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Classical Inquiries Studies on the Ancient World from the Center for Hellenic Studies Home About People References The CI Poetry Project Home » By Gregory Nagy » More about Minoan-Mycenaean signatures observed by Pausanias at sacred spaces dominated by Athena Share This More about Minoan-Mycenaean signatures observed by Pausanias at sacred spaces dominated by Athena May 22, 2020 Posted By Gregory Nagy listed under By Gregory Nagy Comments off 2020.05.22, rewritten 2020.05.23 | By Gregory Nagy §0. In the previous posting, Classical Inquiries 2020.05.15, I highlighted details that I described as signatures of a Minoan-Mycenaean phase in the evolution of the figure known in classical and post-classical times as Athena. In that posting, I concentrated on the ancient acropolis of a city by the name of Phrixa(i) in the region of Triphylia in the Peloponnesus. When Pausanias, who lived in the second century BCE, visited that city, which was mostly in ruins by his time, he found that the local population was still holding on to an ancient practice of worshipping the goddess Athena as the personification of their acropolis, and I argued that this personification could be traced back to a distant Minoan-Mycenaean past. For the illustration in that posting, I showed what I think is a relevant picture dating from that same distant past. Classical Inquiries (CI) is an online, We saw in that picture what I would describe as a Minoan equivalent of an acropolis. That is, we saw an rapid-publication project of Harvard’s elevation fortified and crowned by a palatial building. We also saw a male figure standing on top of the Center for Hellenic Studies, devoted to elevation, whom I would describe as a Minoan equivalent of a hero known in classical and post-classical sharing some of the latest thinking on times as Hēraklēs. But what about Athena, patroness of Hēraklēs? As I will argue, the Minoan equivalent of the ancient world with researchers and Athena is really present in that picture: she is there, though she is not yet visible. She does become visible, the general public. however, in the picture I show as the main illustration for the posting here. Editor Keith DeStone kdestone at chs.harvard.edu Editor: Poetry Project Natasha Bershadsky nbershadsky at chs.harvard.edu Assistant Editor Angelia Hanhardt Web Producer Noel Spencer Consultant for Images Jill Curry Robbins Sketch, by Jill Robbins, based on a drawing of impressions (= imprints) made on a Search number of clay sealings found at Knossos (Central Shrine and chamber to west, CMS II.8 no. 256, HM 141/1-2, 166/1-3, 168/3). All these impressions were stamped by the same signet ring, which has not survived. Dating: Late Minoan (estimated around 1425–1340 BCE). Subscribe Now! §1. This picture, as I say more fully in the caption, is based on composite drawings of impressions made on a number of clay sealings found at Knossos and stamped by the same signet ring, which has not survived. The original picture that had once been carved into that signet ring shows a female figure hovering over an Subscribe to this site to receive email elevation, which is a stylized hill or mountain, and she is flanked by two lions, one at each side. updates about the latest research—just Archaeologists sometimes refer to this female figure as “The Mother of the Mountain.” one or two notices per week. §2. In what follows, I propose to compare this picture with the other picture I already showed in the EU/EEA Privacy Disclosures previous posting. That other picture too, as we already saw, is based on a drawing of another impression, made on another clay sealing and stamped by another signet ring that has not survived. It is “The Master Impression,” and I show again here not only a sketch but also, as in the previous posting, a photograph of the impression: Now Online Sketch, by Jill Robbins, based on a drawing of an impression (= imprint) made on a clay sealing found on the acropolis of Kastelli Hill in Chanià, Crete (Archaeological Museum of Chania, museum number KH 1563). The impression, known to archaeologists as “The Master Impression,” was stamped by a signet ring that has not survived. Dating: Late Minoan (estimated around 1450–1400 BCE). Top Posts & Pages Seven Greek tragedies, seven simple overviews The Last Words of Socrates at the Place where he Died More about Minoan-Mycenaean signatures observed by Pausanias at sacred spaces dominated by Athena From Our Friends . Troy: Myth and Reality, The British Museum | Part 1: The judgment of Paris, signs, and the role of Helen Most Common Tags Photograph of “The Master Impression.” Image via Wikimedia Commons. Achilles annotation Aphrodite §3. Before we proceed to compare the similarities we see in the picture of “The Master Impression,” which Ariadne Aristotle Artemis Athena features a male figure dominating the landscape, and in the picture of the other impression, “The Mother of the Mountain,” which features a comparably dominant female figure, I need to highlight a salient Athens Catullus dissimilarity between the two pictures. Unlike the male figure in “The Master Impression,” the female figure in the other impression is positioned in a most special way: as I have already noted, she is flanked by two Commentary lions. Comments on §4. I find the positioning of this female figure, flanked by two lions, analogous to the column flanked by two Comparative Mythology lions on top of the Lion Gate at Mycenae: Delphi Diodorus of Sicily Dionysus etymology Eurystheus Georges Dumézil H24H HAA travel-study Helen Hera Herakles Herodotus Hippolytus Homer Homeric epic Iliad Indo-European Library of Apollodorus mimesis Minoan- Mycenaean civilization Mycenae Mycenaean Empire Odysseus Odyssey Olympia Pausanias Phaedra Pindar Plato Poetics Sappho Theseus weaving Zeus Archives The Lion Gate at Mycenae. Image via Wikimedia Commons. Users Log in Close-up of the column flanked by two lions above the gate to the citadel of Mycenae. Image via Wikimedia Commons. §5. I focus on the symbolism of this column positioned at the center-point of the Lion Gate. It is a matter of common knowledge, I trust, that this single column guarded by two lions stands for the entire building complex of the acropolis of Mycenae. Such symbolism is a perfect example of the kind of metonymy where a most prominent aspect of a set of details stands for the sum total of those details. §6. That said, I now go on to propose that the positioning of the column flanked by two lions in the Mycenaean visualization of Mycenae as an acropolis is comparable to the positioning of the female figure flanked by two lions in the Minoan visualization of the elevation that we see pictured in the clay impression under study. §7. Here I carry the reasoning one step further. Just as the figuring of a single column flanked by two lions was a way of symbolizing, in Mycenaean architecture, the overall idea of the acropolis at Mycenae, so also the figuring of “The Mother of the Mountain” flanked by two lions was a way of symbolizing, in Minoan glyptic art, the overall idea of a comparable acropolis.