Were women dominant in Minoan society?

 Art historian Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe points out there is plenty of archaeological evidence to indicate that women occupied an important if not dominant position within the practice of Minoan religion and possibly the entire society as well. In scenes of ritual worship, women appear to dominate the proceedings and far outnumber male priests and attendants.

"Moreover men are rarely seen in commanding positions, despite attempts to identify them in such positions," Witcombe says. "Even the lifesize male figure in the reconstructed frescoed stucco relief at Knossos which Evans identified as the "Priest-King" is now believed to be made up of fragments of several different figures. The only thing that seems relatively certain is that one or more of the figures was male."

He also observes that typical evidence of a male-dominated society in the second millennium including walled citadels, fortifications, temples to gods, large public sculpture and boastful inscriptions are essentially absent.

When Sir Arthur Evans found fragments of faïence figurines, one which he dubbed the "snake goddess," in 1903, he asserted it was clear from the evidence that the Minoan religion was based on a dominant goddess of fertility just as described by James Frazer in his text "The Golden Bough" that had been published in 1890.

"Part of the attraction of the figurines is that they can be interpreted as embodying many of the perceived, and admired, characteristics of the Minoans: their elegant, fashionable costumes, their physical gracefulness, their sensitive yet forthright personalities, their sophisticated tastes and love of luxury, their refined manners and worldly ways, their seemingly high intelligence combined with an endearing forthright innocence, and their apparent love of beauty, nature, and peace," says Witcombe.

What I was surprised to learn is that the figurine widely known as the "Snake Goddess" was categorized by Evans as just a votary. The figurine he called the "Snake Goddess" wore a tall hat and stood with her arms extended out and down with palms up. She grasps the head of a snake in her right hand and it winds up the upturned flat underside of her forearm  over her right shoulder, down one side of her back, over her buttocks, up the other side, over her left shoulder, and down her right arm.  A second snake is looped over her right ear and winds down over her right shoulder following the curve of her exposed breast continues down below her waist, then loops back up the left side of her torso, up in front of her left ear, and up her tall hat to the apex. A third snake entwines her waist. Only her torso, right arm, head, and her hat (except for a portion at the top) were found.

The figurine now known as the "Snake Goddess"  was missing its head, most of its hat, the right arm, the lower part of the snake held in the right hand, and large segments of the flounced skirt. It is assumed Evans used images of women in Minoan frescoes to fashion a new head.

Read much more about Minoan Women and the Snake Goddess here: http://arthistoryresources.net/snakegoddess/discovery.html

Reproductions of restored faience figurines that Sir Arthur Evans found in the Temple Repositories of Knossos, Crete. The figurine on the left was originally dubbed the "Snake Goddess" by Evans while the figurine on the right is the one most recognized today as the Minoan "Snake Goddess". I photographed these figurines at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Figurine of Female Worshiper, Minoan, 1600-1500 BCE, in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, image courtesy of the museum. This extremely rare Minoan bronze statuette represents a girl worshiping a deity. It was probably left as a dedication to a divinity. She wears a flounced skirt over a sleeved robe open at the front. The figure shows a remarkable degree of detail, including looped earrings, bracelets, and a necklace. Her shaved hairstyle, not found on any other Minoan bronze statuette, matches that of painted figures in roughly contemporary frescoes uncovered on the island of Thera, north of Crete. Its excellent condition, rarity, fine detail, and balanced proportions set it apart from other statuettes of its type to have survived.

Minoan girl from the fresco "The Saffron Gatherers" in Akrotiri, 1600-1500 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Yann Forget

Closeup of Minoan girl from the fresco "The Saffron Gatherers" in Akrotiri, 1600-1500 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Closeup of Minoan lady from Room 1 of the House of the Ladies in Akrotiri courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor ArchaiOptix 

Minoan lady from Room 1 of the House of the Ladies in Akrotiri courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor ArchaiOptix 

Fresco from room 1 (“vestibule”) in the “House of the Ladies” of the excavation site near Akrotiri (Santorin) in the Prehistoric Museum of Thira, Santorin (Thira), Cyclades, Greece, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Olaf Tausch

Closeup of Fresco from room 1 (“vestibule”) in the “House of the Ladies” of the excavation site near Akrotiri (Santorin) in the Prehistoric Museum of Thira, Santorin (Thira), Cyclades, Greece, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Olaf Tausch

Fresco of a priestess from the passage from room 4 to room 5 on the upper floor of the west house of the excavation site in Akrotiri on Santorini, Cyclades, Greece, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Fresco of the so-called Parisian woman from the Palace of Knossos (1450–1350 / 1300 BCE), exhibited in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete, Greece courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Olaf Tausch

 

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Greece responds to critics of culture polcy

I have read dozens of books about ancient Greece by such authors as Mary Renault, Steven Pressfield, and Michael Curtis Ford as well as listened to every course on ancient Greece and Greek culture I can get my hands on from The Teaching Company. I've also been fascinated by the Minoan culture and admired their beautiful art for years, too.

So I have been yearning to visit Greece for quite some time. But I had been cautioned by friends who had visited Greece that the ancient sites there were in pretty bad condition. However, I had once more considered traveling to Greece after viewing images of the beautiful new museum near the Acropolis in a recent television program. But, I was surprised to read in this article that Greece has continued to be less than hospitable to tourists, once the Olympic Games "gold rush" ended.

Apparently, though, frustrated tourists and tour operators have been badgering the Greek government trying to get them to wake up to the opportunities offered by a healthy tourism industry and they have finally responded by hiring more staff and extending some site hours for at least part of the year.

The additional staffing and extended opening hours are welcome but I agree with the individual that pointed out most tourists would rather visit these sites in the off-season not during the blistering summer months - me included. But, it's a start.

The article also mentioned that the Museum of Heraklion is closed until 2010 for rennovations. I would want to be sure it was reopened before I planned a visit as I gather Crete tours can be arranged with Athens tour operators. So, maybe a 2011 visit may be more prudent for me.

"Extra staff have been dispatched to guard the great cultural gems of Greece as the government in Athens tries to deflect growing criticism of its handling of national treasures.

Amid unprecedented protests from tour guides, travel companies and tourists irritated by conditions at prime archaeological sites, the ruling conservatives last week rushed hundreds of additional personnel to staff museums and open-air antiquities.

"The situation at museums and sites around the country is bad," the culture minister, Michalis Liapis, conceded in parliament last week. "It has to be corrected."

The move follows embarrassing revelations over the upkeep of Greece's ancient wonders and mounting public disquiet, voiced mostly by foreigners in the local press, over visitor access to them.

Yesterday, the authoritative newspaper Sunday Vima disclosed that the Cycladic isle of Delos - the site of Apollo's mythological sanctuary and one of Greece's most important ancient venues - resembled an "archaeological rubbish dump". Recently, it emerged that many sites, including Delphi, Mycenae and the spectacular Bronze Age settlement of Akrotiri on the popular island of Santorini, were only partially open or permanently closed."

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