Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

190 The Dithyramb, Spring-Festival, etc. [ch.
moirae or divisions (fiepv) of the Moon herself, the three divisions
of the old Year. And these three Moirae or Horae are also
Charites 1 .
The cult of the Moon in Crete, in Minoan days, is a fact clearly
established. On the lentoid gem 2 in Fig. 45 a worshipper ap-
proaches a sanctuary of the usual Mycenaean type, a walled
enclosure within which grows an olive tree. Actually within the
sanctuary is a large crescent moon. The conjunction of moon and
olive tree takes us back to the Pandroseion (p. 170), itself in all
Fig. 45.
probability a moon-shrine, with its Dew- Service, its Hersephoria.
Minoan mythology knows of the Moon-Queen, Pasiphae, She who
shines for all, mother of the holy, horned Bull-Child.
With respect to the Pandroseion it may be felt that, though
we have the Dew-Service at the full moon in the shrine of the
1 Hymn. Magic, v. Ilpds IJeKfy-qv, 6
fj Xapirwv rpioawv rpiaaais /u.op(pa1(ri xopei/ets,
and cf. the triple Charites who dance round Hekate the Moon. See my Myth.
and lion. Ancient Athens, p. 378, Figs. 15 and 16.
2 A. Evans, Tree and Pillar Cult, 1901, p. 185, Fig. 59. This lentoid gem does
not stand alone. The same scene, a Mycenean shrine with tree and crescent moon,
before it a female worshipper, appears on a steatite gem found at Ligortyno in
Crete. See Rene Dussaud, Les Civilisations prehelleniques, p. 273, Fig. 196.