Late last year, it was my great privilege to be able to visit Crete and see first hand the famous Minoan snake goddesses in the Heraklion Museum. The most often reproduced one of the pair stands about 14 inches high and waves small snakes overhead in her raised hands. She was heavily restored upon her initial discovery by the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans in the beginning of the twentieth century. A head and an arm were added, as well as a crown and a cat on her head. Whether this restoration represents her original state is merely a speculative remake is uncertain. I found her sister snake goddess more appealing. She seemed sturdier and more refined. This second, taller goddess is often described as having snakes crawling up her outstretched arms.
Making a drawing of the snake goddess while standing in front of her on location was a beautiful experience, as was being able to see her from different angles. As I roughed out the patterns in her clothing, the exposed breasts and the elaborate hair wound with serpents, I noticed something I had not seen before in her hands. She held a snake head in one hand and a snake tail in the other. Clearly this indicated to me that she was not having snakes slithering up her arms but was in fact holding one long snake coiled around her body. I could find no comments upon this in the literature thus far and wonder if anyone else has noticed this small but pertinent detail.
Does one snake firmly held by tail and head make a difference from the perhaps misguided observation that she has snakes crawling up her arms? The former would seem to suggest a kinship with one proposed theory that this Minoan snake goddess may not be a goddess at all but an image of a performer entertaining spectators by charming snakes. A firm grasp of the head and tail would be necessary for such a sport. It is an aggressive stance and not the usually described passive one.
Whatever she is, goddess or entertainer, the Minoan snake goddess, despite her small size, looms large across the millennia. A detailed drawing of her is now part of my portfolio. Of course, I embellished a bit. But if Sir Arthur Evans can make add on then so can I.
Snakes up both arms:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/aegean-art1/minoan/a/snake-goddess
https://greekreporter.com/2022/08/26/minoan-civilization-crete-snake-goddess/
http://arthistoryresources.net/snakegoddess/minoanculture.html
