i6o

THE PALACE OE MINOS, ETC.

Mother

Goddess

and

Young

Warrior

God.

trees with triply divided leaves like those of fig-trees. Descending in front
of the obelisk is what appears to be a young male God holding out the shaft
of a weapon, and with his tresses flying out on either side1 in the manner in
which motion through the air is usually indicated in Minoan art. In front
of him is a taller figure, who may be identified with the Minoan Mother
Goddess, with hands raised in an attitude, for which so many early Babylonian
analogies exist, of prayer or incantation, and expressive of the means by
which she is bringing down the warrior youth, whether her paramour or her
actual son, in front of his sacred pillar. She stands on a stone terrace and
behind her are rocks and vegetation indicative of a mountainous locality.
Through the portal of the sanctuary itself is seen a lower pillar of dual

A Minoan
Beth-el.

Fig. 115. Gold Signet Ring from Knossos, showing Scene of
Baetylic Worship (Late Minoan). (£)

formation set up within the enclosure, which, in view of Cypriote analogies,
may be recognized as the female baetylic pillar, or at least one in which the
female element preponderated.

We have here a unique illustration of the primitive baetylic cult of Crete,
in which the aniconic image serves as the actual habitation of the divinity
and into which, or upon or beside which, he may at any time be brought
down by appropriate ritual. The obelisk in fact is literally 1 God's house
as in the case of the Beth-el set up by Jacob. In a small terra-cotta shrine
found in the Palace belonging to the M. M. II Period we see this spiritual
possession indicated by the doves perched on the capitals of the columns,
or in other cases they descend on the human figure itself.

1 in my original account, Myc. Tree and Pillar Ionian Shamash, I had erroneously interpreted
Cull, p. 74, owing to the analogy of the Baby- these as rays shooting out from the shoulders.