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A major festive celebration or ritual was the famous Minoan bull-leaping, represented in the frescoes of Knossos, and inscribed in miniature Minoan seals and gold rings. Young people—whether young women were involved, and if so how, remains a matter of debate—are shown with bulls, including executing spectacular vaults that springboard off ...
The restoration of the Snake Goddess was done by the Danish artist Halvor Bagge together with Evans. Their contribution to the figurine was the creation of a matching arm and stripy snake, the head of the goddess, and the placement of the hat and cat (separate faience pieces found in the Temple Repositories) on her head.
One of the most distinctive aspects of Minoan religion was the apparent emphasis on goddess worship. The majority of divine figures depicted in Minoan art are female, leading many scholars to suggest that the Minoans worshipped a Great Goddess, who may have been a mother goddess or a nature goddess.
In Minoan art, she frequently appears as the Snake Goddess, a figure clad in typical Minoan dress with arms raised, holding serpents. This image, resonating with themes of fertility and sexuality, reflects the snake’s symbolic link to the renewal of life.
They belong to a group of objects that includes pieces of six or seven similar figurines, believed to depict the chthonic Minoan snake goddess. They were used, together with other religious or ritual objects, in the Central Palace Sanctuary of Knossos, an organised complex of cult rooms in the West Wing of the palace.
5 lut 2024 · Since the discovery of the so-called Minoan ‘Snake Goddesses,’ it has been debated whether British archaeologist Arthur Evans’ ideas and overstatements about Minoan culture were right. Contemporary research focuses on whether there was polytheism in Minoan Crete and what the connection of the Minoan religion with later Greek myths was.
These natural formations, with their mysterious and awe-inspiring interiors, played host to various rituals, from offerings to initiation ceremonies, reflecting the Minoans’ reverence for the natural world.
