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Violent Potnia: Aggressive Aspect of Minoan Goddess

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2014

Abstract

The Minoan civilization was looked upon for a long time as the culture of peaceful folks that were not quite interested in fighting neither in foreign countries, nor among themselves. This view has been already abandoned, however the legacy of this point of view still remains in certain more narrowly focused fields of study - like when studying Minoan pantheon.

Even though presence of Mother Goddess within the pantheon stays undisputed, it would be wrong to assume that there were no other female deities. Based on some iconographical evidence, parallels with other Bronze Age civilizations and later Greek mythology, we can assume, that at least one goddess with aggressive, violent aspect was present in Minoan pantheon and that her power was not demonstrated just in guise of well-known Potnia Theron – the goddess that rules over wild animals.