known.

jj 95. Part II. A Stone Statuette of the Goddess as ' Snake Mother'.

New stone statuette of Snake Goddess ; Existence of larger stone figures ;
Exceptional freedom of treatment; Motherly relation of Goddess to Snakes ;
Special form of tiara ; Associated Clay figurine with re-curved top-knot—
probably snake-holding; Votive bronzes—??iale adorant and Doicble Axes;
Date of Statuette of Goddess and associated group M. M. II/h-L. M. /a;
Contemporary with faience figures of' Temple Repositories'—correspondence
in details.

The milder and more motherly aspect that the Snake Goddess could New stone

statuette

assume even in the most advanced phase of the Cult, and in its highest of God-
artistic presentation has been singularly illustrated by the discovery of a iaers„se'st
further stone statuette of the Minoan divinity in this character, exceeding
in size the other known figures. In this she appears grasping the neck and
body of a serpent that is here coiled about her as if it were rather her
pet than the attribute of awesome powers. (Figs. 149-151 and Suppl.
PI. XLVIIa, b.)

The statuette itself belongs to the same remarkable find of Minoan
Cult figures and other relics which, thanks to the kindness of its possessors,
it has been possible to publish for the first time in these pages. That
already illustrated (Suppl. PI. XLIV A, B, and Fig. 21, p. 36 above) has been
shown to be substantially a replica, on a somewhat larger scale, of the
figurine of the Goddess, executed in a kind of beautifully granulated marble,
now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. Whether or not that
object was found, as rumoured, in the Harbour Town of Knossos, the
features of the two, both as regards style and facial profile as well as in
elements of the dress such as the tiara and such minutiae as the pattern of
the apron, correspond to such an extent that there can be little reasonable
doubt as to both figures having belonged to the same sanctuary deposit.

Of that deposit, together with the statuette of the Snake Goddess here
figured, it has been possible below to supply further details.

The new'companion image—a small statue—is itself cut out of the same
pale brown limestone with fine crystalline veins as that which so closely
repeats the features of the Cambridge Goddess. Here also in the general
style and facial features, as well as the details and pattern of the dress, this
close resemblance is again very perceptible, and this, like the other two, must

iv. o