The Myth of the Great Goddess and Matriarchy
If Minoan religion is popular today, this is partly due to the great mother goddess (see figure 1). This is the legacy of the excavator of Knossos, Sir Arthur Evans (1851–1941), who may be said to have invented Minoan culture at the beginning of the twentieth century. For his interpretations he relied on images represented on wall paintings, rings, and seal stones. Most of all he was impressed by several faience statuettes of bare-breasted females handling snakes that he excavated in the palace of Knossos.
In his view, the snake goddess represented one aspect of a "Great Mother Nature Goddess." She was a patroness of kings and sailors alike; she embodied fertility and motherhood; and she ruled over sky, earth, and the underworld. There was one male divinity, but he was a subordinate boy god: the son or consort of the great mother goddess. Evans underplayed the fact that the so-called boy god was an armed mature young man. He was undoubtedly influenced by theories
of matriarchy that were fashionable at the turn of the century. His theories found fertile ground: one of the reasons that the concept of the mother goddess is alive today is that it appeals to contemporary feminist movements.
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