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Aggressive Aspect of Minoan Goddess and her Place and Significance in Aegean Pantheon

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2013

Abstract

The Minoan civilization was for a long time considered a society that did not employ violence, aggression or warfare. Although this view has been already abandoned by majority of scholars, its legacy still remains in more narrowly focused Minoan studies.

One of these "contaminated" fields of study is Minoan religion, in which even some well-recognized scholars hesitate to admit an existence of aggressive female deity. This paper aims to correct this view.

Based on an iconographical analysis of Minoan archaeological material, iconographical and mythological parallels that are provided from ancient Near Eastern civilizations and classical Greece and other evidence, we can assume, that we can encounter a goddess with aggressive, even warlike aspect in Minoan pantheon as well.