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brightgnosis · 2 years

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A second question may now be asked: If the goddess of Crete is a mother-goddess [as envisioned by Archeologist Arthur Evans, then] whose mother is she? […]

Observe that the title ‘Mother of God(s)’ is a cult epithet to be found throughout the theocratic Ancient Near East and even Greece. This title implies neither fertility nor seasonal allegory; rather, it confers honor to mother and offspring alike and places them at the top of the hierarchy of the pantheon.

Nicolas Wyatt has suggested in a series of articles that the actual counterpart of the Mother Goddess in Ugaritic myth is the dowager queen. She controls the lineage of the king and (for this reason) was held in very high honour; he detects this pattern of lineage in the Hebrew Bible as well […] In Ugaritic literature we read that the heir to the throne 'shall drink the milk of Athirat' […] queen of the pantheon [and] consort of El and the protectress of the king […] Thus, she is ‘mother of gods’ and ‘mother of kings’ alike.

Turning to Egypt, Isis is the mother of Horus [… and ….] also embodies the throne of the pharaoh and wears it as a headdress on her head. Thus, when the king sits on his throne, he sits on the lap of this goddess, metaphorically speaking [P] Mesopotamian Ishtar may be cast in a similar theocratic social mold. She is often cited as a fertility goddess, but her social position in the pantheon as a daughter of Anu and a patroness of kings is equally important, although this is seldom stressed. It is exactly in this capacity (and not fertility) that she protects Zimrilim, king of Mari and hands him the insignia of his reign in the throne room of the latter’s palace. She remains the patroness of Assyrian kings through the first millennium.

Moving on to Greece of the Archaic Greek period (seventh to sixth centuries), we meet the goddess Kybebe. Both the name and cult of this goddess originated in Phrygia and Lydia. In Greece she is equated with the Mother of Gods, Rhea and Magna Mater […] Mark Munn points out that Kybebe is closely associated with Lydian sovereignty '…by the heyday of the Lydian empire the mother of the archetypal rule had become the archetype of the divine Mother'.

With this evidence as a background we finally return to Minoan Crete where we shall detect the Mother Goddess in precisely such role as here outlined.

By Nanno Marinatos in 'The Minoan Mother Goddess and Her Son: Reflections On A Theocracy and Its Deities', from Images As Sources: Studies On Ancient Near Eastern Artefacts and the Bible Inspired By the Work of Othmar Keel, published 2007 (My Ko-Fi Here)

#The Minoan Mother Goddess and Her Son: Reflections On A Theocracy and Its Deities #Images As Sources: Studies On Ancient Near Eastern Artefacts and the Bible Inspired By the Work of Othmar Keel #Nanno Marinatos #Quote

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