Mysterious Mycenaean Goddess
Two very similar Mycenaean goddesses, found hundreds of miles apart, makes me wish yet again that we knew who some of these representations of Mycenaean deities are. Some deities listed on the Linear B tablets, like Pi-pi-tu-na and Qe-ri-si-ja, didn't make it into Classical times, and none of the artifacts are labeled. So do these goddesses correspond with the known, later Classical immortals, or were they forgotten after the end of the Bronze Age?
The first, an amazing gold foil ornament, came out of the women's Shaft Grave burials at Grave Circle A, Mycenae. Just look at that headdress of vegetation! She's the Mycenaean equivalent of a Vegas show girl.
The other, similar goddess appears on a seal stone found at Tragana, Phthia (modern day Ftiotida), birthplace of Achilles. The vegetation isn't growing out of her head as with the Mycenae goddess, nor is there as much of it, but that could be due to the smallness of the seal. Nevertheless, the representation of the papyrus the same, and the goddess is shown in the same topless costume and gazing to one side. I've looked for parallels in the art of the period, from the Near East and Mesopotamia, but haven't been able to find out more.
