Poppy Goddess
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The name poppy goddess is often used for a famous example of a distinctive type of large female terracotta figurine in
Minoan art Minoan art is the art produced by the Bronze Age Aegean Minoan civilization from about 3000 to 1100 BC, though the most extensive and finest survivals come from approximately 2300 to 1400 BC. It forms part of the wider grouping of Aegean art ...
, presumably representing a
goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...
, but not thought to be
cult image In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece and Rome ...
s, rather
votive offering A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...
s. It was discovered in a sanctuary of the Post-palace period ( LM III, 1400–1100 BC) at
Gazi, Crete Gazi ( el, Γάζι) is a Western suburb of Heraklion and a former municipality in the Heraklion regional unit of Crete in Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of the municipality Malevizi, of which it is a municipal u ...
, and is now is in the
Heraklion Archaeological Museum The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is a museum located in Heraklion on Crete. It is one of the greatest museums in Greece and the best in the world for Minoan art, as it contains by far the most important and complete collection of artefacts o ...
.J.A. Sakellarakis. ''Herakleion Museum. Illustrated guide to the Museum''. Ekdotike Athinon. Athens 1987. p. 91 The name comes from the shape of the terminals of opium poppy seedheads rising from the
diadem A diadem is a type of crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of royalty. Overview The word derives from the Greek διάδημα ''diádēma'', "band" or "fillet", from διαδέω ''diadéō'', "I ...
on the head. Other figures have different ornaments to the head, including many birds, and the
Horns of Consecration "Horns of Consecration" is a term coined by Sir Arthur Evans for the symbol, ubiquitous in Minoan civilization, that is usually thought to represent the horns of the sacred bull. Sir Arthur Evans concluded, after noting numerous examples in Minoa ...
symbol. They have a round "
skirt A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards. At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of fabric (such as pareos). However, most skirts are fi ...
", shaped like a vessel, and formed on the
potter's wheel In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping (known as throwing) of clay into round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming excess clay from leather-hard dried ware that is stiff but malleable, a ...
, after which the upper body was hand-formed while the clay was still malleable. Some have feet peeping out from under their skirt. They always have raised hands, normally with palms pointing sideways or out, and there is often a hole at the top of the head, perhaps to help firing, while the openings at the ears may be intended to suggest readiness to hear prayers. Most are unpainted. They relate to other, less stylized, types of Minoan clay goddess figures. In this period, Mycenean influence particularly on art was strong over the island, showing that Crete had become little more than a province of the Mycenean world after the Mycenean invasion in 1450 BC.
Minoan pottery Minoan pottery has been used as a tool for dating the mute Minoan civilization. Its restless sequence of quirky maturing artistic styles reveals something of Minoan patrons' pleasure in novelty while they assist archaeologists in assigning relat ...
figurines were found in public sanctuaries, not only in palace-sanctuaries, as is usual in earlier periods. Clay figurines of the goddess with raised hands also were found in the shrine of double axes in
Knossos Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...
, in
Gournia Gournia ( el, Γουρνιά) is the site of a Minoan palace complex on the island of Crete, Greece, excavated in the early 20th century by the American archaeologist, Harriet Boyd-Hawes. The original name for the site is unknown. The modern nam ...
, in
Myrtos Myrtos is a coastal village in the west of the municipality of Ierapetra, in the Regional Unit (previously called prefecture) of Lasithi on the Greek island of Crete. It is located from Agios Nikolaos and from Ierapetra, on the road to V ...
,Walter Burkert (1985). ''Greek religion'', Harvard University Press. pp. 23, 30 and also in the sanctuaries of
Gortys Gortyna ( grc, Γόρτυνα; also known as Gortyn (Γορτύν)) was a town of ancient Crete which appears in the Homeric poems under the form of Γορτύν; but afterwards became usually Gortyna (Γόρτυνα). According to Stephanus of ...
and
Prinias Prinias (ancient Rizinia) is an archaeological site in Crete that has revealed a seventh-century BCE temple with striking similarities to ancient Egyptian architecture, including an Egyptianised seated goddess. It is southwest of Iraklion, about ...
. On the heads of the figures there are various religious symbols, such as horns of consecration, diadems, birds, and the seeds of
opium poppies Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
. The female figure known popularly as the ''poppy goddess'' is perhaps a representation of the goddess as the bringer of sleep or death. The figurines found at Gazi, which are larger than any previously produced on Minoan Crete, are rendered in an extremely stylized manner. The bodies are rigid, the skirts simple cylinders, and the poses stereotyped.


Religious significance

Interpreters speculate that the raised hands of the figurine who gazes toward the visitor indicate that it is a deity and that the gesture of the two upraised hands with open palms is an
epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...
gesture of the goddess. It is possible that the goddess is giving a greeting, or a blessing, or is praying, or it may symbolize her appearance in earth in human form. Poppies were mentioned in Greco-Roman myths as offerings to the dead.
Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...
believed that a second meaning of the depiction and use of poppies in the Greco-Roman myths is the symbolism of the bright scarlet colour as signifying the promise of resurrection after death and that the poppy was the emblem of the goddess
Demeter In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter (; Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although s ...
. According to
Theocritus Theocritus (; grc-gre, Θεόκριτος, ''Theokritos''; born c. 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry. Life Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from hi ...
for the Greeks Demeter was a poppy goddess bearing
sheave A sheave () or pulley wheel is a grooved wheel often used for holding a belt, wire rope, or rope and incorporated into a pulley. The sheave spins on an axle or bearing inside the frame of the pulley. This allows the wire or rope to move fre ...
s and poppies in both hands (''Idyll'' vii 157).
Karl Kerenyi Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...
asserted that poppies were connected with a Cretan cult that was transmitted to the
Eleusinian Mysteries The Eleusinian Mysteries ( el, Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια, Eleusínia Mystḗria) were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Elefsina in ancient Greece. They are the " ...
in
Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...
: "It seems probable that the Great
Mother Goddess A mother goddess is a goddess who represents a personified deification of motherhood, fertility goddess, fertility, creation, destruction, or the earth goddess who embodies the bounty of the earth or nature. When equated with the earth or th ...
who bore the names Rhea and Demeter, brought the poppy with her from her Cretan cult to
Eleusis Elefsina ( el, Ελευσίνα ''Elefsina''), or Eleusis (; Ancient Greek: ''Eleusis'') is a suburban city and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in the West Attica regional unit of Greece. It is situated about northwest ...
and it is almost certain that in the Cretan cult sphere
opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
was prepared from poppies." Fellow British classicist and scholar,
Jane Ellen Harrison Jane Ellen Harrison (9 September 1850 – 15 April 1928) was a British classics, classical scholar and linguistics, linguist. Harrison is one of the founders, with Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, of modern studies in Ancient Greek religio ...
shares the view that the imagery of the gathered poppy reeds in the figurine's hands are associated with the
Minoan The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...
/
Cretan Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, an ...
"Mother of the Gods".


See also

*
Great Goddess Great Goddess is the concept of an almighty goddess or mother goddess, or a matriarchal religion. Apart from various specific figures called this from various cultures, the Great Goddess hypothesis, is a postulated fertility goddess supposed to h ...
* Poppy (botany)


References

* Hood, Sinclair, ''The Arts in Prehistoric Greece'', 1978, Penguin (Penguin/Yale History of Art),


External links

* mekon (poppy)
Theoi project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poppy Goddess 2nd-millennium BC sculptures Figurines Terracotta sculptures Archaeological discoveries in Greece Minoan archaeological artifacts Minoan art Minoan religion Sculptures of goddesses Votive offering Heraklion (regional unit) Poppy seeds Opium culture