MYTHS OF CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

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Doves symbolized fertility and immortality, while ravens were associated with destruction and death. In the Scottish legends regarding Michael Scott, ravens and doves, flying from opposite directions, approach his corpse after death. The fact that the doves are the first to alight is taken as an indication that Michael's soul will go to heaven. The ravens are the messengers of Satan. Throughout Europe and Asia the ravens are birds of ill omen, who foretell death and disaster. They were associated in Greece and Italy with Apollo, the great patron of augurs. Crows were similarly of ill repute. According to some writers, a number of them fluttered over Cicero's head on the day he was murdered.

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Dark and melancholy birds were evidently regarded as forms of the spirits of darksome Hades. They were, it would seem, associated from an early period with a sepulchral cult. So were doves. Perhaps the raven cult believed in a gloomy after-life in a Hades as dismal as that of Babylonia, while the dove cult had hopes of ultimate happiness. In Egypt both the cults of Osiris and Ra believed in Heavens and Hells. The Ra cult associated their Paradise with the sun: it was a place of everlasting light; while their Hell was a place of darkness, lit for but a single hour in the twenty-four by the sun's rays. In it lost souls were tortured in pools of fire, or they remained in the place of outer darkness, where they suffered from extreme cold.

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In this religious scene on the Cretan sarcophagus, the raven spirits of Hades, perched above the double axes, appear to be receiving a propitiatory offering of blood or wine. It may be inferred, therefore, that they could be prevailed upon to show favour to the dead. The kings and heroes of the Greek epics were transported to the "Island of the Blest", while others had to sojourn

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in gloomy Hades. Perhaps the Cretan who was interred in the sarcophagus was regarded as being worthy of a happy fate in the after-life. He was, no doubt, a youth of high birth. In Egypt the paradise of Ra was reserved in early times for kings and queens and their families.

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Footnotes

282:1 Palaces of Crete and their Builders, pp. 57, 59.

283:1 Dawn of Modern Civilization, pp. 69, 70.

283:2 Palaces of Crete and their Builders, p. 29.

284:1 Joshua, viii, 30, 31.

284:2 Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization, p. 89.

288:1 The Burden of Isis, by J. T. Dennis, pp. 21 et seq. and 29 et seq.

289:1 The Ancient History of the Near East, p. 54

289:2 Crete, the Forerunner of Greece, p. 129.

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CHAPTER XIII
Cave Deities and their Symbols

Demeter and the Nameless Fates--Forms of Mother-goddess--The "Eagle Lady" with Snake Girdle--Prototype of Hittite and Assyrian "Winged Disk"--How Composite Monsters became Symbols--The Caves of Zeus--Lasithi Plateau--The Dictæan Votive Offerings--The Chariot of a Deity--Cave of Kamares--The Plain of Nida--Sacred Cave of Mount Ida--Mountain Religion --Well Worship--The "Seven Sleepers" Belief--Cretan Tammuz a Cave God --Pillar Symbols in Crete, Egypt, and Babylonia--Pillars as Mountains and "World Spines"--The Osirian Spine Amulet--Tree and Pillar Worship--"Horns of Consecration" as Sky Pillars--Double-axe Symbol--Spirits in Weapons--The God of the Axe.

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"THE Cretans say", Diodorus Siculus wrote, "that the honours rendered to the gods, the sacrifices and mysteries, are of Cretan origin, and other nations took them from them. Demeter passed from the Isle of Crete into Attica, then into Sicily, and thence into Egypt, carrying with her the cultivation of corn." 1

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On the other hand Herodotus, writing of the Pelasgi, says: "In early times the Pelasgi, as I know by information I got at Dodona, offered sacrifices of all kinds and prayed to the gods, but had no distinct names or appellations for them, since they had never heard of any. They called them gods (θεοὶ {Greek  ðeoì}, disposers) because they had arranged all things in such a beautiful order. After a long lapse of time, the names of the gods came to Greece from Egypt, and the Pelasgi learnt them, only as yet they knew nothing of Bacchus, of whom they first heard at a much later date. " 2

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There is, no doubt, a kernel of real historical truth in these traditions. The Demeter to whom Diodorus refers is not, of course, the beautiful goddess whom the Grecian sculptors conceived of, but rather the Phigalian cave monster, the black horse-headed fury with snakes hissing from amidst her tangled locks. In early times she had many forms--terrible and mystical forms. Some idea of these is obtained from the study of the seal impressions discovered by Mr. Hogarth at Zakro. In one phase she is the eagle lady"--a woman with prominent breasts, widespread wings, and an eagle's head, wearing the snake waist girdle and the bell-shaped gown, or simply an eagle with a fan tall., and nothing human but her breasts. Several seal specimens show that this primitive form

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developed into a symbol which may have been a prototype of the Hittite winged disk and the Assyrian disk of Ashur. One is a column with fan tall and surmounted by winged human breasts, above which is a round beehive-shaped cap; others are variants, and then comes a fully developed symbolic object, with breasts represented by double spiral coils resting on a double bee-hive-shaped body with double outspread wings.

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In another phase the goddess has a goat's head, wings, a short columnar body, and spreading skirt. A god is similarly depicted with pants and waist girdle. A ram's head appears on another seal impression of like character, and in a variant the head of a "sea horse". Winged sphinxes recall Egyptian forms. Of special interest is a bull-head deity with female breasts, wings, crouched-up legs and fan tail, which may have been bisexual. This form tends also to grow into a decorative symbol. The Minotaur was a bull-headed god.

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Composite monsters include deities with human bodies and lions' heads resembling those of Egypt, two dogs'

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heads divided by a wing and united by a fan tail, a female sphinx with human breasts, butterfly wings and lion's legs, a human head with wings and lion's legs, and so on. The form of the Hittite and later Russian double-headed eagle is suggested by a

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conventionalized lion's head with birds' heads protruding from the ears, curving inward in opposition. In almost all cases the animal and composite animal forms tend to become decorative symbols.

The "Black Demeter" of Phigalia was, as has been indicated, associated with cave worship. In Crete there were many sacred caves. Of these the two most famous were those reputed in classical traditions to be the birthplace of Zeus. One is on Mount Ida and the other on Mount Dicte.

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It is possible that these rival caves were sacred to rival cults. Beneath Mount Dicte was situated the city of Lyttos, which was, according to legend, hostile to Knossos and an ally of Gortyna. In references of this character there may be memories of ancient inter-state rivalries in Minoan Crete which survived into the Hellenic Period.

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Hesiod, 1 dealing with the Zeus birth-legend, relates that the goddess Rhea carried her babe to Lyttos. Other writers were familiar with the legend that Zeus was nursed in the Dictæan cave. Diodorus 2 apparently endeavoured to reconcile the conflicting claims on behalf of the Dictæan and Idæan sanctuaries by stating that the god was first concealed in the one and then transferred to the other to be educated.