When thinking about what we went over this quarter, I remembered one figure that really stood out to me which was the "Woman or Goddess with Snakes." Her face, her clothing, along with the items such as the cat and the snakes all made her very interesting to me. She is interesting to look at and she is interesting to wonder about. Because of my fascination with her, I decided to look up more about her and how she has come to exist.
According to witcombe.sbc.edu, the Minoan Snake Goddess was discovered in 1903 by Arthur Evans on the Aegean island of Crete. When she was found, she was apparently missing her head, most of her hat, her right arm, the lower part of her left snake, and parts of her skirt. Some of these pieces were later recovered within the same area that she was found but those that were not, were reconstructed, by Evans, based on other Snake Goddesses that he has seen. On this website, there are photos of her when she was first found without her head, arm, etc.
She greatly reflects the Minoan culture through her colors as well as her clothing. According to our book, the red, blue, and green colors were common in clothing from Minoan weavers. Also, the geometric layers were often seen in the Minoan culture. And as stated in the article by Witcombe, she shows elegance high intelligence, beauty, fashion, and a forthright personality like many other Minoan creations.
She becomes more interesting when it comes to interpreting her meaning. Just like the Venus of Willendorf, the Snake Goddess contains many theories as to what her meaning is. In WItcombe's article, the girdle that the Snake Goddess has around her waist is discussed as possibly being related to the Goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite, in one story, lends her girdle to Hera so that she can seduce and distract Zeus from the Trojan war. This event just happened to take place on Mount Ida on Crete island. Could the Snake Goddess possibly be an interpretation of Aphrodite herself? Or perhaps the girdle just resembles strength and power.
Another theory is that the Snake Goddess might be an interpretation of a spirit of the Nether World or in other words, evil. It has been thought that maybe the snakes found in many Minoan pieces stands for a cult. This can be understood as the Goddess herself has a very powerful yet controlling and manipulating look on her face. Also, when I think of snakes, I think of them as usually being evil creatures. A snake is used in the Christian religion to resemble satin, Medusa with her head full of snakes is an evil character in Greek mythology and there seem to be many movies where snakes are depicted as evil and harmful. When I first saw the Snake Goddess, I thought of her as being evil.
A more common interpretation of the Snake Goddess is that she resembles fertility. This is common for may women figures just like the Venus of Willendorf. In Witcombe's article it discusses how the Snake Goddess might not have any meaning regarding women and their power. The creation of the Snake Goddess could just be a resemblance of deity and ensuring the growth of crops, animas, and human beings. The fact that she is revealing her breasts is more evidence towards this theory. The breasts, the hips, and the torso area seem to be the main areas of a woman's body that resemble fertility and in this case, we see the Snake Goddesses breasts and her hips have a wide structure to them. So perhaps she was a symbol of fertility for the land of Crete.
T
he existence of the Snake Goddess also suggests that the Minoans lived in a matrilineal or even a matriarchal society. According to WItcombe, many pieces such as the Snake Goddess are evidence of this. The women created within these pieces show much dominance and seem fearless. Witcombe also explains how usually the absence of women in art means that they were not as important as men. Many Minoan pieces revolve around women, therefor supporting the idea of either a a matrilineal or matriarchal society.
Overall, the Snake Goddess is a beautiful figure and is very eye-catching. After doing more research, I find her to be just as interesting as her appearance. I like that she has mystery behind her and could be interpreted in many ways. I also enjoyed reading more about the condition she was found in and how she was put back together, yet I still wonder what her face originally looked like.
Source: http://witcombe.sbc.edu/snakegoddess/fertility.html
