The Snake Goddess of Crete

Her likeness was painted on walls in Heraklion. She appeared on posters advertising the antiquities museum. Souvenir stalls sold playing cards and t-shirts featuring her iconic pose: breasts bared, a serpent in each hand, and a cat on her head. Her essential strangeness is an apt representation of Crete; an island that is at once Greece, and other. 

But the origins and function of the Snake Goddess in Minoan culture continues to be a topic of much debate. Was she the single, great "Mother Goddess" of Minoan spirituality? An adaptation of an Egyptian or Near Eastern deity? (Wadjet has been proposed as a possible parallel.) Or is her identity largely the creation of the man who (in)famously unearthed and reconstructed Crete's most important archeological site at Knossos, Sir Arthur Evans?

Whoever she was to the Minoans, the Snake Goddess is someone with whom you are certain to become acquainted, on your next trip to Crete. 

Sir Arthur Evans was a British archaeologist involved primarily in the study of the Bronze Age Aegean region. He is best known for his 1903 discovery of the palace complex at Knossos, about 6 km south of Crete's capital, Heraklion. 

From the 1860s, Ottoman control of Crete was in decline. Travel of foreigners in Ottoman-held territories were tightly regulated. A firman - a royal mandate - granted permission to travel in Ottoman realms, but also placed many restrictions on archeological work and prevented (in theory) the removal of antiquities. 

By 1899, a new Cretan government asserted authority over the island and Evans' work was no longer hemmed in by Ottoman regulations. In 1900, he began excavation work at Knossos with a team of 34 men. 

By 1903, much of the complex had been excavated. While Evan's work was celebrated for rediscovering the Minoan civilization, his restoration efforts remain controversial. The throne room pictured above, for instance, was beautifully repainted by Swiss artist Émille Gilléron and his son. Evans defended his choices as being grounded in archaeological evidence, but some of the frescoes painted at the palace complex were the inventions of the Gillérons. 

Evans' team unearthed these two figurines at the Knossos site in in 1903 and believed them to be votive objects representing a snake goddess and a priestess. The figurines were damaged. The head of one figure and the lower garments of the other were missing and eventually reconstructed by Danish artist Halvor Bagg. The accuracy of the reconstructed details is debated but they bear a close resemblance to the so-called Boston Goddess (which is now widely considered a fake). 

There are many theories about the symbolism of the snake goddess. Her bared breasts have been alternately interpreted as a sign of fertility and as an act of mourning. Herodotus reported the latter as a practice amongst Egyptian women.  The former may have a connection with her depiction with serpents, which represent new life in numerous ancient Mediterranean cultures. 

The upper portion of the goddess' garment seems to be tied with a sacral knot, with the upper loop visible between the bottom of the breasts. This symbol may be connected to the Minoan labrys (double-axe), an important religious signifier, or even the Egyptian ankh symbol, representing eternal life. 

The quirky placement of the feline on her head, unfortunately seems to have been a flight of fancy on the part of Halvor Bagg during restoration. 

Evans initially suggested a possible connection with the Egyptian snake god Wadjet. There was considerable interaction between the Minoans and the Egyptians. The Egyptians made reference to Minoan traders in written records and there is a striking similarity between yet to be fully deciphered Minoan script known as Linear A and Egyptian hieratic.