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| Minoan Snake Goddess (Ariadne Statue) |
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| 8 inches tall |
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The Minoan "Snake Goddess" figure was first found in the Palace of Knossos (modern-day Crete) in 1903 by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans. A few others with some variations have been found since. Although he made elaborate claims as to the purpose of the figure, modern archaeologists really have no idea what importance the figure had to the Minoans. Most scholars suggest that it is somehow a "fertility" figure, with the snakes representing renewal and the bare breasts representing fertility and sexuality. The cat which sometimes appears on the "hat" in many of the snake-goddess figures, and the raising of the snakes in a ritual-like fashion in other statues give an indication of a Priestess enacting a ritual or magical ceremony of some unknown sort.
Though there is no evidence to support their theories, some have attempted to associate this figure with that of Ariadne, the one-time wife of Dionysus. Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae. By some accounts King Minos was a son of Zeus. The famous Minotaur of the Labyrinth of Crete was born of Pasiphae's relation with a sacred bull. After Ariadne helped the hero Theseus escape the Labyrinth, they escaped together, but soon Theseus abandoned her, some say pregnant, on the island of Naxos. Dionysus found her abandoned on the island and married her there.
There is some evidence from various myths that Ariadne may have died in childbirth, and as an early Minoan Goddess her myth was centered around the joyous and sorrowful aspects of marriage and death, which were mirrored in the annual renewal and decay of vegetation.
Replica of the original in the Candia Museum, Crete, 1600-1500 BCE, made of Antique stone colored Gypsum-stone. 8 inches tall. |
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| STA010 |
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