The Good and Evil Serpent (147 page)

184
. Note esp. A. Rixens’ “The Death of Cleopatra,” which is in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse; the seventeenth-century red chalk drawing of Cleopatra by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri in the British Museum (PD 1895–9–15–709); and the bronze statue of Cleopatra (c. 1636), with a serpent biting her breast, in the Royal Collection in Hampton Court Palace, London (no. 39714). See E. Law,
The History of Hampton Court Palace II
(London, 1888) p. 302. Note also the miniature in the vellum manuscript of G. Boccaccio,
De casibus illustrium virorum et feminarum
(BM Royal MS 14 E.V., folio 348v); it depicts Cleopatra with her reddish gown pulled to the waist and holding two asps, one before each breast.

185
. See G. Neret,
Michelangelo 1475–1564
(Cologne, London, New York, 1998) p. 81.

186
. See S. Walker and P. Higgs, eds.,
Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth
(London, Princeton, 2001).

187
. As quoted by E. Flamarion in her
Cleopatra: The Life and Death of a Pharaoh
, trans. A. Bonfante-Warren (New York, 1997) p. 3.

188
. See the handy translation in Penguin Books: Suetonius,
The Twelve Caesars
, trans. R. Graves, rev. M. Grant (London, 1989) pp. 62–63.

189
. A. Wallace-Hadrill in
The Cambridge Ancient History
, ed. A. K. Bowman, E. Champlin, and A. Lintott (Cambridge, 1996) vol. 10, p. 284.

190
. The entirely nude Esquiline Venus in the Capitoline Museum in Rome (inv. 1141) has a serpent in relief beside her right leg.

191
. H. B. Walters,
Catalogue of the Engraved Gems and Cameos, Greek, Etruscan and Roman, in the British Museum
(London, 1926) catalogue number 3085.

192
. It is in the Charlesworth collection.

193
. For literature and comments, see R. Stichel,
Die Namen Noes, seines Bruders und seiner Frau
(AAWG 112; Göttingen, 1979) p. 108, note 441.

194
. See H. A. Kelly, “The Metamorphoses of the Eden Serpent During the Middle Ages and Renaissance,”
Viator
2 (1971) 301–28.

195
. It is on public view in the Herakleion Museum; for a good picture, see

196
. C. P. Christ,
Odyssey with the Goddess: A Spiritual Quest in Crete
(New York, 1995) p. ii. See S. Alexiou,
Minoische Kultur:
Sternstunden der Archäologie, translated by W. Liebich (Frankfurt, Göttingen, 1976) (also see the Greek original of 1964 or English translation of 1969); see esp. Fig. 12 (the snake goddess), p. 113 (gold amulet with serpent), and p. 119 (the serpents on a vessel). I studied the serpents on ancient vessels or of gold at Chania’s Archaeological Museum. Some are very impressive, adding to the vast evidence for the appreciation of serpents on ancient Crete.

197
. See J. Schäfer, “The Role of ‘Gardens’ in Minoan Civilization (Plates XIV-XVII),” in
The Civilizations of the Aegean and Their Diffusion in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean Around 2000–1600 BC
, ed. V. Karageorghis (Larnaca, 1989) pp. 85–88.

198
. The serpent goddesses were found in the Knossos palace. For illustrations of two of them (the third is fragmented), and for an insightful discussion, see L. Goodison and C. Morris, “Beyond the ‘Great Mother,’ “ in
Ancient Goddesses
, pp. 112–32. Also see the snake goddess from Knossos holding two aroused cobras with tongues extended; the serpents are wound around each arm. See the photograph in R. D. Barnett,
Ancient Ivories in the Middle East
(Jerusalem, 1982) Plate 28:a and b.

199
. At least fourteen alleged Minoan goddesses are claimed to be forgeries. See K. D. S. Lapatin, “Snake Goddesses, Fake Goddesses,”
Archaeology
(January/ February 2001) 33–36.

200
. The chronology for Crete used by me is not that of Sir Arthur Evans. It is the revised one developed by N. Platon. See S. Alexiou,
Minoan Civilization
, trans. C. Ridley (Herakleion, n.d. but 6th rev. ed.) pp. 7–9. Stylianos Alexiou is a professor at the University of Crete.

201
. See the color photograph in Higgins,
Minoan and Mycenaean Art
(London, 1997), Illustration no. 202. Another impressive color photograph appears in F. Durando,
Griechenland
, trans. D. Krumbach (Erlangen, [1997?]) p. 23.

202
. The day I spent in Knossos a gentle rain fell on the ruins, but the setting was serene.

203
. A. Kanta,
Phaistos, Hagia Triadha, Gortyn
, p. 28 (in full color).

204
. See L. Nixon, “Changing Views of Minoan Society,” in
Minoan Society: Proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium, 1981
, ed. O. Krzyszkowska and L. Nixon (Bristol, 1983).

205
. R. Castleden,
Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete
(London, New York, 1993) p. 161.

206
. See the color photograph in A. Sp. Vassilakis,
Crete
, trans. W. W. Phelps (Athens, n.d. [1995?]) p. 169.

207
. A. Kanta,
Phaistos, Hagia Triadha, Gortyn
(Athens, 1998) p. 115.

208
. See esp. the gold ring from Mykenai; see the drawing in Schachermeyr,
Die minoische Kultur des alten Kreta
(Stuttgart, 1964) p. 147.

209
. Castleden,
Minoans
, p. 161.

210
. Alexiou,
Minoan Civilization
, p. 44.

211
. See J. Hawkes,
Dawn of the Gods
(London, 1968).

212
. Alexiou,
Minoan Civilization
, pp. 30–31.

213
. See Alexiou,
Minoan Civilization
, pp. 30–31, 50, and Castleden,
Minoans
, p. 30.

214
. See Alexiou,
Minoan Civilization
, p. 50.

215
. The Bronze Age (c. 1400–1200 BCE) came to a surprising end around the twelfth century BCE. It is possible that earthquakes contributed to this disaster. For a popular and succinct study, see W. H. Stiebing, “When Civilization Collapsed: Death of the Bronze Age,”
Archaeology Odyssey
(September/October 2001) 16–26, 62 (see the bibliographical information on this page). A. Nur and E. H. Cline are convinced that earthquakes did cause the end of the Bronze Age; see their “What Triggered the Collapse? Earthquake Storms,”
Archaeology Odyssey
(September/October 2001) 3036, 62–63 (a mine of bibliographical references to ancient earthquakes).

216
. This scenario is well accepted; see, e.g., R. Higgins,
Minoan and Mycenaean Art
(London, 1997 [new rev. ed.]) pp. 17–18.

217
. Schachermeyr writes, “Bei den Schlangen handelte es sich um das chthonische Begleittier der grossen Erdgöttin.”
Die minoische Kultur des alten Kreta
, p. 154.

218
. See B. Röder, J. Hummel, and B. Kunz,
Göttinnendämmerung: Das Matriarchat aus archäologischer Sicht
(Munich, 1996) esp. see pp. 299–345.

219
. Tablet Gg 702; see Castleden,
Minoans
, p. 125.

220
. See the color photograph in Vasilakis,
Herakleion Archaeological Museum
(Athens, n.d. [1998?]) p. 81.

221
. See the ivory seal in the form of a dove with her two nestlings in Alexiou,
Minoan Civilization
, p. 222 (also the doves above the double axes, p. 104; see p. 109); also see Castleden,
Minoans
, p. 125.

222
. See Higgins,
Minoan and Mycenaean Art
, p. 32.

223
. As quoted by Christ in
Odyssey with the Goddess
, p. 73.

224
. A. Michailidou,
Knossos
, trans. A. Doumas and T. Cullen (Athens, 1998) p. 124. Michailidou is the archaeologist who has recently excavated at Knossos.

225
. See Vasilakis,
Herakleion Archaeological Museum;
for the gold ring with dancing bare-breasted women, see p. 117; the gold amulet is on p. 129.

226
. There is a poisonous snake in the zoo at Herakleion, but it is a sand viper
(vipera ammodytes)
and comes from northern Greece. I am grateful to Mr. Liberakis, the herpetologist, for discussions on the snakes on Crete.

227
. Both vessels were purchased by Charlesworth in 2002 from antiquities dealers in Jerusalem. They apparently come from Jerusalem, or more likely from Jericho or its environs.

228
. I am grateful to the Cousins Family Foundation for permission to publish these Canaanite bowls.

229
. F. R. Matson, “Potters and Pottery in the Ancient Near East,”
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East
, ed. J. M. Sasson et al. (Peabody, Mass., 1995) p. 1553.

230
. Sample 914A2. Date: 5/3/01. At Daybreak, Guilford, CT.

231
. Sample 914A1. Date: 4/01. At Daybreak, Guilford, CT.

232
. An excellent example has just been found in Ashkelon. I examined it, thanks to Ross Voss.

233
. The cult standard is dated to the fourteenth-thirteenth cent. BCE; see the discussion and picture in Y. Yadin’s “Hazor,”
NEAEHL
, 2.593–603; esp. see p. 596. A color photograph of the cult stand appears in Yadin’s popular
Hazor: The Rediscovery of a Great Citadel of the Bible
(London, New York, 1975) p. 54.

234
. For a focused introduction to ancient pottery, see Matson, “Potters and Pottery in the Ancient Near East,” pp. 1553–65.

235
. See the helpful survey by W. G. Dever, “Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology,” in
OEANE
, 1.448–65.

236
. Mycenaean imports, including a highly sophisticated painted Mycenaean krater, have been found at Dan, from the Late Bronze Age (c. fourteenth-thirteenth cent.); see the color photographs in
Celebrating Avraham: Avraham Biran—The Excavator of Dan at 90
(Washington, D.C., 1999) esp. pp. 37, 49, 81. As with the two Canaanite vessels that seem to antedate the entry of Joshua and the Israelites into Palestine, so this Mycenaean krater antedates the conquest of Dan by the Israelites (Josh 19:47; Jud 18:29). They witness to the final heyday of Canaanite pottery.

237
. While the two vessels now introduced generally contrast to the Cypro-Phoenician juglets, No. 2 is reminiscent of one of these types found at Horvat Rosh Zayit. See esp. the far-right jar shown in
NEAEHL
, 4.1291. It is necessary to point out, again, that while debate has continued over the time when Greek influence entered Palestine after the Exile, it is certain that such influence did not begin with Alexander the Great; as M. Hengel states, “Die Begegnung zwischen Hellas und dem alten Orient begann durchaus nicht erst mit dem Alexanderzug, sie hat eine sehr vielseitige Geschichte, die bis weit in das 2. Jahrtausend, in die mykenische Zeit, zurückreicht.” Hengel,
Judaica et Hellenistica: Kleine Schriften I
(Tübingen, 1996) p. 153.

238
. See esp. the photograph in B. Mazar,
Biblical Israel: State and People
, ed. S. Ahituv (Jerusalem, 1992) pp. 29–30.

239
. See T. Ornan,
A Man and His Land: Highlights from the Moshe Dayan Collection
(Jerusalem, 1986) pp. 86–87.

240
. See K. M. Kenyon and T. A. Holland,
Excavations at Jericho: Volume Four—The Pottery Type Series and Other Finds
(London, 1982) Fig. 177, esp. no. 12.

241
. Kenyon and Holland, ibid., Fig. 180.

242
. K. M. Kenyon,
Excavations at Jericho: Volume Two—The Tombs Excavated in 1955–8
(London, 1965) p. 1.

243
. See Yadin’s suggestion, as reported by V. Goodside in “Why Is a Bilbil Called a Bilbil?,”
BAR
14 (1988) 60; and Queries and Comments in
BAR
15 (1988) 10.

244
. Goodside reports Seger’s suggestion;
BAR
14 (1988) 60.

245
. See B. M. Gittlen, “The Cultural and Chronological Implications of the Cypro-Palestinian Trade During the Late Bronze Age,”
BASOR
241 (1981) 49–59 and C. J. Bergoffen, “Overland Trade in Northern Sinai: The Evidence of the Late Cypriot Pottery,”
BASOR
284 (1991) 59–76.

246
. E.g., A. Biran,
Biblical Dan
, esp. see illustrations 76 (p. 110), 82 (esp. no 3, Cypriote Bibil and no. 4 “local imitation bilbil”). The two vessels in my “Announcing the Discovery of Canaanite Ophidian Vessels” have much thicker and rounded bodies. Thus, there is no juglet impressively similar to the ones now published.

247
. See Dever in
OEANE
, 1.445.

248
. See A. Mazar, “The ‘Bull Site’—An Iron Age I Open Cult Place,”
BASOR
, 247 (1982) 27–42. An attractive photograph appears in J. P. O’Neill et al., eds.,
Treasures of the Holy Land: Ancient Art from the Israel Museum
(New York, 1986)) p. 153.

249
. See the drawings of the bronze bull and the discussion in A. Mazar, “Bronze Bull Found in Israelite ‘High Place from the Time of the Judges,” in
Early Israel
, ed. H. Shanks and D. P. Cole (Washington, D.C., 1990) pp. 108–14. These reflections are preliminary; experts on early art and ceramics will certainly help refine my original speculations.

250
. Here, among all the fights between the minimalists and maximalists, I follow B. Mazar; see esp. his succinct review of this history in “The Philistines,”
Biblical Israel: State and People
, pp. 22–40.

251
. I am grateful to the Israel Museum for permission to publish this work. See “Snake Jug,” in
Highlights of Archaeology: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
, p. 42.