A badly taken photo of the Minoan Earth goddess from Crete.
In all the clamor these days of the numerous beings known as the ‘One True God’, of ‘His’ omnipotence and ‘His’ perfection, we often lose sight of all those who came before. In the days before mankind’s gaze grew vaster and our gods fled to higher and higher peaks until no realms existed beyond our sight but the unseeable, our gods used to embody the aspects of the world around us. Chief and most ancient among these is the Earth mother and fertility goddess.
Known as Gaea to the Greeks. Terra or Tellus to the Romans. Jörð to the Norse. Tonantzin to the Aztecs. And countless forgotten names by cultures more ancient. To these cultures, the Earth which gave rise to and sustained life was equated to the nurturing nature of an idealized woman. In being the world itself, these goddesses quite literally a woman of international proportions.
This woman is dubbed Asasara, a name derived from the Linear A alphabet. She seems to be a high figure in the Minoan pantheon. Found in a temple in Knossos, the Minoan capitol on Crete in the Mediterranean, she new is on display at the Heraklion Museum only a few kilometers away.
This badly taken picture was taken today of another badly taken picture I took with film (whoa) way back in 2004 when I visited Crete to see the Minoan ruins and Lost Cities. After leaving the Heraklion museum, I became thoroughly lost in a rainstorm that quite literally turned the old city’s roads into miniature torrents, which in turn led to the worst hostel experience I ever had.
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