006
- The Picture Stone from Smiss at När, Historical museum of Gotland