a-ta-na-po-ti-ni-ja : At(h)anapotnia, in a Tablet from Knossos (but there are many other -potniai-, related to different villages or buildings, like the dapuritojo potinija th.is "Goddess of the Labyrinth", still in Knossos, or to animals too)
Statue of Athena in Delphi
In later centuries, both, Greeks and Romans, accepted gladly cults of Gods and Goddesses from exotic religions in their territory. A very different attitude may have been that of seafaring ancient Hellenes in the Mediterranean Sea: from Homer to the great Tragicals, we can read how those men found, all over the known World, temples and altars dedicated, so they belived, to Jupiter, Aphrodites and many other Gods. They tried, in conclusion, to make other religions similar to the Greek religion; and when they did not succeed, they considered those populations as barbarians.
= earth] presence), the altars, the sacred graves, the Symbols (the double-axes, the consacration horns), maybe we know also something about the rituals (processions and sacrifices), but of the philosophical content, of the -cosmogony- of this cult (surely bound to that of the Mother Earth) nothing until now has been told. In later times only, about the end of the Myceneaean Era, it will be possible, among the classical Deities (Jupiter. Poseidon, Hephestos, Dionysos, maybe Arthemis and other Gods) to recognize some older deities.
It is very difficult
, impossible perhaps, to find in the features of these little clay statues, the classic ones of the Parthenon or of imperial Rome, and more: rarely
it is possible to say about these representations, which one are goddesses
and which priestresses (we know from the Documents the mycenaean culture
left , that they existed )
In the picture on the left a Priestress (or more probably, a Princesse, because of her hat) from Mykenae. But, according to the opinion of J.Chadwick, in his book -The World of the Mycenaeans-, that could be just the representation of a -potnia- as a Goddess -protectress of the contiguous smithy. And last, according to L.Godart, it could be a representation of Demetra, the Mother Earth, holding in her hands spikes of wheat.
Goddess, from Tell Halaf (Syria.
A Goddess with Poppies (Crete)
..last end , maybe , the only side of the Greek religion we can today study and admire is only the *apollinean one : the original form , much more true and near the ancient mediterranean cults , still remains hidden in the mysteries of the *dionisian and orgiastic rituals , which better could agree with the dramaticity and the "color" of some images .
* : according to the definition of the german philosopher Nietzsche , the greek art could be divided into two categories : the apollinean Art , like sculpture : the art of the equilibrium of the shapes , of the calm and waiting . And then the dionisian Art : music first , but also that one of the vascular painting : that one of the excessivenesses , of the drunkenness of the Eros and the Menads . And also , (given the frequency of such kind of images ) may be Poppy was not only a "flower" .
Why did the Lions..?The
Writing of the MycenaeansAristocracy,
pirates and..back
to main pageLa foto dell' area di culto cosi' come alcuni concetti generali sono stati ripresi dal libro I Micenei (The Mycenaeans) / Taylour L. William
Per l' aspetto "filologico" del problema mi sono basato principalmente sul libro Die fruehgriechischen Texte aus mykenischer Zeit di S. Hiller e O. Panagl
nota
Following the transcription of the text in classic greek, but the true pronunciation is not sure:
