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two apotropaic animals on either side of her, and the figure of the worshipper on the right,
that the scene represents the epiphany, or manifestation, of a goddess. Although religious
activities were directed by priests and priestesses from the palaces, the use of natural set-
tings such as mountain tops and caves as sanctuaries was a distinctive feature of Minoan
religion.
Figure 6.4B shows a female figure grasping the stem of a lily and tilting a blossom to her
nose to smell it. The plant seems to be growing directly out of the horns of consecration
on top of an altar. According to classicist Nanno Marinatos, the fact that she is smelling
the flower and not just bringing it to the altar indicates that she is a goddess rather than a
priestess.^17 Figure 6.4C shows a goddess or priestess in a flounced skirt flanked by a shield
on the right and a dancing man worshipping a sacred tree growing from an undefined
structure.
Perhaps the most famous of the Minoan seal- rings was found in a tomb at Isopata near
Knossos (Figure 6.4D). It depicts four women wearing flounced skirts dancing (with visible
feet) in a flowery meadow along with a snake- like form and a conical object. The presence
of four lily plants corresponds to the four dancing women. The heads of the dancers
are indistinguishable from their necks, which enhances the mystical, ecstatic quality
of the scene. The strings of “beads” sprouting from the abbreviated heads probably
represent the dancers’ hair. The middle figure, although dressed like the others, may
represent a goddess, based on her elevation relative to the others and her central posi-
tion, while the three lower figures may be her priestesses. In addition, a much smaller
fifth figure to the goddess’s right has been interpreted as a second goddess descending
to earth.^18 Archaeologist Christine Morris has argued that the odd heads and f loating
objects are manifestations of an ecstatic trance, indicative of a shamanic dimension in
Minoan art.^19Figure 6.3 Detail from North Wall frieze depicting a naval engagement, from the West House
in Thera. Two women bearing jars pass by a fenced grove on the left, while men herd animals on
the right.
From Marinatos, N. (1984), Art and Religion in Thera: Reconstructing a Bronze Age Society. Athens.