Labrys

The first Neolithic (agrarian) settlement and related archaeological finds from Knossos Crete is calibrated c. 7000-6000 BCE. (COG.) As discussed in The Origins of Greek Religion (OGR), the derivation of Crete settlers was most probably Anatolia. In the westward migrations from Anatolia, there was a sharing of “culture (agriculture, vegetation, religion), and their skills (the potter’s art, the working of metal).” (OGR: 21.) Crete most likely received agricultural skills from Anatolia as well as the model or idea of permanent settlements and domestic animals. Also, evidence of Crete’s use of obsidian from Anatolia cannot be ignored in this discussion as Anatolia and Crete were utilizing sea trade. (CAH: Vol. 1, Part 1, 570-1; OGR: 21, 106-7, 92, 110-12, 165, 170, 182-3, 304, 221; TIGR: 29-31; COG: 37; MK.)

Old and New Temple (Palace) Periods of Minoan Crete, as evidenced in new temple centers in east and central Crete, began appearing c. 1900 BCE. Lacking significant evidence of class stratification and hierarchical kingship, Willetts believes that the palaces were in fact temples. (WCC.) Mara Keller adds to this hypotheses suggesting
that temple center or Temple Period is a more legitimate term than palace, and therefore names this the Temple Period. (MK.)

Finds of the Temple Period include: exquisite Kamares pottery; seal stones; signet rings; temple frescos; massebah standing stones, and sacred Asherah
pillars/thrones plus groves; horns of consecration; sacred knots (TGG: 32-39); labyrinths; labrys; tombs; caves; shrines; peak sanctuaries; plus polytheistic female deities. Goddesses were not only known as the lady, mountain mother and the lady of the animals, but also deities of “navigation, technology, birth and death.” (MK.)

According to the well-known tradition, Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon with a double-edged axe; this tradition was followed by Vyacheslav Ivanov and Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff. Although the weapon in Aeschylus’ text is not specified, the double axe constantly occurs in the Russian translation by V. Ivanov. These passages are examined in the first part of the article. The second part discusses Ivanov’s essays and other works in order to shed the light on the symbolical meaning of the double axe within his conception of dionysianism and the birth of tragedy. The author concludes that Ivanov emphasized the double axe as the weapon of Agamemnon’s murderess because he regarded it as a symbol connected with the sacrifice in predionysian cult and as an instrument of its priestess.