For a detailed picture, click on the title of the artwork.
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Minoan Snake Goddess,
1600 BC, hand painted compound stone, 12.25". Herakleion Museum, Crete. D-082SP, $57
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| The people of Crete seem to have worshiped a mother goddess sacred to many places and manifest in many forms. This Snake Goddess--who shakes two snakes as an animal sits on her head--may have been used as part of this ritual. Illustrated in other archeological evidence, the open bodice and flounced skirt was a favored style worn by Minoan women. |
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| This Egyptian fertility goddess raises her arms upward gesturing to the sky as perhaps part of a ritual. Originating in a different country than the other European fertility goddesses, this Egyptian statue displays a dramatically different female body with an accentuated waist. |
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Dreamer of Malta
3000 BC, compound stone, 9.5"W x 5.5"H. National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta, Malta. D-087S, $53
The most spectacular monument in Malta is the enormous, labyrinthine underground sanctuary known as the Hypogeum which may have been the ceremonial center of the island encompassing more than 6,000 square meters in three levels. This catacomb-like structure seems to have been at once a temple, tomb and healing center. The main hall leads into the oracle room where two identical small sculptures of a woman were found lying on the floor where they were probably left when the shrine was abandoned. The dreamer is lying on her side on a low couch. She is ample-hipped and topless. She clearly appears to be asleep, almost visibly dreaming. The figures were probably part of a ceremony of dream incubation.
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Ishtar/Inanna/Ashtart
2000 BC, Babylonian, compound stone, 11.5"H on marble base. Louvre Museum, Paris. D-086SM, $63
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| The clay figurines of the Mesopotamian Ishtar/Inanna/Ashtart in her characteristic breast-offering pose has come to be known among archaeologists as "The Ishtar Pose". This pose suggests her function as the Goddess of all nourishment and fertility, and as "Mother of the Fruitful Breast", Queen of Heaven, Light of the World, Creator of People, Mother of Deities, River of Life, etc. |
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