Minoan Qe-Ra-Si-Ja. The Religious Impact of the Thera Volcano on Minoan Crete

The word 'qe - ra - si - ja' which designates a goddess, is not to be found on the Linear A inscriptions. If we call it, nevertheless, 'Minoan' we do so because it does not occur in the Mycenaean texts from the Greek mainland. It appears only on some religious Linear B texts from Knossos (KN Fp 1.6; 5.1; 6.2; 13.2; 14.2; 48.2; cf. also Fp 16.2 where 'qe - ra - si - jo' is obviously a writer's mistake for 'qe - ra - si - ja'; uncomplete are the tablets Fh 5475 and Th 8297).

Thus 'qe - ra - si - ja' seems to be exclusively a Cretan goddess. But her cult was also accepted by the Mycenaeans after they had conquered the island, and this is in itself an indication that she was an important deity.

There is also another reason for considering 'qe - ra - si - ja' as a pre-Greek name. As was pointed out by A. Heubeck (1967) the word itself seems to be of pre -Greek origin and is obviously derived from an older Aegean language to which also belongs the initial labiovelar qe-. As comparable instances he cites the place-names (Τερμησσός (att.) / Περμασός (boiot.) and Τευμησσός (att.) /  Πευμάτ(τ)ιος (boiot.). Moreover according to his conclusions the most convincing explanation of the name 'qe - ra - si - ja' is that it is an ethnikon. This, however, cannot be derived immediately from the island name of Thera but must come from a pre-Greek place-name like *Qụhērāsos/-ā. This implies that a Greek suffix was attached to the basic word but this is by no means a rare phenomenon.

Accorrding to A. Heubeck it further implies that the true name of the goddess, if she was already worshipped before the arrival of the Greeks in Crete, remains unknown to us for the original name was replaced by the Greek formation 'qe - ra - si - ja' that is "The goddess from Qụhērāsos/-ā".

But as in the Linear A texts, too, we have some evidence for ethnika derived by the suffix -ja (Furumark 1976, 19), the name as a whole may well be a Minoan one which was only taken over by the Mycenaeans.

This is also consistent with A. Heubeck's opinion regarding the pre-Greek origin of the name. Since, in his view, it is probable that in the pre-Greek language words ending in -a could give rise to derivatives characterized by the suffix -(s)sos, *Qụhērās(s)os (respectively *Qụhērās(i)jos in our opinion) is a formation from the basic word *Qụhērā which in post-Mycenaean times had to become Θήρα.

The possible connection of 'qe - ra - si - ja' with Θήρα/Θηρασία and the ethnikon Θηράσιος both of which are attested in classical times (Georgacas 1970, 348) was mooted also by some other scholars (G. Pugliese -Carratelli 1955, 5; M. Doria 1965, 180; L. R. Palmer 1963, 236; for other interpretations, for the most part refuted by A. Heubeck, cf. Gerard -Rousseau 1968, 193ff).

Thus, in spite of some minor uncertainties as to the formation of the word, which however may be resolved in the way suggested above or another way, the connection between the goddess 'qe - ra - si - ja' and the island of Thera seems from the philological point of view the most convincing and well founded explanation.

That a local goddess belonging to the island of Thera was worshipped also in Crete is quite possible since the Minoans were in close contact with that island, as has been proved by the excavations at Akrotiri. It is probable also on other grounds. The Volcano of Thera must have been an even more extraordinary phenomenon in the eyes of prehistoric people than in ours, and there is little reason to doubt that they attributed it to divine activities. Repeated eruptions had made them sensitive to the constant danger threatened by the volcano and they had no idea of its physical causation.

The excavations conducted by the late Sp. Marinatos (Cf. 1971, 44f; 1973, 28; 1974, 905) have brought to light evidence for a catastrophe which is older than that which destroyed the latest settlement at Akrotiri in LM I A. Both catastrophes seem to have afflicted Crete too, where we have evidence for earthquakes which occured at about the same time (that is in late MM III and late LM I A; cf. Evans 1928, 286ff; Hood, Acta 380f). Above all, however, we have clear indications of the impact caused on Minoan religion not only generally by earthquakes but especially by the afflictions rising from the Thera Volcano.

Years before this interrelation of the Thera Volcano and the widespread destructions on Crete were recognized for the first time by Sp. Marinatos (1939), A. Evans (1928, 312) had affirmed the "reaction of seismic conditions on Minoan cult" because of his observations in the so-called "House of the Sacrificed Oxen" (Evans 1928, 301f; cf. also Platon 1973, 252). That these destructions were caused by the Thera explosion was suggested only by Sp. Marinatos (1939), when he came upon a store of pumice during his excavations at Amnisos (1939, 433).

Likewise pumice was found in great quantities by N. Platon in the Palace of Kato Zakro, there above all in the room immediately north of the two-columned portico in front of the kitchen (Platon 1971, 290). Of course, we cannot be sure in these cases whether the pumice was stored for practical reasons or for ritual use. The latter possibility is not to be excluded for in some other instances we have clear evidence for a cult use of pumice.

These cases need not be repeated here in detail for they have been pointed out by several scholars (Marinatos, Acta 429; Hood, 1970, 105f; 1971, 55; Dietrich 1971, 523; Rutkowski 1972, 187) and especially by N. Platon (Acta 399; 1971, 196, 290) who discovered pieces of pumice that had been placed in conical cups, to be offered to the divinity along with other offerings deposited both in the built well, where a cup containing olives was found, and in the Well of the Fountain at Zakro.

The second example of an offering of lumps of pumice inside conical cups was found about thirty years ago, also by N. Platon in the course of his investigations in the Minoan villa at Nirou Chani (Platon 1954, 449f). These were placed below the threshold of a door leading to a room which obviously served as a shrine. It looks as if these cups together with the pumice were deposited there during the repair of the damage done to the residence by a great pumice bearing tsunami, which struck Crete at the time of the destruction of the Akrotiri settlement.

The heavy shock of the destructions at the end of the 16th century and in the middle of the 15th century lived on in peoples' memory for a very long time. Just like the generations who had suffered the great catastrophes and had tried to propitiate the deity by offering lumps of pumice, in later times too they sought by the same mean to appease the wrath of the gods they feared. As late as LM III B we find evidence of such offerings. A vessel from the LM III B period filled with lumps of pumice was discovered by J. Tzedakis (1968) during his work at Khania. As he has pointed out, it is difficult to see another explanation for this than to consider it as a sign of the persistence of the same cult which was observed in Nirou Khani and the palace of Zakro.

The astonishing circumstance that the latest evidence for the cult so far known comes from western Crete, which obviously was less affected by the Thera eruption in LM I B than the eastern part of the island, may perhaps be explained by the suggestion that people who still practised this cult in the 13th century were the successors of those who had left the devastated eastern regions some two centuries before.

Though there was pumice in Crete at all times - this has rightly been shown by P. Faure (Acta) - it is reasonable to suppose that the pumice found in religious contexts came from Thera or, at least, was thought to have come from there, for it would make little if any sense to use pumice in religious rituals if it was not connected with the deity who had sent it, and who had to be propitiated as ihe deity of the Volcano.

On the other hand we have seen that the name 'qe - ra - si - ja' is also to be related to the volcanic island. There is, therefore, some plausibility in supposing that the deity venerated by offerings of lumps of pumice originating in Thera was none other than qe-ra-si-ja herself. On Crete her cult begins, as has been stated above, at the end of the sixteenth century at the latest. Thus her name, too, is a Minoan one.

If the above considerations prove right, then the true name of the goddess was unknown to the Minoans themselves, who, as a consequence, called her "the Theraean one" after the name of the island. In some way the goddess seems to have remained an άγνωστος Θέος. This may be concluded from the fact that in all seven instances where we find her name on a complete tablet it occurs immediately before or after the entry of the offerings to the 'pa-si-te-o-i', that is to 'all the gods'. Most likely this offering was felt necessary to prevent offending a named or unnamed deity who might have been overlooked as a receiver of gifts (Maddoli 1963, 117). This - in the belief of the Minoans - may at some time have been the case with 'Qe - ra - si - ja'. Her revenge was a most horrible one. It was never forgotten after that till the end of the Bronze Age.

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